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Strength Training for the Neck
Adam Stoyanoff
This article is meant to be the first of a series addressing an importance and case for training the
neck. Because of my current involvement with hockey players, some of this article is directed
towards that population. However, this topic is not limited to one sport. It should be applied to
anyone who is seeking a logical and comprehensive approach to strength and conditioning.
Many strength and conditioning professionals will tell you that the first reason they train athletes
is to, “potentially reduce the risk of injury.”Coaches will describe the latest and greatest ways to
prevent the ACL from tearing or how they are connecting a kinetic chain by strengthening the
core to build a “pillar of strength.” However, the majority of experts are missing one of the most
important areas of the human body, the cervical spine. In my experience, not enough coaches are
being proactive for possibly reducing the risk of concussions with their strength and conditioning
programs. More specifically, coaches are neglecting strength training the necks of their athletes.
Whether or not neck training will reduce the incidence of concussions and head injury is still up
for debate. Right now researchers are working on more definitive data sets. However, as a coach,
there does not seem to be one good reason for not addressing the neck in your training program. I
believe there is an ethical responsibility and it is logical. If you work with athletes who
participate in contact sports, you need to consider neck training as a staple in your training
program. Also, the risk of concussion and head injury is not limited to contact sports, athletes of
all ages and in all sports may benefit from the inclusion of neck training.
One sport which places athletes at a particularly high risk for head injury is hockey. Of contact
sports, hockey has been reported to rank highest for the incidence of concussion rates per player
exposure, further demonstrating the importance of a proactive approach for reducing the rate of
injury (2).In my experience with many hockey players, and through networking with other
coaches, I’ve observed a lack of logical, comprehensive, progressive, and safe strength training
with hockey players for the past six years.
Whether it is variables of deceleration and acceleration or a direct blow to the skull, what better
situation to harvest a concussion than a sport that allows for the athlete to travel on an almost
frictionless surface at speeds greater than 25 mph (1,2).The arena for this sport is embodied by
hard ice and walls, which are unforgiving surfaces with full contact.
At first, parents and coaches were concerned with questionable protective gear. Research has not
demonstrated that this is the only way necessary to reduce the risk of concussions. Helmets have
been found to reduce the risk of head injury in some sports, but there is no information
demonstrating their effect on concussions. The same conclusions have been reported when
researching the effects of faceshields and mouthguards (3).There is no literature showing that
protective equipment is enough to help reduce the occurrence of concussions in hockey players.
Over two full seasons 257 Canadian hockey players experienced concussions and 240 of these
occurred while wearing a protective gear, highlighting the need for other preventative
approaches aimed at reducing the occurrence of concussions. In conclusion, protective gear is
not enough and it seems that we need to find a supplemental solution to minimizing the risk of
concussions. There may be one.
Research has already demonstrated that resistance training can increase the strength and/or size
of skeletal muscle. Strength training also has the potential to increase the strength of connective
tissues as well as increase bone mineral density and potentially reduce the risk of skeletal injuries
(4). With that, it is appropriate to assume the muscles, bones, and connective tissue of the neck
will adapt positively to resistance training. The next appropriate step in beginning to design a
resistance training program for the neck is to have a sufficient understanding of the anatomy for
the areas involved.
1. Cantu, R.C. Head Injuries in Sport. Sports Med. 30: 289-296 1996
2. David Goodman, Michael Gaetz, Daniel MeichenBaum. Concussions in Hockey: There is a
Cause for Concern. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.Vol. 33, N. 12, 2001 pp 20042009
3.Benson BW, Hamilton GM, Meeuwisse WH, McCrory P, Dvorak J. Is Protective Equipment
Useful in Preventing Concussion? A Systematic Review of the Literature.British Journal of
Sports Med. May 2009; 43 Suppl. 56-57
4. Fleck S. , Falke J. 1986 Value of resistance training for the reduction of sports injuries. Sports
Medicine (Aukland, N.Z.), 3(1), 61-68