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Protect Your Neck - Top 5 Neck Builders For MMA Fighters

Author: Dustin Lebel
Date Posted: May 19, 2009

I love the Wu-Tang Clan and one of my favorite songs from them is "Protect Ya' Neck". And while I don't think they were talking to combat athletes, protecting your neck is definitely of top priority. From using your neck in wrestling to push against your opponent, to being able to able to absorb blows to the head, to resisting chokes, having a strong, thick neck is ultra important in EVERY combat sport. Along with the traps and muscles of the upperback, these muscles are crucial for your health and success as an athlete!

Here are my Top 5 Neck Builders For MMA Athletes (or anyone)

1. Band Flexion and Extension. I like these for sometimes super high reps (50+) to lower reps in the 15-20 range, and I find the variable resistance with the bands to work better than a lot of the awkward neck harnesses that i've tried.

2. Manual Resistance. Using a towel and/or your own hands you can work flexion, extension and both sides of your neck. Work these for super slow reps or isometric holds for time.

3. Shrug Variations. I love shrugs and all of their variations - there are literally dozens if not more! While olympic lift variations and pulls usually get the nod for the ultimate trap developers, shrugs are still valuable for direct trap work, not to mention the grip benefits. My 2 favorite shrug variations, which I stole from Joe Defranco are

- Dumbbell Iso Shrugs. Shrug and hold the first rep for 10-15 seconds, and every rep after for a 1 or 2 one thousand count. Sets of 8-15 are generally good here.

- Timed Towel Barbell Shrugs. Grabbing on to a towel (similar to a gi in jiu jitsu or judo) over a bar, shoot for maximum reps in 30 seconds (25-35, generally).

4. Direct Upperback Work. You really can never get enough upperback work. Aside from helping correct our terrible posture from sitting at a computer all day, having a jacked up upperback is just cool. Here are my favorite direct upperback movements (aside from rowing and pull up variations)

- Band Pull Aparts. Joe Defranco and Zach Even-Esh have their athletes (especially throwing athletes) do 100 of these a day with a mini band. Great for an "extra workout", or even as a filler between sets, pull aparts are a great movement.

- Band Face Pulls. Make sure to round your shoulders at the beginning of the movement and retract your shoulder blades at the completion (row to your eyes/forehead!). Sets of 15-50 work great as part of a superset with other upperbody movements or as a finisher.

- Blast Strap/Ring/Tow Strap Scarecrows. Like a body weight rear delt raise, these can be very difficult depending on how you position your feet. Sets of 8-15, or sometimes more work best

- Blast Strap/Ring/Tow Strap Face Pulls - row your body weight up by pulling to your forehead. Same reps as scarecrows.

- Scarecrow-Face Pull Combo. Perform one scarecrow + one facepull. That's one rep. Repeat.

5. Full Body Movements! You should already by doing this stuff, but squats, dead lifts, rack dead lifts, bent over rows, sandbag clean and presses, shouldering, and loading, not to mention FARMER walks and tire flipping are all tremendous neck builders and contribute to growth all over your entire body.

So there you have it - a hand full of neck movements that can easily be done at the end of workouts or as mini sessions through out the day. No excuses, pencil neck!

About The Author

Dustin Lebel
http://www.dustinlebeltraining.blogspot.com

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of Exercise articles.

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