It is very noticeable when you see a bodybuilder who has developed the muscles in their neck. The appearance of well developed neck muscles is one of the ways that you can determine who has been working on their body for a while and who has not. You will also be doing something to prevent any injuries that could occur from your other exercises.



The shrug is the most common exercise that you can use to improve the muscles in your neck. There are variations on the shrug that you can use to help give the exercise a little more intensity, but it is a very simple exercise to perform.

It is possible to do the shrug using dumbbells or a barbell. You might be surprised at how much weight you can actually lift with the shrug. The exercise has a very short range of motion and can be done very simply. Just hold the weight near to your waist and shrug your shoulders. One of the important factors in this exercise is the amount of control that you use to complete the exercise. Make sure that you shrug slowly up and down.

You might be surprised at the amount of strength you can acquire from doing this type of exercise. You should find your ideal repetition between five and seven. You should always warm up before you do any type of exercise. You don't want to injure the neck muscles. Start off with a lesser amount of weight until you determine what your best repetition and weight is.

There are other exercises that you can perform for your neck that work quite well. You should keep to the simpler exercises when you are just starting working on your neck muscles.

It's called the Weighted Neck Flexion and it goes like this:

1. Take your weight plate and wrap it up in a towel.

2. Lay on a bench with your head sticking out over the end (this is the professional description! haha)

3. Place the plate on the forehead and support it with your hands.

4. Lift up your body in a movement similar to a situp, bring your chin to your chest.

5. lower your body slowly till you are fully extended again

6. Repeat until you're done.

Do this exercise in reverse on your stomach.

There are other exercises that can be used to improve the strength of your neck. Put your hands on one side of your head and push your head in the other direction. You will be using your own body to perform the exercise and not risking injury with weights. This is the ideal way to start the exercises for your neck. It is important that you do not do neck exercises like the neck bridge unless you have been working out for some time and already have a strong neck. This type of exercise is most often done by those that are into wrestling.

Over all, the neck is only a small, but important part of the overall upper body routine. Workout your shoulders, chest and back regularly and chuck in a couple of sets of shrugs and you should be growing stronger and thicker neck muscles in no time.