Spinal health is a big deal. Really big. Most people are familiar with the lumbar spine, since the majority of injuries happen to hit the lower back. However, there’s definitely more to it; especially for grapplers. We’re going to go upstairs today to get right up to the cervical spine, which starts by connecting to your skull and ends at the base of your neck (feel along the back of your neck for the vertebra that juts out more than the others; that’s your lucky seventh cervical vertebra).

The bad news is that working on neck strength won’t give you 24 inch pythons. The good news is that it will help you prevent injury and chronic pain. Not being embarrassed by accidental decapitation on the mats is a bonus.

So how do we actually strengthen our necks?

If you ask most people how to exercise a given body part, they’ll think about how it moves and tell you to do that.

Abs? Crunches.
Knees? Knee extensions
Neck? Bridges and rolls and on and on.

Sometimes, yes. But defaulting to this stuff without thinking about it drives me nuts.

It may be counter-intuitive to strengthen a body part by not moving anything, but it’s often the correct approach. The major reason for this is protection of the structure. While some joints work best by providing mobility, others work by providing stability. The cervical spine is a prime example of the latter. If you want to keep your C-spine happy, strengthen yourself in a way that will keep you resistant to misalignment and wear. You can start by not intentionally putting it in harm’s way. This is where isometric contractions come into play.

Just so you know, “isometric contraction” refers to contraction of the muscle fibers without any discernible movement. Make a fist, put your other hand over it and stop it from moving as you try to flex your elbow. Congratulations, you’re now familiar with isometrics. Let’s move on.

Here are two solid exercises for your neck that take advantage of isometric contraction:

1. Forehead to stability ball
Place a stability ball against the wall at head height and press your forehead into the ball, bearing weight on it. You’ll start this one standing pretty much vertical. As your strength improves, you can start moving your feet further and further away from the wall. Remember that your job is to maintain neutral spinal alignment, not tilt your head back.

2. Theraband holds
You can either have someone hold a Theraband, or tie one to a stationary object. In this exercise, you’ll put it on like a headband and move away from its fixed point. You can to this for the front, back and sides of your head.

For both of these exercises, I recommend starting with a light warm-up and then progressing to reps that are extremely challenging to hold for seven or eight seconds. Rest for two to three minutes (do some ab work in between if you like) and repeat for five or six sets. You can then lower the intensity of the exercise (by decreasing distance) and maintaining longer holds (40 to 60 seconds for two to three reps should be fine).and shorten the rest periods. For the shorter duration contractions, less is more. It’s not productive to go longer than 10 seconds.

The progressions here are start with beginning to move a little off course and then coming back. It’s key to not move beyond a point that you can return to with good technique.

Is there room for flexion/extension, such as traditional wrester’s bridges and the like? Absolutely, but not for everyone and certainly not until you’ve built up a decent base level of strength with isometric movement. If there’s interest, I can definitely post some further progressions at a later date.

Hope this helps keep you pain-free and bad-ass.

Geoff