00:00About a year ago, I convinced myself that I'd look a lot more jacked, especially in clothes,
00:09if I started training my neck. This was brought on by the simple observation that most jacked dudes
00:14have bigger necks. Just take this photo of Magic Mike, for example. That's what he actually looks
00:19like on the left, and on the right, his neck was photoshopped to be smaller. It should be
00:23obvious which version looks more masculine and muscular, and I think this is why training your
00:27neck and traps directly can make a massive difference in how jacked you look in clothes
00:31and how masculine your face looks. So this photo of me was taken on January 1st, 2016, and this photo
00:37was taken a year later after about a year of admittedly on and off direct neck training.
00:42And the traps are another muscle that can drastically affect how muscular you look from the front,
00:45side, rear, and again, especially in clothes. So before we get into exactly how to make these
00:51muscles grow best, let's quickly cover their basic anatomy first. So let's start with the muscles on
00:56the front. The biggest medius muscle on the neck is the sternocleidomastoid. It has two heads which
01:01originate at the top of the sternum and the top of the clavicle, respectively, inserting on the
01:05mastoid process at the base of the skull, and it performs forward flexion, lateral flexion, and rotation
01:11of the neck. A little to the side and a bit deeper, you have the three scalene muscles acting together
01:16to perform forward and lateral flexion, much like the sternocleidomastoid. Moving more to the back of
01:21the neck, by far the biggest muscle is the trapezius, or the traps for short. The upper traps
01:26originate at the occipital bone on the back of the head, and then fan out and down to insert on the
01:30outer part of the clavicle, or collarbone. And they contract to perform primarily scapular elevation,
01:35like shrugging, but also neck extension, lateral flexion, and rotation. The fibers of the mid-traps
01:40run straight across and contract to perform primarily scapular retraction, like in a barbell row,
01:45with the lower fibers performing scapular depression and retraction. Just keep in mind that all these
01:50muscles tend to function as a unit, not in isolation. So still on the back of the head you have two
01:54splenous muscles, which extend the neck, and the levator scapulae muscle, which is buried a bit
01:58deeper and functions primarily to elevate the scapula, again like in a shrug. And there are a
02:03bunch of other smaller muscles, like the semispinalis, multifidus, longissimus, and others that all
02:08basically help to extend the neck, but we won't focus on these. It's commonly heard that if you simply
02:12focus on heavy compound movements in your training, regularly doing heavy squats, deadlifts,
02:17bent rows, and so on, you'll have no problem building a thick neck. But the research doesn't
02:21really agree with this. A study by Conley and colleagues from the University of Georgia split
02:2522 men into one of two groups. One group performed a periodized, four-day-per-week resistance training
02:31program for 12 weeks. The training program was pretty rigorous, including exercises like the squat,
02:35Romanian deadlift, and even trap-focused movements like mid-thigh deadlifts, bent rows, shrugs, all loaded
02:41in the 3-10 rep range for 3-5 sets. The other group did exactly the same thing, except they added
02:46three sets of 10 rep head extensions every week. At the end of the 12 weeks, MRI was used to measure
02:51neck hypertrophy, and the results were pretty staggering. Despite all the heavy compound
02:55movements used in the regular protocol, there was zero increase in cross-sectional area of the neck
03:00muscles after 12 weeks. But adding in just nine weekly sets of direct neck extension work led to
03:05a 13% increase in total neck cross-sectional area, which is pretty impressive for only 12 weeks,
03:10and led the authors to conclude that it doesn't appear that the isometric actions required for
03:14stabilization during conventional resistance exercises are of sufficient intensity to elicit
03:19neck muscle hypertrophy. However, looking at other research, such as that from Sunstrup et al.,
03:24it's clear that the neck muscles are activated quite highly indirectly from other exercises,
03:28such as the lateral raise, where the splenous and trap muscles both reached over 90%
03:32EMG activity relative to momentary voluntary contraction in a set taken to failure. Granted,
03:37activation and hypertrophy are not necessarily synonymous, but it seems most plausible that,
03:42all else equal, activating a muscle to a greater degree should hypertrophy it to a greater degree.
03:47So it seems that, even if not required for growth, including at least one neck extension-based
03:51exercise, such as plate-loaded extensions or partner-assisted extensions, two to three times
03:56per week makes most sense to maximize growth of the rear neck musculature. I found that using a head
04:00harness can make loading a little easier, or if you'd rather not do this publicly, you can use a towel to
04:05provide resistance from home. Because loading the neck muscles heavily might put undesired strain on
04:09the connective tissues of the neck, I'd suggest starting out with moderate reps in the 10-15 rep
04:14range, with sets taken close to, or to failure, with good control so that a full spectrum of motor
04:19units are involved. So what about the front and sides of the neck? A 2010 paper by Aklund et al.,
04:24looked at moment arms for the neck and found that the sternocleidomastoid showed the greatest
04:28flexion and lateral bending capacity. So if the goal is to make the neck bigger from the front and the side,
04:32we should focus on growing this muscle. A 2006 study on Navy command recruits found that performing
04:37exercises that train neck forward flexion, lateral flexion, and extension three times per week led to
04:43big improvements in neck strength, and while neck circumference did increase on average by 1.4
04:48centimeters, it wasn't enough to reach statistical significance, probably because of the small sample
04:52size of 10. So in the absence of solid data, I'd recommend performing neck flexion exercises such as
04:57plate-loaded neck curls or partner-assisted neck curls at least two to three times per week in the 10-15
05:02rep range. And with the plate-loaded curl, you want to make sure you're not using your arms to hold
05:06the weight up, let the plate rest fully on your forehead using a cloth for comfort if needed,
05:10and focus on curling only with your neck, resisting the downward motion of the plate on the negative.
05:14I see lateral flexion-based movements as more of an optional exercise since the sternocleidomastoid
05:19wraps around the side of the head, meaning that forward flexion-based exercises should cover the
05:23side dimension as well. However, adding in a few plate-loaded lateral neck curls won't hurt,
05:27just be careful not to go too heavy as the neck muscles are weaker in lateral flexion.
05:31Rotation can also be trained, however, the equipment needed to train it safely and effectively can be
05:36tough to come by, and other, in my opinion, more advanced exercises like neck bridges seem to be
05:40effective for neck strengthening in athletes. However, I personally prefer the more bodybuilding-based
05:45movements that use weighted resistance since they're proven to be effective without needing to
05:49contort yourself into a potentially uncomfortable position. So what about the traps? Well, similar to the
05:54neck, it's commonly touted that if you just do heavy deadlifts, your traps will blow up,
05:58and certainly it makes some sense. The traps isometrically contract quite forcefully when
06:02performing heavy deadlifts in order to stabilize the scapula and keep the upper back in extension.
06:07And this is supported by some EMG data by Carbital, showing that upper trap muscle activity was 97%
06:13at the point of knee passage versus just 88% off the floor, indicating that training the top half of the
06:19deadlift, such as by doing rack pulls, may be better for optimizing trap recruitment. In addition,
06:24research from Luke Beggs showed that heavier loads were, unsurprisingly, more effective at
06:28activating the upper traps, and while using a mixed grip didn't lead to significant left-to-right
06:32activation differences for the traps, Begg speculated that this finding can't necessarily
06:37be extrapolated to the entire trap muscle because the measurement is limited to the relatively small
06:41area covered by the placement of the electrode, and went on to suggest that to prevent asymmetries,
06:46it may be of benefit to use a double overhand grip, and when grip becomes a limiting factor,
06:50ergogenic aids such as lifting straps, chalk, and gloves can be used, or a hook grip. However, while
06:55perhaps sufficient for growth in some, isometrically training the traps through heavy deadlifts alone
07:00may not be enough to maximize growth of the traps, especially since other research indicates that
07:05eccentric muscle actions are required to maximize muscle hypertrophy. A landmark 1994 study by Johnson
07:10and colleagues found that because of the orientation of the upper trap fibers, they can't effectively
07:15elevate the scapula when the arm is in neutral, suggesting that the shrug is best executed with
07:19the arms in at least 30 degrees abduction, an idea supported by a 2013 study by Pisari et al, which
07:25found that a dumbbell shrug performed at 30 degrees abduction, or in other words with the arms further
07:30out to the sides, was more effective at activating the upper trap fibers than the traditional shrug.
07:34It's worth noting though that a limitation of this study could be the fact that the same loads were used
07:38for both conditions. It seems to me that it may simply be harder to do a shrug with the arms more out to the side,
07:44and perhaps a relative loading scheme would have led to different results. In any case,
07:48there still seems to be at least good anatomical grounds for modifying the shrug so that the arms
07:52are more abducted. A few creative uses of the dumbbell shrug have been proposed by specialist
07:56sports physiotherapist Adam Meekins, such as the overhead dumbbell shrug and monkey shrug,
08:01which have proven effective in practice. However, a recent 2016 paper published in the Journal of
08:05Manual Therapy found the same, albeit high, upper trap activity in the traditional shrug and the overhead shrug,
08:11suggesting that there might not be a special benefit to the overhead shrug despite sound
08:15theoretical basis. One movement I've been using lately is what I'm calling the lying rope shrug,
08:20where I lie down and shrug down and back using a rope that you're actively aiming to pull apart.
08:25I feel a really strong upper trap contraction when doing these. The upright row is another moneymaker
08:30for the traps, with one study showing it to outperform the seated cable row, barbell row, and lat pulldown
08:35in terms of VMG activation. And as I mentioned in my Shoulder Science Explained video, a wider,
08:39two times shoulder width grip on the barbell upright row has been shown to increase activation
08:43of both the upper and mid traps relative to a narrow and shoulder width grip. However,
08:48to avoid shoulder impingement issues, it's advised to keep elbow elevation below shoulder height.
08:52Similarly, rope face pulls are very effective at recruiting the traps when performed with
08:56scapular retraction, and they offer a different loading plane than the shrug, which could function
09:00as yet another stimulus for maximizing growth. And finally, while I wanted this video to focus on the
09:06neck and upper trap area, I'd be remiss to fail to mention the tried and true rowing movements in
09:11a video on the traps. And indeed, rowing exercises of all varieties have been substantiated as effective
09:16movements in the literature, especially for the mid traps. And interestingly, a 2004 paper by Lehman and
09:21colleagues showed no statistically significant difference in mid trap activation between a seated
09:26row performed with and without scapular retraction, indicating that the row is really effective at
09:31activating this muscle group regardless of scapular position. So what about frequency and volume?
09:36I think that the neck, like any muscle, is best trained at least two times per week. However,
09:40because it can be a chore to train, I suggest that even once per week is better than not training it
09:44at all. And research has shown that hitting it three times per week is effective. In my experience,
09:48because neck soreness can literally be a pain in the neck, training the neck more frequently with
09:53slightly less volume per session is the best way to take advantage of the repeated bout effect and reduce
09:58muscle soreness while maximizing results. Because most people will be new to neck training,
10:02I think Helms' recommendation to aim for 40 to 70 reps per session with both a flexion and extension
10:07based exercise is a good place to start. As far as traps go, I think that for the sake of recovery
10:12and safety, heavy deadlifts should be performed no more than once per week, if at all, given the ability
10:17to effectively target the traps through a variety of other movements that can be performed more
10:21frequently. Otherwise, I think hitting the traps two to three times a week should be sufficient,
10:24but keep in mind when designing your weekly routine that many other back exercises and shoulder
10:29exercises will have a lot of carry over to the traps, so be careful not to let weekly volume get
10:33carried away. As a starting place, I'd recommend adding in six to ten extra sets per week of an upper
10:38trap isolation movement that you're not already doing, and titrate in more volume from there as you
10:43assess your recovery and progress. And with these new concepts in mind, I hope the next time you're at an
10:47event wearing a dress shirt, you look a little bit more like you lift. What's going on everyone?
10:57Throughout the course of making this video, I decided that I wanted to get a little bit more
11:00diligent about my own neck and trap training, so I wrote myself an eight-week training program that
11:05I ended up turning into a complete neck and trap training guide with all of the scientific information,
11:10anatomy, biomechanics, and all the exercise science included in this video in one place. And I've also
11:15included additional information about periodization and specific programming variables that I didn't
11:19get into in the video. So I've made that full neck and trap training guide available on my website,
11:24which you can get to at the link in the description. For the first week of the launch, it's going to be
11:27just $9.99, and then after that it'll go up to $14.99. I'm going to be documenting this on my Snapchat
11:32and Instagram story, and every week I'll give a quick update on how my training is going and how my
11:37progress is going. And I'd love for you guys to do the same. I've included an email in the neck and trap
11:41guide. You can email your starting photos and your starting neck measurement too, and then
11:45after the eight weeks, take another set of photos and another measurement of your neck because there
11:49isn't a whole lot of data on neck training. And so if I can gather some of my own data in the form
11:54of you guys, that would be very much appreciated. And also it gives you guys a way to be accountable
11:58and for me to be accountable as well. And this is a 30 page document that includes 12 scientific
12:02references, full eight week training program. Everything is laid out. For now, that's going to
12:06conclude this one. So thank you guys so much for watching. Subscribe to the channel if you're new,
12:10like the video if you liked it, and I'll see you guys in the next one.
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