4 Easy Neck Strengthening Exercises to Increase Mobility

BY jenfit Neck✨

We put a lot of focus on strengthening our core and glutes but have you thought about strengthening your neck muscles? Neck pain can be a real… well, pain in the neck.

There are a lot of reasons we develop neck pain, with tech neck being one of the main culprits. Not to worry: in this post, we’re introducing four simple neck strengthening exercises you can try at home. Strengthening your neck muscles will increase your overall mobility while decreasing tension headaches as well as any pain throughout your body.

Why strengthen the neck?

Oftentimes our posture suffers as a result of our sedentary modern lifestyles. Our necks fall forward and shoulders round. This means the back of the neck becomes short and tight.

Relieving neck pain is not just about stretching the back of the neck, but also about strengthening the deep neck flexor muscles in the front of the neck.

We want to work in a rotation. Here are some neck strengthening exercises to improve the stability around the neck.

Neck strengthening exercise 1: Modified chin tucks

You’ve probably heard of chin tucks. This first strengthening exercise is the same kind of concept.

Start by lying down on your back. Bring your attention to your ears and imagine pulling them out and back, kind of bringing the base of the head up and out.

Naturally, this will begin to create a little double chin that goes into the chest.

Without rounding the shoulders, think about pulling the crown of the head back- reaching the base of the head out. Then relax the head and neck.

Following the same form, do this again but gently look towards your knees and try to hold this position for about five to ten seconds. You should start to feel an increased pressure right on the front of the neck. Aim to keep the mouth closed the whole time and try not to round your shoulders.

Now that you start to feel a bit more comfortable with this exercise, let’s bump it up a bit.

Neck Strengthening Exercise 2: Head lifts

While lying on your back, slightly lift your head off the ground. I’m talking barely off the ground here.

Bring your chin down and gaze towards your knees, creating length in the neck. Keep your mouth closed as you just barely lift your head off the mat.

Aim to hold for 10-30 seconds. I recommend starting with three rounds of head lifts and increasing to five rounds once you feel comfortable. I usually start to get a little shaky doing this! It’s a tough one 🙂

Neck Strengthening Exercise 3: Neck lifts with resistance

Come to kneel on the floor or on your mat with your glutes resting on your heels as you engage your core. Placing additional focus on the core encourages your entire body to be engaged as you practice these neck exercises.

Take a resistance band – I use a simple TheraBand – and open it up so you can place it behind the back of your head. Bring your arms forward and in front of you as you hold onto the end of the band.

Create resistance with the band without retracting the neck or head. Continue to focus on lengthening and lifting.

A good trick to see if your head and neck are in the right position is to swallow. Yup- if your head is retracting too far back you won’t be able to swallow. If you can’t swallow then you’re not in a functional position to do this exercise. Proper alignment is key.

Don’t push past your limits here. You don’t need to force anything. This is a position that your body isn’t used to being in, so the aim here is to put your body in a functioning and sustainable place.

Neck Strengthening Exercise 4: Tabletop

Come down to your hands and knees in a tabletop position.

Wrap the band around the back of your head, holding the ends with your hands flat on the ground. Bring the head up and back. Elongate the neck. Pull the shoulder blades back. And hold the resistance there.

To add on, you can start to gently rotate through the neck, making small rotations side to side, and even carefully nodding in a “yes” motion. This is a great way to start getting used to using those deeper neck muscles against gravity.

A little goes a long way

There are so many great ways to strengthen the neck muscles. Lying on the ground is a super simple and accessible way to get started. The main goal is to bring awareness to those muscles in the front of the neck.

Hold your head high

When the head is in alignment with the body, your joints and ligaments are better able to fall into their correct place, resulting in less tension, easier breathing, and overall greater physical mobility. These simple exercises, practiced with consistency, can reveal so much relief in the body and help you be the best that you can be.