I keep pulling the muscles in the back of my neck over the past few months. First it was sleeping funny, then it was tweaked doing incline benches, then doing shrugs.
I do plenty of upper back and trap exersizes so I dont know what I am missing in my regimen that keeps leading to these pulls. I spend most of my day looking down at books or a laptop screen which I am sure aggrevates the problem but what exersizes should I be doing to keep from pulling it in the future
bump
Foam roll the area to loosen it up.
I get pulled neck muscles occasionally, too. Most of the time I attribute them to pushing/pulling too much weight, and trying to jerk my head to move the weight. I’d focus on making sure my head remained very still and stable throughout the movement.
Use strict form. I’ve done the same thing a few times and it was always because of a flaw in my form. If you are straining your neck muscles while benching, I can only assume that you are ‘arching’ your back so that there is a lot of stress on the back of your head/neck. Maybe trying to cheat it up? Try backing down on the weight or use a spotter to bail you out if you can’t get it up with good form.
If you are injuring yourself during shrugs (usually the way I do it as well), make sure to keep your head in a fixed position. The muscles in your back and neck are already stretched when you have a heavy weight in your hands and looking down or to the side will stretch them too far. Hope this helps.