Where can I get one? I went to ironmind.com as suggested in the Rapid Fire article, but they don’t sell them. Any help would be appreciated.
does it have to be a hercules neck harness? The sporting store near me, The Sports Authority, has neck harnesses for lifting purposes. I’m sure just a leather one would do.
Try ivanko. Funny thing is I was just thinking of ordering a neck harness.
I’m sick of my pencil neck and have been working the crap out of my traps with “The Power Look” I think by CT. Will using a neck harness help? Or am I way off base and it’s actually for pulling stuff? Like a horse. (That sounded kinda dumb.)
billy,
your neck, per se, is the muscles that move your head side to side and up and down. Your traps are more stabilizers. Doing something with a weight harness will increase your neck thickness. Look at wrestlers: they do bridges and have huge necks.
Hey, a neck thread!
I love to work my neck. I own an Iron Man Neck Harness. Flexible, strong and fits nicely around the old noggin.
I do three sets twice a week. I usually attach my various size Kettleballs to the thing and nail 10 to twenty reps a set, depending on the weight.
(A quick story: a few years ago I was struck by a car from the drivers side. The guy ran a stop sign. If it was not for all the work I have done using my neck harness I may very well have been seriously injured. After looking at my car no one could believe that I walked away, weight training pays off in so many ways!).
How do the rest of you work your necks?
I’m with JWright; got mine for $10. One of the best lifting investments that I’ve ever made.
You could also try the Power Systems or Perform Better catalogs.
Waddaya mean IronMind doesn’t sell them?
go here:
http://www6.mailordercentral.com/ironmind/products.asp?dept=20
Of course that one’ll cost you 65 bucks. You should be able to find one at any sporting goods store.
Jim
Last time I checked Iron Mind they had one…
EFS sells them too. I got the leather one… made by ‘Cap’ or something like that. Check leather goods at www.elitefts.com.
go to dsports.com or thesportsauthority.com. They have leather harnesses for 10 bucks or so. Or you could be really really cheap and use a towel. Just take a long beach towel and roll it up. thread it through the hole on a weight, then wrap it around your head. Holding the towel on your head, do your reps. I’ve seen it done.
I got an Altus one up here in Canada. Cost me 40 Canadian, the same as most seem to be in U.S. dollars, so that was a pleasant surprise.
As for what I do for my neck, I do neck flexion and extension work with a plate, use the harness for the same and do bridges. I think I finally got bridges down last night after a month of working on them. I was keeping my legs too close together and was having trouble balancing. So, I widened my stance just a bit and lo and behold, I could stay up much longer and rock back and forth with ease. Once I get stronger, I suppose I’ll be able to use a more narrow foot stance, but at least now I can actually do them.
I like to do low rep, heavy work once a week and lighter weight, higher volume work once a week for flexion/extension work, with bridges twice a week. Soreness was a problem at first, but not anymore.
I’ve found it has really helped tie my neck into my shoulders/traps and I don’t get neck pain anymore from other work in the gym. My dress shirts are getting tight and I can no longer do up the top buttons on my 16" shirts, so I’m guessing I’ve managed something close to 3/4" of growth in about 6 weeks. Still look like a pencil neck, but improving.
I use an old gizmo called a bullworker.
Its basically a spring loaded device, with ropes on each of the sides.
To do the front of my neck,
I get down on my knees and place 1 of the handles under my chin and the other by my knees.
I also have made simple blocks to place under the handle by my knees to change the height, which will create more tension at different points of my neck movements.(due to it being spring loaded)
It also does the jaw muscles and doesnt take long to notice these, as its placed under the chin, but 1 problem is that it always skins the bottom of my chin even with a large layer of soft padding. (Its amazing how stong neck muscles are).
To do the sides i place it just below my ears ,and against a corner of a wall,( best in a hallway as the other side of youre body can rest against the wall).
I gave up on the back of the neck as its to tricky using this gizmo.
Have tried straps around the head and attaching them to a pulley machine.
Stopped doing this as i thought it may make me lose hair.
Thanks for the advice!
I have one of the leather neck harnesses…probably paid $20 for it. The damn thing about rips my ears off (and I don’t have big ears, either.) Anybody else have that problem? Up until now I just figured that the leather ones were junk, but maybe it’s just the one I have that’s junk.
cpa5oh, I have the same problem. I find that adjusting the strap that runs over the top of your head can help. Move it backwards so that it rests over the crown of your head and see if this helps. I think the key is to have the harness on as tight as possible so there is minimal movement. Either that or use one hand to protect the worst side. Let me know if this helps.
CGB, the way mine is designed there is an adjustable band around the head. Then at the top there is a pad that is to rest against the top of your head (I’ve played with that…I’ve had to move that forward so it rests against the front of my head when I go back to front and vice versa.) The problem is the straps that hang down (which move relative to the band and attach to the chain.) If I’m going back to front, the straps get caught up on my ears and almost rip them off. If I’m going front to back (weight hanging near my chest) they slide against my face until they almost chop my ears off from the front.
I guess with weight on the chain the side straps run too close to my face. I’m not sure what any harness could do about that.
cpa, I’ve just found that when doing extension work, if I push the strap that runs across the top all the way back as far as it will go, the side straps tend to not pinch my ears as much. I don’t use it currently for flexion, so I don’t know if that would work the same. Perhaps you can try wearing a bandana or somethng over your head and covering your ears. I would think that that might help. I’m going to try that next time I work neck.