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How & Why to Build a Strong Neck | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips08:24Added Aug 31, 2026

Jeff Cavaliere and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the importance of neck training for strength and posture, detailing a four-way resistance protocol to improve ...

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  1. Neck Training For Men & Women

  2. 00:00neck training for men and women. I think
  3. 00:02men probably would be okay with having a
  4. 00:04most of them would be like, "Oh, cool.
  5. 00:06I'll get a slightly bigger neck." Women
  6. 00:07probably want to avoid that. Is there is
  7. 00:09there a way that women or men, but tends
  8. 00:13to be women who want to have a, you
  9. 00:15know, great posture, a a strong neck,
  10. 00:18but they want to maintain that kind of,
  11. 00:19you know, like elegant neck. They don't
  12. 00:21want a thicker neck. Is there a way that
  13. 00:23they can strengthen the neck muscles and
  14. 00:25achieve that without thickening the
  15. 00:27neck? Yeah, I I think that women would
  16. 00:29be less resistant to the idea of having
  17. 00:31a stronger neck. I think as long as we
  18. 00:35weren't talking about building massive
  19. 00:37traps along with it, right? And I think
  20. 00:39that they think neck and traps cuz they
  21. 00:41do feed into each other. The reason why
  22. 00:43men who train their neck tend to have a
  23. 00:46a better or or much thicker look to
  24. 00:50their neck better for men is that
  25. 00:52they're also in conjunction likely
  26. 00:54training their traps either directly or
  27. 00:56indirectly through some of the other
  28. 00:57movements they're doing in in a heavy
  29. 00:58way. Women who tend to train their neck
  30. 01:01directly and not focused on building
  31. 01:03their traps at the same time, they're
  32. 01:05just going to have a stronger neck
  33. 01:07because they're not necessarily the
  34. 01:09biggest muscles in here that that grow
  35. 01:11substantially. And again, when you look
  36. 01:12at the proportional growth in muscles
  37. 01:14from men and women, there's already a
  38. 01:17difference in how big these muscles will
  39. 01:19grow, male versus female. But now, in an
  40. 01:21area where the where the the muscles
  41. 01:23themselves don't grow to astronomically
  42. 01:25large proportions, you really aren't
  43. 01:27going to get that much size in the neck.
  44. 01:28And I think women are chronically
  45. 01:31undertrained when it comes to the neck.
  46. 01:33I I can't tell you how often that you'll
  47. 01:36prescribe some kind of an ab routine.
  48. 01:38And I'm not even thinking about the
  49. 01:41repercussions on the neck cuz for me
  50. 01:42it's like it's it's no strain at all.
  51. 01:44But a lot of people will complain and
  52. 01:46most often it's women that just doing
  53. 01:48the crunch cuz you know I don't want
  54. 01:49them holding on to their neck and
  55. 01:51cranking on their neck during a crunch.
  56. 01:53They'll say my my neck is hurting. I
  57. 01:55can't do that. I can't do that routine.
  58. 01:57It's it's only hurting because of
  59. 01:58fatigue not because there their neck is
  60. 02:00being held in one position and their
  61. 02:02fingers are just basically touching back
  62. 02:04there to just keep them away from
  63. 02:06cranking. And it's also
  64. 02:07that's how you want them people doing
  65. 02:08crunches. Not cranking, not pushing the
  66. 02:10Yeah. So just touching the back of their
  67. 02:12head very much.
  68. 02:12Touching the back of your head lightly.
  69. 02:13And you know what you're getting there
  70. 02:14also is a little extra weight. The
  71. 02:16weight of your arms back there is going
  72. 02:18to provide a little bit of extra
  73. 02:19resistance on a basic crunch.
  74. 02:21But it's also leaving the neck
  75. 02:22unsupported cuz so often people are used
  76. 02:24to holding the entire weight of their
  77. 02:25head. And then what happens is they
  78. 02:27start to fatigue and their ab here we go
  79. 02:29again. What is the body's natural
  80. 02:30compensation? They know that the eyes
  81. 02:32have to get up when they're doing a
  82. 02:34crunch. The eyes have to raise up. So
  83. 02:35what do they do? They just pull on the
  84. 02:37head and the eyes come up and they're
  85. 02:38not doing any more work for their abs,
  86. 02:40but they've gotten to where they thought
  87. 02:41they were supposed to be. Natural
  88. 02:43compensation gone wrong. That's not what
  89. 02:46we want to do. So, when women are
  90. 02:47encouraged to do it quote unquote right
  91. 02:49and don't pull on your neck, they don't
  92. 02:51have the strength in their anterior neck
  93. 02:52to do that. So, doing this neck series
  94. 02:55that you were referring to is a is a
  95. 02:57great way to strengthen the neck. And
  96. 03:00again, depending on how much weight you
  97. 03:01use, you could just use a five or 10
  98. 03:03pound plate and have plenty of of of
  99. 03:05overload there to create a stronger neck
  100. 03:08without a lot of hypertrophy. And and
  101. 03:10for those that aren't aware, the the the
  102. 03:12series is simply taking a plate. Let's

  103. Neck Series Exercise Protocol

  104. 03:15just say we start really light. We take
  105. 03:16a 5 lb plate. We wrap it in a towel,
  106. 03:19nice cushy towel, so it's not
  107. 03:20uncomfortable at all. You lay on a
  108. 03:22bench, and you're going to go basically
  109. 03:24in four different directions. You're
  110. 03:26going to rotate your body's position on
  111. 03:27that bench in four different ways. to
  112. 03:29work the extensors, the flexors, and
  113. 03:32then the lateral neck muscles on both
  114. 03:35left and right sides. So, all you have
  115. 03:37to do is, let's say you're starting on
  116. 03:39your back. You lay on your back, head is
  117. 03:41off the edge of the bench, that nice
  118. 03:43cushy towel with the plate inside of it
  119. 03:45is put up on top of your forehead. You
  120. 03:47allow yourself to to lean your head
  121. 03:49back, but as you come up, you want to
  122. 03:52also pull your chin down, right? Because
  123. 03:54you're not just trying to like
  124. 03:55overextend or hyper extend your your
  125. 03:57neck at any point. You want to you the
  126. 03:59stability we talked about before whether
  127. 04:01it be the hip screwing in or the
  128. 04:03shoulder screw the stability you get
  129. 04:04here is the retraction of the chin that
  130. 04:06provides the stability to the neck. So
  131. 04:08you have the retraction of the chin
  132. 04:10which is just pulling it straight back.
  133. 04:12It's going to feel like it moves only
  134. 04:13about a/ an inch or so. That's the
  135. 04:15position there. And then you you pull
  136. 04:16your head back up to neutral again. You
  137. 04:18you flex your neck until you're back to
  138. 04:20neutral again. You do that 12
  139. 04:23repetitions. however many you know sub
  140. 04:26fatigue here but just enough to to cause
  141. 04:28some some fatigue. Turn on to your
  142. 04:30stomach at that point if you like. Put
  143. 04:32the weight on the back of your head and
  144. 04:34then do the same thing. Retract first.
  145. 04:36Make sure you got the stable neck.
  146. 04:37Chin closer to your
  147. 04:40good way to talk about it. And then you
  148. 04:41basically allow your your head to to
  149. 04:44sink down forward off the edge of the
  150. 04:46bench. And then you're going to extend
  151. 04:47your neck back up again to neutral or in
  152. 04:49this case a little bit beyond into a
  153. 04:51little bit of extension. And then you go
  154. 04:52to your side and the same deal. You
  155. 04:54allow your head to just bend a little
  156. 04:56bit to the laterally like ear towards
  157. 04:58the shoulder,
  158. 04:59but you're laying on the bench. You do
  159. 05:01the same thing. Place the weight on top
  160. 05:02of the opposite side of your of your
  161. 05:04head. And then you're going to lift up
  162. 05:06against that weight. These are just
  163. 05:08supposed to be done very slow, very
  164. 05:10controlled. There's nothing crazy
  165. 05:12explosive about these. You're just
  166. 05:13supposed to feel those muscles. And
  167. 05:15trust me, like if you have not done
  168. 05:17these, you do one, you start with one
  169. 05:19round of this and then wait until
  170. 05:21tomorrow cuz like you don't want to do
  171. 05:23too much cuz I guarantee you're going to
  172. 05:24be sore. Back in the day when I played
  173. 05:26football,
  174. 05:28you didn't realize how weak your neck
  175. 05:30could get in an off seasonason until you
  176. 05:33put the helmet on for the first time.
  177. 05:34And just one practice with the helmet on
  178. 05:37and you know, you're controlling all
  179. 05:39that extra weight of the helmet
  180. 05:40dynamically and the neck would be sore
  181. 05:42for for 2 three days. we had to
  182. 05:44accommodate even to the to the weight of
  183. 05:46the helmet. So with neck training, it's
  184. 05:48a it's a long slow process. You just
  185. 05:50start very light, you start submaximal,
  186. 05:53and you start building up your strength.
  187. 05:54And then when you talk about a crunch,
  188. 05:57that's a nothing exercise for
  189. 05:59maintaining stability and control. When

  190. Benefits Of A Stronger Neck

  191. 06:01you get into situations like you where
  192. 06:02you have accidents and car accidents,
  193. 06:05you become not only just resilient, but
  194. 06:08potentially life-saving, you know, by
  195. 06:10having a stronger neck. Gosh, if I, you
  196. 06:12know, could highlight bold and, you
  197. 06:14know, and and uh underline this and send
  198. 06:16it out as far as I can that the next
  199. 06:18stuff, men and women, it's you will be
  200. 06:21positively amazed at the
  201. 06:23transformations. Your pressing lifts
  202. 06:25will get stronger. Your pulling lifts
  203. 06:27will get stronger. You get stronger.
  204. 06:29Aesthetically for guys, you know, I
  205. 06:31mentioned this in the video yesterday,
  206. 06:32but I'll say it again, that a lot of
  207. 06:34guys who work to widen their shoulders,
  208. 06:36if their neck strength is isn't coming
  209. 06:38up um proportionally, it looks like they
  210. 06:40got the wrong head on that body. It
  211. 06:42looks crazy, guys. You look you look
  212. 06:44ridiculous, especially in street
  213. 06:45clothes. Like, I'm not saying you need a
  214. 06:46giant neck, but there's there's a
  215. 06:48proportion thing there that's that's
  216. 06:49important if you care about that sort of
  217. 06:51thing.
  218. 06:52As I say this, I know that most people
  219. 06:54won't take the time to do it because it
  220. 06:56looks awkward. Mhm.
  221. 06:57It's a tiny play.
  222. 06:58It's a weird thing to do in a gym, too.
  223. 07:00You know, it just seems a little weird,
  224. 07:01but look, it people do a lot of weird
  225. 07:03stuff in gyms and and uh this is one of
  226. 07:05the weirder things that the better weird
  227. 07:07things you can do if you're going to
  228. 07:08invest some time. Again, it doesn't take
  229. 07:10a lot. It really doesn't take a lot to
  230. 07:12to pay big dividends here because it is
  231. 07:14an area that's pretty much untrained.
  232. 07:17Again, we're not talking traps. Traps

  233. Longevity & Postural Health

  234. 07:18get a lot of work, but those deep
  235. 07:20muscles of the neck don't get trained
  236. 07:22very often at all.
  237. 07:23Yeah. So much of what you teach is about
  238. 07:25winning the short game and the long
  239. 07:27game. And to me, winning the long game
  240. 07:29is about being able to come in and do
  241. 07:31the big stuff year after year, decade
  242. 07:33after decade. So that, you know, when
  243. 07:35you're 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, why not,
  244. 07:39right? I mean, the the experiment of
  245. 07:41whether people can have great strength
  246. 07:44and mobility, etc., into their 80s and
  247. 07:4790s,
  248. 07:49with rare exceptions has never actually
  249. 07:51been done. And that experiment is
  250. 07:52happening now because resistance
  251. 07:54training, you know, especially for
  252. 07:55women, you know, a few years back, like
  253. 07:57if it wasn't bodybuilders, nobody did.
  254. 07:59Now, everyone knows this as part of the
  255. 08:00longevity game. So, I'm so excited that
  256. 08:03these,
  257. 08:04again, what sound like small things are
  258. 08:05getting out there thanks to you because
  259. 08:07they really do make a difference. And I
  260. 08:09believe that in our 80s and 90s and
  261. 08:11maybe even beyond, people can move right
  262. 08:13and feel right and be posturally right.
  263. 08:18[music]
How & Why to Build a Strong Neck | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman — Transcriptly