Neck Exercises to Help Reduce Concussions
In addition, we have Brady Collins, who is a grad assistant with us this year. He is going to demonstrate some neck exercises today. We want to give you an idea on the techniques we use. I am going to talk about some of the things we do not do. It will not help you if we just stand up here and tell you, "We do this at the University of Kentucky." It is not going to make much sense to you just to go over what we do in our program. I am going to cover some of the things I think are important. Ted will cover some points he feels are important. Brady will demonstrate a few exercises for you. In strength training, as coaches we must understand exactly what our job is and what the role is for strength coaches. I was at a physical conditioning clinic at Michigan State University last week. A speaker I used to work with when I first started out in this profession gave a good definition of what a strength program should be like. Most people will say the strength program is a bunch of squats, clings, and bench press. It is whatever you feel you need to do to become stronger. I want you to write this definition down, because if you do not understand this explanation, you can leave now. This is as close to being perfect to what a strength program is supposed to be. It is true for middle schools, although I think it is idiotic to have young kids lift weights, or high schools, or college, and at the highest level of strength training. The job of the strength program is to physically prepare the players to play football. It is to physically prepare the players to play football. It is to prepare the players for the stresses and rigors of a violent game. That is what we do. We prepare them physically to play football and prepare them for the stresses of a vigorous and violent game. When you review this statement, you have to think about what you are doing. You must decide what you are trying to accomplish. What are you spending the most of your time on? Whom is it benefiting? Are you turning kids on to strength training or turning them off from strength training? You will have young athletes with long legs, long arms, and long torso who can play their rear end off. You are going to have some short-legged players like me, who can bench lift the whole weight rack. You must decide what you are going to try to accomplish, and who is going to benefit from the strength program you use? Is this going to help them become better players, and is this going to prepare them for a violent, violent, violent game? I want to make sure you understand where we are in the game of football today. I just had a talk with some NFL people. I talked with a couple of college reps as well. These people have been talking to the people in Congress about our sport. We need to start reducing the concussions, understanding more about them, and we must understand we must get the neck a lot stronger. Every neck of a football player should be larger than other individuals their age. Understand what I am saying to you. We are not close to where we need to be in terms of where we need to be in working with the football players' necks. I want Dr. Ted Lambrinides to talk with you about this problem. This should give you a good idea of what we are talking about. Thank you, Rock. Along with the federal legislation that is coming down, we are getting more information from the medical field on concussions. This may help some of you coaching at schools where you do not have a lot of kids playing football. If one of your players has a concussion, how many games is he going to be out? Who knows that answer? Perhaps two games. Yes, provided the medical staff clear him. You are talking about two to three weeks for a player who sustains a concussion. If he is your best player, you are in trouble. When someone asks us the most important things we do in our weight room, we talk about the neck. When we are queuing up the players to do their exercises, we let them know how important the neck is in our game. "You do these exercises as if your life depends on it! It does depend on the neck." When you figure out how you are going to organize your program, this will shift the priority. It is not like, "We are going to fit the neck exercises into our weight program." No! It should be where we fit all of the other crap Do you understand where we are coming from? We are not going to talk about bench press or the squat all day. I am addressing this to all levels of football, including high school, college, and the pros. If we do not get this problem figured out, it will not matter about the squat or bench press anymore for football. How many of you know how to train the neck? How many muscles in the neck? You say 52 muscles in the neck. It is the most important thing you are going to do in your program. I always think that way myself. Before, I had head coaches getting on my butt about getting the players to increase their number of squats or bench presses. I do not care about that anymore. That is going to take care of itself. The most important thing you are going to do in football is to strengthen the neck muscles. The second-most important thing you are going to do is to teach the players how to tackle. I am not kidding you, now. If we do not do this, our game of football is going to disappear. Coaches tell me they did four sets of bench press, five sets of squats, 10 sets of triceps pushdowns, and 500 sprints. I ask them why they did not work the neck. I tell them not to give me the bull story that they did shrugs. The first thing you should do when you get back to your school is to get a tape measure and measure the player's necks. No one ever broke a "pec muscle." You get into a game, and the player makes a tackle with his head down. The player is on the ground, and everyone is quiet. That is not your son, but it is someone else's son. What I am telling you is that we must get this situation corrected. In our program, we have to get it right as well. If we do not get it right, then shame on us. I am sorry, Ted; go ahead. It is important for the coaches to document what you are doing in your program. If you look at the headlines of the major magazines, including Time Magazine, The New Yorker, Outside the Lines on ESPN, and other publications, it is important to document what you are doing in football. When you have soccer moms saying, "Kids should not be playing football," every job in football is in jeopardy. You have to document what is your neck program. You better have it spelled out, what you are going to do and how you are going to administrate the program. If one of your players goes down on the field, and you end up sitting in front of an attorney, he will drill your butt on the stand. You had a case in Louisville a few years ago when a kid went down on the field and died later in the hospital. That case went to court. If you have 80 players on the team, some of them are going to be on special medications. You better make sure you red flag those players at risk with their problems and the medications they are taking. These players will be more susceptible to head ailments. If you have kids who have sickle-cell traits, you need to red flag them. If you start chewing out a kid who has sickle-cell traits, he is having a bad day, and he dies, guess what? Ask University of Mississippi, ask the University of Central Florida, ask Rice University. All of those cases were settled out of court for 10 million dollars. If a player breaks his neck during a football game and dies, those are 50-million-dollar cases to settle. When you are playing in a game, and you see these head injuries, and the player is struck on the side of his helmet, the bowl of jelly inside the player's skull bangs off the side of the player's skull. If the player has a larger neck, it decreases the massive forces in the brain. Why is this important? First, you are protecting the kid, and second, if you had not increased the size of the player's neck, the player may have gotten a full-blown concussion. Then, he is out two games, and you lose those two games. Guess what? At the end of the year, they fire the coach. Make no doubt about it; it all comes down to wins and losses. We must make sure our players are doing the proper neck exercises. The other benefit of working the player's neck is this: research shows when you strengthen the necks of the players and make the neck stronger, the players' vertical jump goes up, and they can run faster. What a great side effect. How about that! Can we explain this? We can't explain it. It just happens. I do not want to date myself, but it goes back to the days of Woody Hayes, former head coach at Ohio State. This is what he used to say: "You should be able to tell who the players are on campus by the size of their neck." We want the neck starting behind the ears, and coming down toward the shoulders. Players must be able to absorb the forces to the head that occur in football. Also, make sure when you are teaching tackling to show the players the incorrect way to tackle, and what the side effects are. When you look at some of the lawsuits that have occurred, when coaches are on trial, this is what the lawyers ask the coach: "Coach, did you show the individual players the 'incorrect' way to tackle?" So be sure to show the players the incorrect way to tackle and the side effects of an incorrect tackle. It is the same thing in the weight room. There is a case where an individual sued a strength coach in high school. The player threw out his back doing squats. The case went to court, and the attorney asked the coach if he showed the individual the correct way to squat. The coach assured the attorney he did show the individual the correct way to squat. Next, the attorney asked the coach if he had shown the individual the incorrect way to squat. He was asked if the coach told the player what the side effects would be if the individual did the exercise incorrectly. Therefore, in everything you do, you should show the players the correct way to do an exercise, and the incorrect way to do the exercise, and the effects of doing the exercise incorrectly. Then they want to know if you told them, what the consequences were if they did the exercise wrong. Later, we are going to have Brady Collins demonstrate some neck exercises. Before we do that, I want to make some additional comments about the neck. If you work the neck correctly, you should feel as if you are about to pass out if you work the neck hard enough. When I watch players do neck exercises, and they have partners, they do not apply the pressure needed on the neck. How do you address the neck? How many of you have four- way neck machines? If you do not have them, what do you use? I want to add a couple more things to this lecture. If you talk to athletic trainers at the NFL level, they will tell you it is a scary thing going on today. They cannot stay on top of all of the things going on with the forces of football that the game has become. What is happening now is this: they have come up with a machine, similar to an MRI, where they can look at players with concussions and look at the brain to see what is happening with the injuries to the head. They can look at the brain and determine when the injuries occurred. Today, the difference in a 5-million-dollar lawsuit and a 50-million-dollar lawsuit is this: an 18-year-old kid was injured, and he did not train his neck. That kid will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. This is because he did not train the neck. Don't think when they start questioning you in court you can tell them what really happened. You will not have the right answer. You will not be able to satisfy the attorney and the jury in court. What you can do is to document and make the neck an essential part of your program. That is a must in today's world. I know coaches who do not address the neck in their program. They are shooting craps with this situation in their programs. It is that important! Does everyone understand what I am saying? We will sit down and talk strength training all you want. We can talk about the bench press, squats, or any other phase of our program. We can talk with you about all of the silly stuff that we know everyone is going to work on. What I want to talk about is my nephew. He is 14 years old. He is a good player. I am talking about this age group. I am going to talk with his coach and the players on his team. I am talking to you about the neck problem. This is important to me at the University of Kentucky that we get this message out to you. If we get nothing else across to you, we want to stress the neck problem. The University of Kentucky wants to convey the message to everyone how important this situation is today. It is our job to make sure before we leave here today that you understand the most significant part of a strength program is to get players prepared for the rigors of the program. The most dangerous aspect of this sport is how violent it is, and the injuries that come to the head, and the neck. We can help these young people survive and enjoy the game. We can have parents who are not afraid and save our life at the end if we ever have to appear in court. We need to make this our number- one priority. You make the neck program number one, and then figure out where you are going to work in the squats and other exercises. The bench press is one of the most stupid exercises I have ever seen. It is stupid. We used the bench press for 12 years. We had players who could not bench press 225 pounds eight times. Those players could play for us. But, don't get caught up in an exercise. The bench press does helps players get stronger. Who is going to be good at doing the bench press? The short players and players with short levers are good doing the bench press. We get the genetics all twisted. Most coaches think the strength program is going to dictate how big, fast, and strong players are going to be. No! Genetics does this. I can personally tell you this. My father was a good athlete, and my mother was fast and a good athlete. She was a good volleyball player. My brother was strong in the weight program and a good football player. My uncle benched pressed 500 pounds. All of my genetics pointed to being able to do those types of activities. It was in my genes. We were all good at those exercises. What did that mean? It did not mean crap. I was not very good at football. I was good at bench pressing. How much did the bench press really help me? I finally figured it out when I was at Ohio State. I was one of the strongest players at Ohio State as a freshman. On Saturdays, I was sitting on the bench. Of course, I was confused. What all of us need to do is to get everyone in our programs involved in working on the neck. Turn them into training sessions to make the neck stronger. Now, we want Brady Collins, our GA, to demonstrate some neck exercises. Before he gets going, I want to add a few points. We know how to train the neck. A long time ago, we learned about the strength of the neck. After 28 years working in this area, I think we are good at strengthening the neck. For those in the back of the room, get your butts up here where you can see. I want you to see this. I do not want you to leave this clinic and say we did not teach you how to train the neck the proper way. That is not going to happen. If you do not want to learn how to strengthen the neck, you can leave now. This issue is that important to me. We want to make sure everyone knows how to train the neck. A lot of the times, you are on a practice field in doing these exercises. However, we can do them inside as well. First, we want to do is to work neck extensions. We are down on all fours with the weight on the forearms. If the players are on the hands, they start using their arms to do the exercise. By bending the arms, you cannot push off. You have one player with his hand on the low back, with the other hand on the back of the head of the player doing the exercise. He brings up the head, and then out. The player doing the exercise is going to resist and press his head down. It is up, and resist down. Again, it is up, and resist down. When Brady gets done, his face is going to look as red as the shirt there. When you are queuing it up, you want to fill a pinch the whole way. The player helping on the drill is pushing the players head up, and the player doing the exercise is pushing his head down. Now, you can do a couple of things. You can do reps, or you can time the exercise on the practice field. Now, he is going to flip on his back. He takes his hands and raises them up just as he would be making a goalpost. We do a neck flexion. When you do this, you are trapped. If you have a weak neck, your trapezius is trying to do most of the work. By putting the arms up, it takes the trapezius out of the exercise. We must understand that, on every repetition, Brad is going to get weaker. The helper in this case must understand this. He must understand that on every repetition less force is going to be needed. The keys in the weight room are going to be the same as it is on the practice field. It is a matter of organization and execution. I was listening to a coach lecture. He said they had to run four or five plays before they could run the multiple formations. The point I am making is this: whatever you do in the weight room, do it well. We do not do a lot of fancy stuff, but what we do, we coach up. When we sat down before our off-season this year, we asked the question, "What do we have to do better?" Rock and I both said, "Coach better." Each time the players came to the weight room, we assumed they had never done the exercises we were working on before. We coached them up as if it were the first time they had ever been in our weight room. We do this every time they come into the weight room. Is that hard to do? Yes! Was it necessary? Yes, it was necessary. It is repetition. You do the same things with your players. It is repetition, and you execute the basics. On this drill, we take the helmet off. Next, if we are going to do lateral moves, we are going to have the player assisting the exerciser to put one hand on the shoulder, and the other hand on the side of the head. He brings it over, keeping the shoulders square. Power up, fight it all the way back. The key thing on this is to make sure he does not cheat on the exercises. As he gets tired, he is going to want to cheat on the exercise. He is not going to want to go through a lot of extra motions. He wants to keep the shoulders square during the entire exercise. You can do it on a chair, but if you are in-season, you may have to do it on the practice field, sitting down on the ground. If you can do as much work on the field as possible, the better it is. We do these exercises twice a week. We start at 30 seconds and add to that each day. We may go up to one minute. It you are doing reps, you can go from 8 to 12 reps. If you do it right, and you are honest, and you have not really concentrated on the neck, you should do 6 to 7 reps on this exercise. The players must understand the importance on the exercises and the emphasis put on the neck because it is the most important part of our program. If they understand that, and we can convey that message to them, we can do our jobs. We want to be honest in letting them know this is our job and why we are doing the exercises. If you want to use the NFL as a model, you can because all of the young players think they are going to play in the NFL. You can show them what is going on with all of the injuries and let them know it is important to do the exercises correctly. All of the players can understand the situation. We want them to know this is why we are starting to work on the neck immediately in our programs. The greatest thing about high school players is that they listen to the coaches. By the time they get to us at the college level, they stop listening. When they get to the NFL, they get their own trainer. Because the high school players will listen to coaches, we must be very exact in what we are teaching the players. The techniques and fundamentals of what you are teaching must be sound. The high school players can spot do-do through the fog on the Hudson River. I want to share with you what we do in our manual resistance training program. Thoroughly understand the responsibilities of the spotter and lifter. The coach should develop an in-depth understanding of how to apply the manual resistance concepts. These exercises cannot be spotted and performed in a haphazard manner. Unfortunately, more often than not, this is the rule rather than the exception. If this occurs, the potential results from the exercise will be reduced and the risk of injury to the lifter will be increased. Note: Thoroughly read the guidelines enclosed and develop a detailed understanding of how to safely and effectively spot and perform each exercise. Perform the exercises with another coach in order to develop the skills needed to spot and perform each exercise. It's obvious to every coach and physical educator that doing something is better than talking about it. Unfortunately, few coaches are willing to actually practice doing the MR exercises. The exact skills to apply the resistance and perform the exercises will not be developed unless the coach practices what he preaches. Note: There is nothing overly demanding about the skills needed to spot and perform each exercise. Something will be lost, however, from the instructor to the student if the coach doesn't experience of the problems encountered. Minimize the loss in the interpretation of this information from the coach to the student. The coach's first responsibility is to adhere to the aforementioned rules. The eventual quality of MR exercise performed by the participants will be determined by how well the instructor prepares himself and by how well that information is taught to the students. This is not the type of information posted on the weight room bulletin board. Initially, constant supervision by the coach is necessary to eliminate any confusion. Ideally, the coach should discuss all of the concepts enclosed and then spot each student through the exercises until they have mastered the skills required. Note: The coach can teach one thing, and the student may interpret it differently. Coaches must minimize the loss in translation to the students. For manual resistance to be safe and effective, the lifter must assume some responsibilities during the execution of each repetition. These responsibilities include the following four rules. Communication with the spotter is essential. Total cooperation and coordination between the lifter and the spotter are essential. For maximum gains and safety, you may have to tell the spotter how to provide resistance that is more efficient. Cooperation with the spotter is necessary for smooth and even resistance. Until the spotting and lifting skills have been mastered, the lifter may have to talk to the spotter. For example, "You're not providing enough resistance on the lowering phase" or "You're pulling too hard in the stretched position." Keep tension on the muscles. The relief of muscle tension for just an instant will allow the muscle to momentarily rest and make the exercise less productive. Allowing the muscles to relax briefly is a common occurrence during the lateral raise if the hands are allowed to touch the sides of the legs. This gives the muscles a brief rest and makes the exercise less productive. Another example would be the conventional push-up exercise. The muscles are allowed a brief rest if the chest, thighs, or mid-section touch the ground. Ideally, the hands should be elevated off the ground to prevent resting between repetitions. Pause momentarily in the contracted position. The lifter should hold the contracted position momentarily during the execution of each repetition. If the lifter doesn't hold this position momentarily, he will not maximally develop the muscle at each point during that range of motion. The pause also gives the spotter time to begin applying the more resistance required for the lowering phase while in the transition from the raising phase of the exercise to the lowering phase. An example of this concept is the bent-over side lateral raise. The lifter must stop and hold the contracted position momentarily. A good guideline would be to hold the position for a count 1001. If the lifter does not concentrate on pausing the contracted position of any exercise, there will be a bouncing effect or recoil from the raising to the lowering phase. Note: Hold any contracted position for a count of 1001, and allow the muscles to develop maximally throughout their full range of motion. Exert an all-out effort. A sub-maximal effort will produce sub-maximal results. The lifter must work as hard as possible if maximum gains are to be obtained. If the lifter exerts an all-out effort and the training partner applies the MR correctly, the lifter will be assured of obtaining maximum benefits. Allow four seconds for the lowering phase. The lifter can lower more resistance than he can raise. During the lowering phase of some exercises, the lifter may be capable of exerting more force than the spotter can apply during the first few reps. The lifter must cooperate with the spotter and perform the lowering phase of the exercise. During the lowering phase of some exercises, the lifter could stop at any point, if he so desired, and hold that position, not allowing the spotter to push him down. This could invite injury and make the exercise less effective. Remember that in each succeeding repetition, the person exercising will grow weaker. Eventually, the spotter will be capable of applying more than enough resistance during the lowering phase. Until this point is reached, the exerciser must cooperate with the spotter during the lowering phase. It should be more than obvious to anyone interested in MR of the value of a properly educated training partner. The effectiveness of MR exercise is almost totally dependent on the abilities of the spotter. It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is for the instructor to thoroughly educate the participants. For the exercise to be safe and effective, the spotter should strictly adhere to the following guidelines. The major responsibilities of the spotter include the following. Communicate whenever necessary, and maintain constant coordination with the lifter. Pay attention to the execution of every repetition. The lifter's safety is the spotter's primary concern. How the spotter applies the MR dictates the quality and safety of the exercise. The spotter should make corrections, if needed, and provide verbal encouragement for motivation. If the lifter is not strictly adhering to the exact methods prescribed, the spotter should correct the lifter immediately. Do not apply maximum resistance during the first few reps. The first few reps of each exercise should be used to warm up the involved muscles. This will also help to begin gradual fatiguing the muscles so that when the lifter does exert an all- out effort, the muscle will be weaker. This will decrease the potential for injury. Note: If maximum resistance is applied on the first few reps, injury could result. Less than maximum resistance is required on the first few reps. Vary the resistance of each rep during the raising phase. Once the muscles are warmed up, the spotter should learn to apply as much resistance as the lifter can safely and effectively handle at each point during the raising phase. All movements should be smooth and controlled. This is the most difficult aspect of manual resistance to master. The amount of resistance that a lifter needs during the raising phase of one rep will actually vary. The bones and musculature are a system of levers. The changing positions of the bone and muscles create leverage advantages and disadvantages. These advantages and disadvantages will require more or less resistance by the spotter. An example of the leverage system is the conventional push-up exercise. The lifter requires more resistance as the arms straighten. He requires less resistance as the arms bend. Another example of the leverage system can be observed while spotting the side lateral raise. It's obvious that the lifter gradually grows weaker (requires less resistance) as the arms are raised away from the body and weakest in the contracted position. The spotter should learn to gradually increase or decrease the resistance accordingly to accommodate these changing "strength curves." If the resistance is being applied correctly, the resistance should feel constant to the lifter. The spotter is adding exactly as much resistance as the lifter can raise at each point during the raising phase. If too much resistance is applied at any point, the lifter will be unable to move momentarily. He will be forced to stop the exercise, jerk, or use cheating movements to continue the exercise. If not enough resistance is applied, the exercise will be less productive than it could be. The spotter should also be aware that the lifter is gradually fatiguing with each succeeding repetition. If the resistance is properly applied, the amount of resistance will decrease with each rep. If the spotter applies the resistance correctly, he will only have to apply a few pounds of resistance on the last rep or two. On some exercises, the lifter may be unable to raise even the weight of his arms. Note: It is the spotter's job to apply just the right amount of resistance at each point during the raising phase. Maintain a smooth transition from the raising phase to the lowering phase. The person applying the resistance should adjust the amount of resistance at the point of transition from the raising phase to the lowering phase. It should be realized that the lifter can lower more weight than he can raise. This is why it is important for the lifter to pause momentarily in the contracted position. This gives the spotter time to begin smoothly applying the additional workload for the lowering phase. Spotters cannot make a sudden change from the raising to the lowering phase, or the lifter will be unable to hold the contracted position momentarily. The lifter will not make a smooth transition. There will be a sudden drop, which will not allow the muscle to be exercised maximally at each point. It may also invite injury. Add more resistance during the lowering phase. Due primarily to friction, the lifter can lower more weight than he can raise. The spotter should learn to apply more resistance during the lowering phase. If not enough resistance is applied, the lifter could stop at any point during the lowering phase and hold that position for several seconds. Because the lifter is so much stronger during the lowering phases, there must be mutual cooperation between the lifter and spotter. The same leverage advantages and disadvantages that exist during the raising phase of each exercise apply to the lowering phase. The person applying the MR must also be aware that the lifter is gradually fatiguing each rep. The spotter should learn to apply as much resistance as the lifter can resist while allowing four seconds to lower the weight. If too much resistance is applied during the lowering phase, the lifter will be unable to allow four seconds to perform the lowering movement. This could invite possible injury. Change the angle of resistance being applied. Most movements in the body are rotary in nature. Most muscles contract about an axis of rotation. They pull on the bones to form movements that form an arc. For the muscles to be most effectively exercised, the angle of resistance must change through the execution of each repetition. This must be done to accommodate the changing angle that the muscle is pulling on the bone. The MR must be supplied to coincide with the changing angles of each arc formed by the muscles involved. The changing angle resistance applied can be observed while performing the side lateral raise. In the starting position, the angle of resistance will be almost perpendicular to the floor. As the lifter raises his arms, the spotter should gradually adjust the angle of resistance. This concept will apply almost any time a single muscle group is isolated. The spotter should develop the ability to recognize the correct angle of resistance. Provide enough resistance to stimulate strength gains. For maximum gains, the spotter needs to apply as much resistance as the lifter can exert during the execution of both the raising and lowering phase of each repetition. Do not apply maximum resistance for any exercise in an all-out manner during the first few workouts. Gradually increase the intensity of exercise in each succeeding workout until the techniques required for each exercise have been mastered. When necessary, apply less resistance as the lifter approaches the muscle's stretched position. While performing some exercises, the spotter should learn to gradually decrease the amount of MR being applied as the lifter approaches and eventually reaches the joint's stretched position. Injury could result if too much resistance is applied in the stretched position of the muscles being exercised. The spotter should sacrifice the application of maximum resistance to gain maximum stretching and prevent injury. A good example is the neck flexion exercise. The lifter will not relax and stretch the neck if too much resistance is applied. To get the lifter into a relaxed and stretched position safely, the spotter should begin to gradually decrease the amount of manual resistance as the lifter approaches the neck stretched position. It should be a smooth and gradual transition. The spotter is applying too much resistance near or at the stretched position if the lifter: • Doesn't reach a completely relaxed and stretched position at the end of each rep. While performing MR exercises, the following guidelines should be used to perform each exercise: • Perform 12 repetitions or continue exercising for approximately 40 to 70 seconds. The most important aspect of MR is knowing the proper way to spot and to lift. All of you have been through our MR program from time to time, but for those of you who might have missed something along the way, here is a quick review of the MR exercises we perform at the University of Kentucky. The following exercises will be explained (e.g., starting position, description of movement, and spotting form) on the next few pages: Note: Be especially cautious with neck exercises. Exercise #1. Neck Flexion (Neck Flexors) Movement: Flexing only the neck muscles, raise the head forward and upward so that the chin is resting on the chest. Pause momentarily, and recover to the starting position. Spotting: Place the dominant hand on the lifter's forehead and the non-dominant hand on the lifter's chin. Apply as much pressure as is needed to accommodate for the strength curve of the neck flexors. Exercise #2. Neck Extension (Neck Extensors) Exercise #3. Lateral Neck Flexion (Right and Left) Spotting: Standing behind the lifter, have your right hand on the lifter's right shoulder and the left hand on the left side of the lifter's head. Apply as much pressure as is needed to accommodate for the strength curve of the lateral neck flexors. Make sure that the lifter keeps the shoulders square, and vary the resistance to allow for a full range of motion. I want to repeat the most important part of this lecture. Measure the neck when you get back to your school. Some necks may not develop as quickly as the necks of other athletes. But, because you are recording it, they are going to get stronger. You will see a stronger and faster athlete as a result. The job of the strength program is to physically prepare the players to play football. It is to physically prepare the players to play football. It is to prepare the players for the stresses and rigors of a violent game. If we do this, we can save our sport. If we do not get the concussions and cervical injuries under control and see them start to decrease, we can continue to coach. We love this game, and you are coaching because you love football. I can look at a coach and tell that person loves the teaching and coaching and loves the game. The game is going to be taken away from us if we do not change what is happening to our athletes. If you do not understand what is happening, go online at NFL.com. Just go there and type in concussions." See what Congress has to say about football. They are talking about making us play football without helmets. Don't fit the neck into your program. Get the neck into the program, and then fit the other parts into the program. I do not want a coach coming to me, asking me how to bench-press. I do not care about that. Get the neck exercises into your program. This is our state, these are our kids, and if we do not recruit them all, wherever they go, we want them to know how important the neck is related to football and other sports. If they go to another school and they do not emphasize the neck, that athlete can ask the coach about the neck exercises. This will not be because of what I have done; it will be because of what you have done. If we are lucky enough to get one of your kids in our program, we are going to make sure we address that issue. If they come to us, they are going to be fit, stronger, tougher, and we are going to love them. Moreover, we are going to get them ready to play football because we know it is a tough game. It is a violent game, but we love it. It is intoxicating. I know it is to you, and it is to me. I can't think of anything else I would rather do. But we must remember it is someone's son we are talking about. Let's give Brady Collins a hand for his demonstrations of the neck muscles. You are always welcome to visit our program. If we tell you we are doing something in our program, and you come to see us, we are going to be doing those things we said we would do. We do what we tell you we are going to do. If you have a question, come to us. We have a lot of experience. However, if we do not have the answer, we will find it. Whatever you do, do it well. The one thing I want you to get out of this lecture today is this: the neck is the most important thing in your program. Men, it has to be that way. You know how to do all of the other things related to your program. God bless you, and thanks a lot.
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