Hey, I'm noticing a lot of troubles with my neck lately. The thing seems barely able to hold my head on sometimes when I'm moving, and the joints in it are quite loose (lots of shifting and cracking going on, which is quite frightening). Lifting has corrected a lot of problems in the rest of my back, so I'm hoping to get my hands on some stuff for my neck. Problem is, I don't have access to one of those doohickeys that lets you chain weight plates to your head. Any ideas on improvision or other exercises that use weighted resistance against your neck? Keep in mind, I'm looking for weighted exercises here, NOT isometric exercises, looping a towel around the head and pulling with it as resistance, yada yada. Dead weight is the only thing you can rely on to keep pushing against you constantly, and in my experience, its the only thing that triggers the results I want.
I've no real wisdom on this, just instinct, that if you are already having neck problems then hanging weights on your neck is NOT going to help.... Alarm bells were ringing in my head just at the thread title! Still, if you are having this kind of problems, it's probably best to make sure you talk to health professionals first... Maybe a physiotherapist could help you with specific exercises to address your neck problems.
Couple of options I can think of off the top of my head ( ) First is to Get some Heavy Plastic tubing, leather rope etc (old skipping rope will do) and loop a couple of BB plates onto it. Make a thicker bit to wrap around it in order to shove in your mouth (Old towel etc) and grip this with your teeth. Bend over with bent legs and lift your head up and down. This will strengthen your neck, jaw etc. Next one is, Bend over carefully with bent legs, balance a BB plate wrapped in a towel on the back of your neck/head (Keep your hands nearby to avoid droppage) and slowly raise and lower your head. This will strengthen your neck. Third is either work on Resisting the Neck Clamp/ Clinch, if you can work with a partner. Fourth is to get a partner to hang underneath you, between your legs with their hands on the back of your neck and you raise them up using the power of your neck-no more than a couple of inches to begin with. This will strengthen your neck and back. What's wrong with a standard BB Upright Traps Row? You could just get yourself a Doohickey (Head Harness) they're not much money (Get a leather one, the canvas one's don't last long). Be careful though or you'll pull something and it won't be Jennifer Lopez...
Whats wrong with traps row? Its not traps Im after, those are fine, its just that the muscles that actually move my head around at the neck are just in awful misproportion with the rest of the body, to the point of them feeling strained from holding my head straight when Im moving around a lot. I'm also looking to strengthen the actual joints in the neck. This is because I used to have a bit of scholiosis (I think I totally spelled that wrong), but lifting made my back a lot stronger and worked away damn near all of it, EXCEPT in my neck. My goal is to eliminate the last of that weakness. And I'm also not talking trying to move around gigantic weights here. I'll be focusing more on using good form to supply the resistance than tacking on ridiculous amounts of weight. Large weight+low reps is how I do the more compound exercises, this I do not at all intend to do like that.
Trap Rows will also work the muscles of yr neck as well as your traps. But I see yr point and if it's the actual joints strengthening then try the other stuff.
At my school there's a thing that works your neck in all 4 directions. You put free weights on it, sit down, and rock the back and forth. I don't know baout any doohickeys, but okay.
Back bridging take a look at this: http://members.aol.com/usamuscle/routine8.html You'll want to skip all the isometric bull and fitness-bunny stuff, but the plate exercises here are OK. http://www.shapefit.com/training-neck.html
lie on a bench, face up with your head over the end. place a weight plate on your forehead and hold it in position, then simply move your head up and down. also try pressing dumbells while in a neck bridge position. you can rock backwards and forewards in the bridge position as well. To do a neck bridge, lie on your back with legs bent at knees, then lift your middle section of groung so you are supported by your feet and head only. you can do it face down as well.
