What's the bast way to build strength? It's training with resistance - like weights for instance. I just watched Conan ( I've seen it a couple times before, but it was on...). The point is that Conan was a young slave pushing this heavy wheel, and it skips ahead a number of years and you see him still pushing but now he has muscles upon muscles. This is back when Arnold Schwarzenegger played the lead role. Now it's the "Rock", but that's not important. Basically you see a youngster and then you see Arnold. The point is Resistance!
I'm not saying you need to look like or train like a pro bodybuilder, you simply need to strengthen the muscles a bit. Neck muscles are important because they hold the head up. Doesn't soud like a big deal but try logging a couple hours on the computer or texting and keeping that perfect neck posture.
Most often we see that unwanted forward head posture or carriage. So along with some of the other things you are doing to prevent forward head, hear are some great tips on where and how toexercise the neck with resistance.
At the gym I have seen a head harness of sorts that you wear, that is hooked to weights via a cable. You can use this but be careful. I don't ever use it nor do I recommend it. If you do use it, use very light weight, and do exercise for all the neck ranges of motion. These are forward flexion, extension, right and left rotation, as well as right and left lateral flexion.
You can actually use you hand or hands for the resistance. For example, when doing head retractions, place your hand(s) or fingers behind the head, holding it there. Here are some other ways to get resistance and strengthen the neck when doing head retractions:
- The Car seat - when doing retractions push back on headrest.
- A Towel - put it around the back of the head, holding it near each end in front of you. Now, push back against the towel.
- An Elastic Band - you can do the same thing you did with the towel that you can a resistance band. Don't have one of those, use a shirt!
- The Floor - you can basically do the same thing laying on your back on the rug or couch.
- A Wall - maybe you are not where you can lay down, stand against the wall. Typically the sheet rock has a little give.
These are great examples when doing head retractions. I picked head retraction exercise because they combat forward head posture; probably the most common neck misalignment I see. But as you can imagine, you an use hands to give resistance an any motion.
Additional Information:
