Neck Curls: How to Do the Weighted Neck Curl Safely

A neck curl is a sit-up for your neck: you lie on a bench with your head hanging off the end, then curl your chin towards your chest and lower it back under control. Add a small weight plate on a folded towel across your forehead and it becomes a weighted neck curl. It's one of the few exercises that trains the front of the neck directly, which is why rugby players, wrestlers, boxers and combat athletes have used it for decades. It also looks a bit odd, gets done badly a lot, and needs far less weight than most people assume. Here's how to do neck curls properly, what the research does and doesn't say about training the neck, and how to fit them into your week.

How to do a neck curl

You need a flat bench, a folded towel and, eventually, a light plate. Start with no weight for the first couple of weeks.

1. Set up on the bench. Lie on your back along a flat weight bench and shuffle up until your head and neck hang off the end, with the edge of the pad sitting just below the base of your skull, roughly level with the tops of your shoulders. Plant your feet on the floor or on the bench.
2. Place the towel and plate. Fold a hand towel two or three times and lay it across your forehead, then rest the plate flat on top and hold it in place with both hands at its edges. The towel stops the cold metal pressing into your skin and keeps the plate from sliding.
3. Lower slowly. Let your head drop back below the line of the bench to a comfortable stretch. Don't force it; for most people that's somewhere just past horizontal. Take 3 seconds on the way down.
4. Curl up. Tuck your chin and curl your head towards your chest, as if you're nodding "yes" in slow motion, until your chin is close to your sternum. Move from the neck only: your shoulders and upper back stay on the bench.
5. Pause and repeat. Hold the top for a second, then lower for another 3 seconds. Breathe steadily throughout rather than holding your breath.

Muscles worked

Neck curls train neck flexion, the movement of bringing your chin towards your chest.

• Sternocleidomastoid (SCM). These are the two thick straps running from just behind each ear down to the top of your breastbone and collarbones. Working together they flex the neck, and they're the muscles that make a trained neck look thick from the front.
• Deep neck flexors. The longus colli and longus capitis sit right against the front of your cervical spine. They control the curling, segment-by-segment action of the neck and help hold your head steady, which is why physiotherapists target them for posture and neck pain.
• Scalenes. These run down the sides of the neck to your top ribs and help with flexion, especially if you let the movement turn into a chin-poke rather than a curl.
• Hyoid muscles. The small muscles under your jaw assist as you tuck your chin, which is why a good rep feels like it starts at the throat.

What neck curls won't train much is the back of the neck or the upper traps, so pair them with neck extensions (below) and shrugs for balance.

Why train your neck

Most people never train their neck at all, so there's a fair amount of room for improvement. The research falls into two main areas, and the evidence is stronger for one than the other.

Neck pain. This is where the case is clearest. In a cluster-randomised trial of 447 office workers, one hour a week of supervised strength training for the neck and shoulders reduced neck pain over 20 weeks compared with no training, and among people who started with meaningful pain the drop was considered clinically significant (randomised trial in office workers). Splitting that hour into one, three or nine sessions a week made little difference to the pain result. The programme used a range of neck and shoulder exercises rather than neck curls alone, but the principle holds: stronger neck muscles tend to mean a less painful neck.

Concussion risk in sport. This is the reason most athletes give, and the evidence here is genuinely mixed. A scoping review of youth sport concussion research reports an observational finding that, after adjusting for sex and sport, every extra pound of overall neck strength was linked to about 5% lower odds of concussion; the same review also notes that studies actually testing prevention strategies are scarce (scoping review of youth concussion risk factors). An association isn't proof that training the neck causes fewer concussions. The closest thing to a direct test is a pilot study of 17 youth athletes in which eight weeks of manual-resistance neck training increased neck girth and strength and reduced some measures of head rotation under a standard load; the control group, which did other resistance work, also improved on several measures, and the authors called for more research (pilot study in youth athletes).

So the fair summary is this: neck training reliably makes the neck stronger and probably helps with everyday neck pain, and it may help an athlete's neck resist sudden head movement. It isn't a concussion shield, and no one should play contact sport on the assumption that it is.

Loading: start lighter than you think

Load is where most people go wrong with the weighted neck curl. The plate sits at the end of a long lever (your head), so even a small weight feels heavy.

• Weeks 1 to 2: no plate. Just the weight of your head, 2 sets of 15 to 20 reps.
• Weeks 3 to 6: a 1.25kg or 2.5kg plate once bodyweight sets feel easy both during the session and the next day.
• After that: add 1.25kg at a time, no more often than every two weeks. Fractional plates are useful here because the jump from 2.5kg to 5kg is a big percentage increase for a neck.

Many fit adults top out around 5kg to 10kg on neck curls and never need more. If you're shopping for small discs, our guide to the best weight plates covers sets that include 1.25kg and 2.5kg plates.

Common mistakes

Going too heavy too soon. Loading a 10kg plate on day one is the quickest route to a stiff, sore neck that puts you off the exercise for weeks. Start without weight and earn every increase.

Bouncing at the bottom. Dropping your head quickly and rebounding out of the stretch puts the joints, not the muscles, under strain. Lower slowly and stop at a comfortable range.

Poking the chin instead of curling. If your chin juts upwards and forwards as you lift, you're using the scalenes and jaw muscles rather than the deep flexors. Think "double chin" first, then curl.

Lifting the shoulders off the bench. Turning the rep into a mini crunch shifts the work to your abs. Keep your upper back pinned to the pad; only your head should move.

Holding your breath. Straining on every rep spikes blood pressure and makes you lightheaded when your head is hanging below your body. Breathe out on the way up and in on the way down.

Training through pain. Mild muscle fatigue is fine. Sharp pain, a pinching feeling, pins and needles, numbness or dizziness are not, so stop the set and don't push on.

Variations

• Lying neck extension. Lie face down with your head off the end of the bench, towel and plate on the back of your head, and lift your head from looking at the floor to looking forward. This trains the back of the neck and the upper traps and should be paired with neck curls so you don't build one side only.
• Lateral neck flexion. Lie on your side with your head off the bench and the plate held against the side of your head, then lift your ear towards your shoulder. Do both sides; it's often the weakest direction.
• Neck harness. A head harness with a chain lets you hang a plate from your head while standing or seated, mainly for extension. It's easier to load progressively than holding a plate, but the same light-and-slow rules apply.
• Resistance band. Loop a light band around your forehead and anchor it behind you (for flexion) or in front of you (for extension). Bands make home neck training easy and give a smoother feel at the ends of the range.
• Manual or self-resisted holds. Press your palm against your forehead, the back of your head or the side, and resist with your neck for 10 to 15 seconds without moving. In a pilot randomised trial, under-18 rugby players who did 15-second self-resisted holds in four directions three times a week for eight weeks gained more isometric neck strength than players who didn't (rugby pilot trial). A training partner can provide manual resistance instead, applying gentle, steady pressure while you move slowly.

How to programme neck curls

Neck work fits at the end of an upper-body or full-body session, two or three times a week, with at least one rest day in between.

• Beginners: 2 sets of 15 to 20 slow bodyweight reps of neck curls and neck extensions. Add lateral flexion after a fortnight.
• Intermediate: 2 to 3 sets of 12 to 20 reps per direction with a light plate, or 3 rounds of 15-second self-resisted holds in all four directions on days you don't use the bench.
• Contact sport athletes: keep up two short sessions a week through the season, ideally under the guidance of a coach or club physio, and do your main neck work away from match days.

Keep the reps high and the load modest. The neck responds well to frequent, controlled work, and there's very little to gain from heavy sets of five.

Recommended reads

• The best weight bench in the UK
• The best weight plates in the UK
• Shrugs: how to do them and muscles worked
• Trap exercises for upper, middle and lower traps
• More workout guides