workingondying
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I’d mostly recommend for more advanced neckmaxxers but this will work for anyone even if you’ve never trained before I’m writing this thread assuming you know the basics of neck training
Why do I say I recommend this for advanced trainees? I personally worked my way up to 40kg neck curls holding 2 plates (my gym doesn’t have 25s) and I found myself stuck on ways to progress (was so low inhib I did neck curls on a cable with a neck harness in front of EVERYONE and it just ended up feeling like shit would not recommend) so I just stopped training neck believing the common misconception that your neck muscles don’t atrophy THEY DO, TRAIN THEM OR LOSE THEM so now my neck has atrophied back to being 16.2 inches unflexed
I’m going uni this September so I’m tryna do everything I can to ascend and ofc that includes neck training but given my current predicament of maxing out curls that didn’t seem possible until I started researching more
THE METHOD:
ISOMETRICS. Now what are isometrics?Isometrics are muscular actions in which tension is produced without contractions think of pushing a brick wall isometrics are just as good as isotonics (muscular actions in which tension is produced with contractions your normal lifts basically) for hypertrophy why is this? Isometrics fulfill both prerequisites of getting an effective hypertrophic stimulus one, high levels of mechanical tension you’re producing maximum force with the lowest amount of possible velocity and 2, its maximum effort meaning you’re recruiting a high amount of motor units
HOW TO DO AND PROGRAM ISOMETRICS
If you’re doing isometrics you may as well train all functions of neck because of how quick it is which are neck flexion (curl), lateral neck flexion (tilting your head left and right) and neck extension (curling your neck backwards)
To perform an isometric neck curl as you would with a normal neck curl and all other aforementioned movements find a bench or do it on your bed hang your head off the bed and at around half way through neck flexion press your hands against your forehead as hard as you can then CURL YOUR NECK AS HARD AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE MAX EFFORT for either 6-10 seconds that’ll be one set or do 2-3 short bursts of 2-3 second isometrics with a very short rest (a few seconds) between each burst this COULD be better IN THEORY as we’ll avoid the fatigue related byproducts of longer 5+ second isometrics and these 2-3 bursts will count as one set now DO THE SAME THING FOR THE OTHER FUNCTIONS OF THE NECK TREAT EVERY SET YOU DO AS YOU WOULD A NORMAL SET REST UNTIL YOUR HEART RATE GOES DOWN OR U FEEL READY DO ANOTHER
VISUAL EXAMPLE: THE CIRCLE ARE YOUR HANDS
HOW TO PROGRAM
If ur natty u should be training full body every other day however no matter the split if ur tryna max neck gains do this at the start of your session (I personally do them at home 20 minutes before my sesh) or do whenever u please in the session depending on how much of a priority neck is for you aim for 2-8 sets a week per muscle action
DRAWBACKS AND POSITIVES
The biggest drawback of isometrics and why they’re not so popular despite being as effective for hypertrophy as normal reps is that you can’t track progressive overload as you’re just doing short bursts of maximum effort contractions but and hypertrophy just happens with no feedback to track due to the previously explained mechanics (high mechanical tension and motor unit recruitment) however a positive is they’re extremely time efficient and can be done anywhere
Now I may be benefiting from muscle memory however I’m going to do this for 2 months until I’m at uni and measure how much my necks grown from doing this for 2 months I’ll report back and make another post rn I’m 16.2 inches unflexed I’ve only started doing this yesterday
Idk how to end this so I’ll just say I hope u guys found this useful u can probably tell im not too experienced at making threads but this site has helped me a lot over the years and I wanted to at least give one gem back LOVE U ALL
Why do I say I recommend this for advanced trainees? I personally worked my way up to 40kg neck curls holding 2 plates (my gym doesn’t have 25s) and I found myself stuck on ways to progress (was so low inhib I did neck curls on a cable with a neck harness in front of EVERYONE and it just ended up feeling like shit would not recommend) so I just stopped training neck believing the common misconception that your neck muscles don’t atrophy THEY DO, TRAIN THEM OR LOSE THEM so now my neck has atrophied back to being 16.2 inches unflexed
I’m going uni this September so I’m tryna do everything I can to ascend and ofc that includes neck training but given my current predicament of maxing out curls that didn’t seem possible until I started researching more
THE METHOD:
ISOMETRICS. Now what are isometrics?Isometrics are muscular actions in which tension is produced without contractions think of pushing a brick wall isometrics are just as good as isotonics (muscular actions in which tension is produced with contractions your normal lifts basically) for hypertrophy why is this? Isometrics fulfill both prerequisites of getting an effective hypertrophic stimulus one, high levels of mechanical tension you’re producing maximum force with the lowest amount of possible velocity and 2, its maximum effort meaning you’re recruiting a high amount of motor units
HOW TO DO AND PROGRAM ISOMETRICS
If you’re doing isometrics you may as well train all functions of neck because of how quick it is which are neck flexion (curl), lateral neck flexion (tilting your head left and right) and neck extension (curling your neck backwards)
To perform an isometric neck curl as you would with a normal neck curl and all other aforementioned movements find a bench or do it on your bed hang your head off the bed and at around half way through neck flexion press your hands against your forehead as hard as you can then CURL YOUR NECK AS HARD AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE MAX EFFORT for either 6-10 seconds that’ll be one set or do 2-3 short bursts of 2-3 second isometrics with a very short rest (a few seconds) between each burst this COULD be better IN THEORY as we’ll avoid the fatigue related byproducts of longer 5+ second isometrics and these 2-3 bursts will count as one set now DO THE SAME THING FOR THE OTHER FUNCTIONS OF THE NECK TREAT EVERY SET YOU DO AS YOU WOULD A NORMAL SET REST UNTIL YOUR HEART RATE GOES DOWN OR U FEEL READY DO ANOTHER
VISUAL EXAMPLE: THE CIRCLE ARE YOUR HANDS
HOW TO PROGRAM
If ur natty u should be training full body every other day however no matter the split if ur tryna max neck gains do this at the start of your session (I personally do them at home 20 minutes before my sesh) or do whenever u please in the session depending on how much of a priority neck is for you aim for 2-8 sets a week per muscle action
DRAWBACKS AND POSITIVES
The biggest drawback of isometrics and why they’re not so popular despite being as effective for hypertrophy as normal reps is that you can’t track progressive overload as you’re just doing short bursts of maximum effort contractions but and hypertrophy just happens with no feedback to track due to the previously explained mechanics (high mechanical tension and motor unit recruitment) however a positive is they’re extremely time efficient and can be done anywhere
Now I may be benefiting from muscle memory however I’m going to do this for 2 months until I’m at uni and measure how much my necks grown from doing this for 2 months I’ll report back and make another post rn I’m 16.2 inches unflexed I’ve only started doing this yesterday
Idk how to end this so I’ll just say I hope u guys found this useful u can probably tell im not too experienced at making threads but this site has helped me a lot over the years and I wanted to at least give one gem back LOVE U ALL
