Stretch Your Neck Before You Workout
If you’re a boxer, kickboxer, jiu jitsu player, uber driver or office worker, chances are your neck is being neglected and you need to start stretching it. Thankfully this can be accomplished pretty easy if you have a ton of kettlebells lying around inside your house like I do.
Yes, I really do have a 32 kg, two 24 kg, two 16 kg, and an 8 kg kettlebell in my living room (Thanks Bryan!) Now for those of you who only have kettlebells at the gym you can substitute holding onto kettlebells behind your back with holding onto a kitchen table (or office desk) or pretty much anything humanly imaginable that has weight to it.
The idea here is that holding something heavy-ish behind your back (or gripping a table) will help naturally pull your shoulders down and back. Well, at least down.
You can technically do this stretch (all its variations) without weight at all. And you can apply more pressure to the angles and tilts using your opposite hand (I’ll explain more in a second.)
Timing wise let’s say 30 seconds per direction (60 seconds if you’re over 65, and skip the bell, go with the table.)
Look to your left.
Look to your right.
Look down.
Look up.
Tilt your head towards your left shoulder. Rotate your head so you are looking at your left arm pit.
Now go up and away from your armpit maintaining the same angle you just had (let’s call it 45 degrees to 235 degrees)
Tilt your head towards your right shoulder. Rotate your head so you are looking at your right arm pit.
Now up and away.
Tilt your head to left without the rotation.
And finally to the right.
Feel the difference in where you feel the stretch between tilting your head and rotating your head. Different muscles are being stretched with each angle change.
Remember to go slow when transitioning. I rush through in my instagram video (let me know if this link doesn’t work I’ve never tried linking to an instagram post before) trying to fit in all the variations and my corny joke about having a bunch of bells in my living room into a one minute video.
Please follow #gbifwow (or post your photos and videos of you playing along at home to that hashtag) on instagram so we can grow the tag and show others all the fun stuff we’re up to. And follow me on instagram (I’m starting to actually post stuff over there.)
