This blog post covers a range of different strengthening exercises for the neck.
exercises To Strengthen The Neck
Performing strengthening exercises for the neck helps to build resilience in the structures of the neck.
This will help the neck tolerate more load/stress.
(… which is an effective way to manage neck pain!)
Table of Contents
1. Warm Up
2. Deep Neck Flexor
3. Isometric Exercises
4. Strengthening Exercises (against gravity)
5. Advanced Strengthening Exercises
(Note: These neck exercises are designed to be performed in a gentle manner. Over exerting your neck may lead to undesirable symptoms such as sharp pain, dizziness and/or headaches.)
1. Warm Up
This section comprises of neck exercises which involve moving the neck through its full range of movement.
This will help warm up the neck muscles and prepare the neck structures for exercises.
Remember – Move your neck as much as you can without reproducing any pain or discomfort.
Retraction (Chin Tuck)
Instructions:
- Look slightly downwards to bring the chin towards the your upper chest.
- Gently tuck your chin in.
- Keep your jaw and neck muscles as relaxed as possible.
- Aim to feel a slight muscular contraction in the back of the throat and lengthening sensation at the back of the neck.
- Hold for 5 seconds.
- Repeat 10 times.
Flexion/Extension
Instructions:
- Gently tuck your chin in.
- Slowly look all the way up
- Slowly look all the way down.
- Perform 20 repetitions.
Rotation
Instructions:
- Slowly turn your head to look towards the left and right.
- Perform 20 repetitions.
Lateral Flexion
Instructions:
- Gentle tuck you chin in.
- Tilt your neck from side-to-side.
- Perform 20 repetitions.
Circular Movements
Instructions:
- Aim to keep your neck as relaxed as possible throughout this exercise.
- Slowly move your head in a circular motion.
- Change directions.
- Only move your neck as far as you are comfortable.
- Perform 10 repetitions.
2. Strengthen the Deep neck flexors
The Deep Neck Flexors are a group muscles which are located deep at the front of the Cervical Spine.
They are involved with stabilization of the head/neck.
Before performing the more challenging neck exercises mentioned further down in this blog post, it is recommended that you learn how to engage the deep neck flexors.
Deep Neck Flexor Activation
Instructions:
- Lie down on your back.
- Place a pillow underneath your head if it is more comfortable.
- Flatten your tongue to the roof of your mouth.
- Relax your breathing.
- Keep your neck completely relaxed.
- Nod your chin towards your chest.
- Aim to feel a gentle muscular contraction in the back of your throat.
- There should also be a lengthening sensation at the back of your neck.
- Hold for 5 seconds.
- Perform 10 repetitions.
Note: There should be no activation of the superficial neck flexors (Sternocleidomastoid and Anterior Scalene) as you perform this exercise. You can place your hand lightly onto the front of the neck to monitor the muscular activity.
For more exercises that target the Deep Neck Flexors:
See Post: Deep Neck Flexors
3. Isometric Strengthening exercises
An isometric exercise involves generating a contraction in the muscles without movement of the neck.
This form of exercise is a safe way to start strengthening the neck.
With the following exercises – The aim is to produce the highest amount of muscular contraction without causing any symptoms.
Rotation
Instructions:
- Place your palm on the side of your head.
- Gently turn your head into the hand.
- Match the force of your hand.
- Push as hard as you can without causing any symptoms.
- Only apply as much pressure you can comfortably control.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction in the side of the neck.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
- Alternate sides.
Lateral Flexion
Instructions:
- Place your palm on side of your head.
- Tilt your head into your hand.
- Match the force of your hand.
- Push as hard as you can without causing any symptoms.
- Only apply as much pressure you can comfortably control.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction in the side of the neck.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
- Alternate sides.
Extension
Instructions:
- Sit up right.
- Tuck your chin in slightly.
- Place your hand behind the back of your head.
- Apply a pressure to the back of your head.
- Push the back of your head into your hand as hard as you can without causing any symptoms.
- Only apply as much pressure you can comfortably control.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction in the back of the neck.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
Flexion
Instruction:
- Nod your chin down towards the upper chest.
- Retract your chin gently.
- Place your fist directly underneath the chin.
- Without moving the first, nod your chin downwards onto the fist.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction in the front of the neck.
- Hold for 30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
4. Strengthening exercises (Against Gravity)
The following exercises involve moving the weight of the head against the resistance of gravity.
(Keep in mind – Your head weighs about 10 pounds!)
Retraction
Instructions:
- Lie on your stomach.
- Rest your forehead on a rolled up towel.
- Gently tuck your chin in as to slightly lift your forehead off the towel.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Perform 10-20 repetitions.
Flexion
Instructions:
- Sit down on a chair with a backing.
- Slide your hips down the seat.
- Lean your torso backwards.
- Nod your chin downwards.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction at the front of the neck.
- Aim to hold for 30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
Extension
Instructions:
- Lie face down on a bench with your head off the side.
- Lift your head upwards.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction at the back of the neck.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Perform 10-20 repetitions.
For more exercises targeting the back of the neck:
See Post: Neck Extensor Exercises
Lateral Flexion
Instructions:
- Comfortably lie on your side with your head supported by a pillow.
- Gently lift head of pillow.
- Aim to feel a muscular contraction at the side of the neck.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Perform 10-20 repetitions.
- Repeat on the other side.
5. Advanced Neck Strengthening Exercises
Once you have developed a stronger neck, you can consider challenging yourself with the following exercises.
(Keep in mind – Do not over exert your neck muscles as your perform the more advanced exercises as this may lead to an injury.)
Head Lift
Instructions:
- Lie down on your back with your knees bent.
- (Support your head on a pillow if required.)
- Gently flatten your tongue to the roof of your mouth throughout the exercise.
- This will help engage the appropriate muscles in the neck.
- Nod your chin downwards.
- Tuck your chin in.
- Whilst keeping your chin in the nodded position, lift the back of your head off the ground.
- Imagine you are gently squashing an apple between your lower jaw and throat throughout movement.
- Aim to feel the contraction of the muscles at the front of your neck.
- You may need to experiment by lifting and holding your head at different heights to see what position gives you the best contraction. (Just make sure that you are comfortable.)
- Hold for 10-30 seconds.
- Repeat 3 times.
- Make sure that you DO NOT let your chin jut forward as you lift your head.
- Progression:
- Place a light weight on top of your forehead.
Note: If you find this exercise too difficult, support the back of your head with your finger tips.
Extension
Instructions:
- Lie facing downwards with your head off the side of a bed.
- Rest and hold an appropriate amount of weight on the back of your head.
- Lift your head upwards.
- Aim to feel the contraction of the muscles at the back of your neck.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Perform 10 repetitions.
Lateral Flexion
Instructions:
- Lie down on your side.
- The upper side of the neck will be targeted with this exercise.
- Rest and hold an appropriate amount of weight on the side of your head.
- Lift your head upwards.
- Aim to feel the contraction of the muscles at the side of your neck.
- Hold for 3 seconds.
- Perform 10 repetitions.
- Repeat on the other side.
Chin Retraction
Instructions:
- Loop a resistance band around the back of the head.
- Hold onto the end of the bands with your hands.
- Pull the resistance band forwards.
- Keep your chin in a slightly tucked position.
- Tilt your head slightly backwards.
- Aim to feel the contraction of the muscles behind your neck.
- Hold for 10-30 seconds.
- Perform 3 repetitions.
Questions
If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave me a comment down below.
Why do you need to strengthen the neck?
Performing exercises that are aimed at strengthening the neck will allow the muscles to tolerate more stress and load.
This is a great way to build resilience in the neck structures.
Are they dangerous to perform?
No.
The exercises are designed to be gentle and safe.
If you have any doubts – Please consult your healthcare practitioner prior commencing any exercises.
Some exercises (when unsupervised by a healthcare professional) may be not suitable for people with certain conditions such as cervical stenosis, nerve impingement, disc bulges, instability, vascular issues, arthritis (just to name a few).
Do what you are capable for doing, assess how you respond to them and progress the neck exercises as appropriate.
How often do I need to do them?
As a general guideline, perform the neck strengthening exercises for 1-2 times per week.
Just take it easy for the first few weeks as it may take some time for your neck to get accustomed to the exercises.
What to do next
- Any questions?… (Leave me a comment down below.)
- Join me:
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- Start doing the exercises!
Disclaimer: The content presented on this blog post is not medical advice and should not be treated as such. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis or treatment. Use of the content provided on this blog post is at your sole risk. Seek guidance from a healthcare professional before starting any exercise and/or implementing any recommendation. For more information: Medical Disclaimer.
Imagine you do some sort of back and pelvis exercises and end up ruining your back and pelvis. Now you have no idea how to go back to your former body. And every moment your body aches and you cannot do the physical activities you used to do. You go to doctors (to be exact in a third world country). And doctors end up giving you medicines putting the problem in some generic category. You eat medicines but they don’t work. How can they? The problem is exercise induced. Not something they are stating. So yeah you stop going to local doctors and only thing you can do is try explaining your problem and seek help online from experts.
STORY BEHIND HOW I GOT THIS PROBLEM
In year 2018, i.e., four years ago I wanted to do some back and pelvis exercises because I hated how my body looked.
From my birth I had an deeper anterior pelvic tilt than other people and I hated it. So I wanted it gone and wanted something normal.
I started to do a set of back and pelvis exercises, self learnt from youtube. The thing is that I did it very very wrongly, intensely and I did it way too much for more than a year and it ruined my pelvis (whole lower body actually) and now I can’t even stand properly. I cannot do many physical activities or play physical games at all. There is too much pain to deal with now. Okay, so after I did those exercises for more than a year I thought it will get healed and return to normal by its own if I take rest. But three years has passed and my pelvis and back are in a bad shape. I have to deal with physical pain on a day to day basis. I have to live very carefully. Its not just pain, I cant even stand properly and have problems with balance and all. To be honest it is being very hard to find the right words to explain my issue,but I have no choice but to try explaining it.
My body shape is now completely different than before. I did those exercises and my posture has become bad and slouching type with a severe posterior pelvic tilt with problematic knees. I have also complications on my body above the pelvis like an extremely decreased arch of lower back than what it was before.
I have tried all sort of things like yoga and squats to fix my pelvis but any kind of exercise now just brings in intense pain. The most frustrating part of my problem is that i have no idea how to explain someone this problem like it’s too complicated, and i am very afraid if it can be fixed. so i am very in need of help right now.
Hi Ashish,
It sounds like you went from having an extreme anterior pelvic tilt to an extreme posterior pelvic tilt by doing pelvis exercises too much?
Have you tried some exercises for the posterior pelvic tilt?
See post: Posterior pelvic tilt
Where are you experiencing your pain now? You may need to specifically address this before you start any other exercises, otherwise, it may be very challenging to move into the required positions.
Mark
Mark, thank you so much for the detailed information! I will be working through many of your articles, but I’m starting here with the neck strengthening. I’m now on Level 2. My neck is very noisy when I do the movements, like crumpling cellophane. It’s kind of alarming! Is this OK? Will it always be that way? Thank you!
Hey Janine,
This is called crepitus and for the most part is harmless. Just make sure that it is not causing any pain.
You may find that as you progress through your neck exercises, it might actually improve.
Mark
Thank you!
How can I reverse the effects of having my neck sideways kind of like when you cradle your phone between ear and shoulders? Because of this bad posture my x-ray shows my neck leaning towards the left so I want to straighten it.
Hey Steve,
You can try stretching the neck the opposite direction to help stretch out the tight muscles pulling your neck to the one side.
However- I would also recommend that you check to see if you have any side bends or perhaps scoliosis in your spine as this can encourage a tilted head.
See post: Scoliosis Exercises.
Mark
hey, first of all, thank you for this information
is it possible to over do this exercises?
is there any benefit for doing that more than once a day or should i stay at 1?
Hey Norman,
If you do it with enough intensity and there’s no adverse events from that, 1/day should be fine.
If it suits you, you can do 2/day at a lesser intensity.
Mark
Hey Mark, I suffer from neck pain and shoulder pain. Recently, it’s gotten worse because I pulled a muscle while I was sleeping somehow. For some reason, I also got a small fever at the same time this was happening and it lasted for 5 days with no other symptoms. Do you know if muscle pain can cause this? I’ve gotten headaches and felt slightly dizzy before but never had a fever accompany muscle pain.
Hey Joel,
There are some conditions such as the flu which can cause muscular aches.
I am not aware of muscles causing fevers though.
Might need to check with the doctor with this one!
Mark
Hi, I am trying to do the rotation over with pressure exercise (e) but it hurts my neck muscles whenever I try to turn my head to the right. Do you have any other suggestions on exercises that would exercise the muscles that I use to turn my head?
Hi Jopie,
Here are some suggestions:
1. Don’t apply an over pressure
2. Apply only a gentle over pressure.
3. Only turn your head to the range that is just before you feel the pain.
4. If you feel a pinch on the right side when you turn to the right, consider stretching this right side by pulling your head to the left. (Lateral flexion stretch in this blog post)
5. Look slightly downwards before rotating to the right.
All the best.
Mark
Hi mark
I’ve worked on these along w Forward Head Posture suggestions, and really want to fix my forward head posture! I’ve had it for many years. I’ve found that a lot of the time I try to release SCM muscles or do much work on subbocipitals, or esp stretching of scalenes or levatur scap, it causes a headache from the stressed area. Why would this happen? It I try to do chin tucks much, the subbocipitals get tight. Any suggestions would be great!! Thanks
Or rather, what can I do maybe for more sensitive treatment to start? I’m just afraid they’ve been tight for so long they’re just overly sensitive
Heyo Nicky,
You might need to cut back on the intensity of the exercises, stretches and/or releases.
The neck muscles can tense up again if you push too hard and might take some time for the neck to build up the tolerance to the exercises.
My recommendation: Do the same exercises, but at 50% intensity and see how you go.
Mark
Hi! Love your program. Have done the pelvis rotation exercises among others with great results!
I have problems with tmj/neck and wanted to ask if you could help with something. My sternocleidomastoid/levators/scalenes are so dang tight and every time I do deep flexor exercises like you list above, I inevitably overwork the SCM, levators, etc instead of the deep flexors. In fact, I am laying in bed right now with a horrible migraine from doing just that this morning! When I tuck my chin, lift head off table, I feel my SCM muscles activate. I CANNOT unactivate them. What do I do? Do I power through? I honestly don’t know if I can? Is it because the flexors are really that weak, or my SCM muscles are that overtrained ??? Is there an exercise that will isolate just the deep flexor muscles? Help????
Hey April,
Try to release and stretch the over working muscles.
From here – it sounds like you need to regress the Deep neck flexor exercises. A good exercise would be just to focus on chin nods whilst lying down and progressively increase the difficulty over time.
Mark
Hi Mark
I want to thank you for changing my life
I started off working on my shoulder impingement and realized I have chicken neck
Your program is absolutely incredible
I’m finding adjusting my posture is slowly strengthening my neck and posture muscles and its correcting pain in several areas of my body
Keep up the outstanding work
Many blessings
Cole
Hey James,
Thanks for your comment!
.. and awesome to hear that program is helping!
Mark
Hey Mark, I noticed that my lower back (near my buttocks) was hurting while I was sleeping and I was wondering if you had any exercises for it. I think it’s mainly caused by bad posture since I sit down on my computer chair for many hours a day.
Hey Tom,
If you feel that your back is hurting due to poor posture whilst sitting, have a look at this post:
The proper way to place your pelvis when sitting.
Mark
Do any common gym exericises such as squats, deadlifts or planks strengthen the actual neck muscles?
Hey Peter,
Any exercises that require your upper limb use will require you to engage your neck muscles. ( in fact, all exercises will probably engage the neck in one way or the other)
If you were wondering which exercises might hit the neck more so, I would go with things like dead lifts, bent over rows, rear delt flies for the posterior neck… and exercises like the bench press, supine abdominal work for the anterior neck.
Mark