T Nation

Neck Routine

Powerlifting
#1

Hi Everyone,

I have a question I train my 15 year old son for high school wrestling. I have a professional gym in my home and use nautilus as well as hammer strength equipment. My question is I have him doing a neck routine that consists of 3 sets of 10 3x times week, on a 4 way neck machine.

I used this technique for myself for B.B. but wanted some opinions if it is too much or too little. I train him myself as I don’t like the way they train at the high school and I have better equipment and our local “pro” gym as too much extra activity going on that I don’t want my son around. Any advice or opinions will be appreciated. I know all about doing bridges and the like.

#2

Sounds good to me for neck stuff, I don’t think its too much. Do you have him using any free weights?

#3

High school football we worked necks lets see if i can describe it…

your son on all 4s and you stand at his head.place your hand on the back of his head and have him look towards you while you are holding his head down,count to 10 and release.

cup hands under his forehead have him tuck his chin while you pull up count to 10 release.

stand a bit closer to him and have him place the side of his head against the outside of your leg and press against you count 10 release
same on the other side.

want to make sure he is on hands and knees back flat.

but to answer your question no its not too much just ask him every now and them about headaches and stiffness sounds good though want to try and keep it light with necks they are touchy IMO

#4

IME you can work neck fairly frequently - I’ve worked it 5 x a week and still made gains. The thing is that you don’t want to use too much volume or intensity for neck training - especially if you are wrestling as well as hitting the weights.

3 x 10 three times a week sounds fine to me as long as progression is not pushed too much - remember his neck will get worked hard in his wrestling sessions.

What’s wrong with the HS strength training? Even if it’s average he might get more out of it if the atmosphere is good and he is competing with his team mates. Atmosphere is often more important than the program IMHO.