Martin's Rugby Coaching Forum

Hallo David, good idea to train your neck muscles too! There are lots of excercises for neck muscles, bridging is one of them. I learned a lot from a couple of visits to a wrestling school. Bridging is one of them but one for the more advanced players.
At that school the wrestlers even demonstrated me an excersise where they start with a bridge and then stepped a full circle turning on their head!

This is what the wrestling coach advise me:

For starting rugby players elastic bands can be used. You can get special made ones or use the inner tube of a bicycle. (I know some players even use a towel...)

Once you are getting stronger you can start working towards the bridge position. I work my team with head resting on the floor in the push-up position, they can use their arms to control the movement of the body while the head moves from left to right.

I also know of players who atttach two little ropes to a scrumcap and tie a small weight at the other end, wearing this helmet they do headlifts while they support their shoulders by holding to a bar.

Good luck,

Dear Martin,

Thank you for sparing the time to read this email, i really do appreciate it.

Having just started rugby i have conditioned my body reasonably well with weights.However i cannot find any specific neck exercises i can utilise.I tried bridging but felt very stiff the next day.

Would you know of any effective alternatives? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards

David