Script:
A couple of months ago I did my video on Neck Extensions in order to gain a girthy strong neck. Watch that video by clicking in the description down below before watching this one. I will be making a lot of call backs and references to my time in that to this. Now it’s time to work out the opposite muscles by doing sixty days of neck curls. Will I get a super sexy strong neckline like the Rock? Well, I’m recording this video after doing the challenge and you can see me now so… you know what the visual results will be.
[Script – Neck Curls]
Neck strength is one of the most overlooked aspects of working out. From general posture benefits to preventing concussions for those who do contact sports, neck exercises in general are benefited. In my previous video on doing Neck Extensions for 60 days, I specifically highlighted the fact that Virtual Reality headsets such as the Meta Quest 3 stopped causing strain. When you work out with a 20lb dumbbell on your neck having a pound of plastic on your face is pretty easy to handle. Working out the neck is important. Specifically, I’ve seen the Neck Curl highlighted around. Neck extension is Back of the head to your back vs. Neck Curl being chin to chest.
There are quite a few different ways of doing neck curls. From holding a weight to your face to using resistance bands there are many options. I am using this weight harness that I have bought from Amazon. For just twenty bucks this worked out great. Good quality and is super strong. Lasted a hundred- and twenty-days’ worth of exercises between these two videos without any issues. I wore it last video and realized it caused a ton of noise so no… won’t be putting it on for this one.
Outside of how you add resistance you have people who do them seating and people who do them lying down. After trying both Lying down felt way more comfortable to me. I did do some experimentation on different angles to adjust my bench through out the challenge but overall, I kept it lying down throughout.
My challenge was simple, do two minutes of neck curls every day for sixty days. When the workout feels too hard, I will increase the weight to keep the challenge going. My original goal was to gain a few inches but after doing the neck extensions it has been adjusted to being able to see a notable increase in my neck strength. It turns out that it takes many years to grow inches of muscle on your face so my goal has changed. To do this challenge, I used my Neck harness with my adjustable dumbbell looped in. To get the count I will use my Tally Counter. Lastly the timer will be set on my Apple watch using the app. The experiment started on February 18th and ended last month on April 15th. With this experiment outlined let’s get to the challenge.
I will say right away that the Neck Curl was way harder than the Neck Extension for me. Neck Extension works out the upper Trapezius which is something that can be hit regularly with Shrugs. The Neck curls do hit this muscle but also others such as the Platysma. It looks like these are muscles that will be less likely to be worked out on a regular basis. I am not a personal trainer nor a physiologist but that is my guess from doing this challenge. I need to highlight that doing neck exercises such as this is dangerous so, please reach out to a professional before doing this.
The intensity of the workout meant that by the end of the sixty days I went from five pounds of resistance to ten pounds of resistance. For comparison I went from five pounds to twenty pounds of resistance for my Neck Extensions video. It took me a long time to get over the hurtle that was seven point five pounds. As you can see in the videos behind me it’s been a struggle doing this challenge. It hurt almost every single day. Honestly, I could have kept it at five pounds through all sixty days. That’s how weak my neck was.
Now let’s get into the science, does doing neck curls or neck exercises actually improve your life? Well, yes again we talked about it in the last video. However, that was specifically on us men. Another study done specifically on Women was done as well. From the Journal of Health and Quality of Life Outcomes comes a study. Titled, “Effect of neck strength training on health-related quality of life in females with chronic neck pain: a randomized controlled 1-year follow-up study”. It followed a hundred and eighty women who work at an office who experienced neck pain.
It broke them out into groups of three with one receiving elastic band neck training, an alternative to using the Neck harness. Groups two received light training and group three received none. No soup for group three! All groups were measured by a physical therapist and took a questionnaire. The results are group one improved significantly in the health-related Quality of life assessment questionnaire. Same with group 2 but with just a bit less and group 3 didn’t change. Thus, we can conclude that for both men and women exercising your neck muscles is good for you. I mean exercise in general is good so that makes sense. Again, please make sure you are being carful as one mistake with your neck can ruin your life. Always reach out to a professional.
Without further ado, here is my Table of Sixty days of working out my neck muscles. As always click the link to my website for a high-quality image if you want to investigate further. As you can see from my notes… this challenge caused me a lot of pain. From this table I generated this chart displaying how many curls I did over time. Each line representing a new weight as I continued my journey to have a stronger neck. From the chart you can see the general tread line going up as I go through the workout process. The numbers go up and down depending on how sore my neck was but you can see that line going up to the sky.
Overall, I am extremely happy with doing neck curls. While I don’t do them every day, they are still in fact a part of my current workout routine. Granted I work out two to three times a week but hey… You can see that I’m a fat guy in the video. There’s no hiding that. While I am a bit disappointed that doing these neck exercises won’t give me a nice thick neck like the Rock, I know it benefits my health-related quality of life in ways I will appreciate when I’m older. I’ll be like one of the few older gentlemen who won’t be rocking that Forward Head tilt from watching the screen so much.
So, guys, that is it for today’s video on Neck Curls. Do you have any ideas on a challenge you want me to do? Well then please put them down below. I will do pretty much any challenge that isn’t illegal that will get me hurt. While you are down there, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. I am hopping to get to the one thousand subscribers mark hopefully. While you are down there, please visit my website at Jack-Jenkins.com. Follow me on X and Instagram @truejackjenk. Lastly, have a fantastic day everyone. All you guys watching are just so incredibly amazing.