Neck Conditioning Drills For More Comfortable Zouk Head Movement

Do you struggle with neck discomfort or even pain when trying to do zouk head movement? Does your head feel hella heavy when you’re passing your head backwards, and it feels like you’re straining or locking up your posture to support its weight? Or do you have some hypermobility in your neck (like me!) and want to make sure you’re teaching your muscles to support this head movement and avoid potential injuries.

Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Whatever the reason - if you’re looking to make your head movement safer, more comfortable, and more sustainable over the long-term, that means conditioning your neck muscles, specifically the deep neck flexors, to support the demands of this type of movement!

As someone with a hypermobile neck (meaning if I relax my head back, it falls all the way back until it touches my upper back), I’ve had to work eeeextra hard to teach the muscles of my neck how to actually engage to support the weight of my head when tilting my head back, and not letting it just flop all the way back as if I were Nearly Headless Nick (which, for me, has always been the easier - but less safe - movement pattern).

So here are my favorite strengtheners for the deep neck flexors to help build up the strength (and awareness!) to support the backward-tilt portion of your head movement.

1. Head Micro-Lift Endurance Holds

While these don’t look like much, you will definitely feel your neck muscles working!

1. Start lying on your back on the floor (legs can be flat, or you can bend your knees, whatever you find more comfortable)

2. Lift your head just a tiny bit off the floor, just enough to take the weight out of the back of your head, but not so high that you can see it lifting visibly (imagine you’re just trying to lift it enough to slide a piece of paper between the back of your head and the floor). That might mean that you can still feel your hair on the floor, but the skull is no longer touching the floor. You should feel the muscles in the front of your neck working to support the weight of your head!

3. Start with a 20s hold, then relax your head back down. Repeat 3 times (3 x 20s holds). As your neck muscles get stronger, try to hold your head up for longer, eventually working up to 2 x 1 min holds.

2. Head Drop Backs

This is a drill I learned from Bruno & Raiza that I love love love, and even use it with my contortion students because it’s such a great neck strengthener.

1. You can do this drill lying down with your head dangling over the edge of a bed or a bench, or lean back on some yoga blocks (as shown in the picture above). You’ll want your “prop” supporting the back of your shoulders, but your neck completely free to dangle in space (so if you’re on a bed, scoot all the way to the edge!)

2. Start with your chin slightly tucked, then slowly let your had start to fall back. Only let the head fall back as far as you still have the neck strength to then pull it back up to your chin-tucked starting position. Keep tension through the front of the neck the whole time, don’t let the head fall so far back that the back of your head/neck hits the side of your bed, blocks, or the floor (which will then let the neck muscles relax). Then lift the head back up to your starting position. That’s one rep.

3. Repeat for 8-12 reps total

Note: If you are using yoga blocks (as I am above), make sure the only movement is happening is at the neck, don’t let the upper back arch more as the head drops back, and then “crunch” as you lift the head back up. The goal is for this to be an isolation exercise for the neck, not a full spinal drill.

3. Chest Opens

Now let’s start to use that neck engagement from the above two drills, and add it to a movement more similar to what we use in head movement. Unlike the last drill where the neck was actively lengthening/arching while the chest was stationary, now we are going to keep the neck mostly neutral (it may arch a small amount), and move the chest/torso instead.

1. Start standing, sitting, or kneeling (you can sit in a chair or on some yoga blocks if sitting/kneeling on the floor is uncomfortable)

2. Keeping your neck long, lift your chest to start to arch through the upper back as you let your head start to fall backwards - but don’t relax the neck! Try to keep your ears in line with your shoulders to not let the head fall back too far. A small amount of movement of the neck relative to the torso is OK, but we want this to primarily be a chest/upper back movement, NOT a neck movement (the head and neck are only moving because they are attached to the chest and upper back). You should feel your deep neck flexors working to support the weight of the head

3. Keeping your neck muscles engaged, pull your chest back to upright / your starting position. Make sure you keep your neck long, don’t tuck the chin to initiate the movement, this movement starts from the chest!

4. That’s one rep. Repeat for 8-12 reps

How much should the neck arch?

Even though we think of head movement as primarily chest/torso movement (it comes from tilting through the upper back), that doesn’t mean the neck is perfectly stiff and doesn’t move at all! If we keep the neck frozen in the same position is when we’re standing upright, our head movement tends to look stiff and robotic. But if we allow for just a wee bit of an arch at the upper cervical spine (aka the top of the neck) to let the head tilt back, the head movement will look “bigger” and more organic without over-straining the neck muscles (if you have been conditioning them appropriately!). So aim for that small amount of tilt when you’re doing these conditioning drills.

4. Balão Circles

If the last drill felt good, then it’s time to take it into a full rotation of circular head movement (“balão”)!

1. Start sitting comfortable on the floor or in a chair (sitting ensures we don’t unintentionally move our hips and turn this into a low back instead of upper back backbend)

2. Lift and open your chest to allow your head to angle and start to fall back (just as in the last exercise). Keep the muscles in the front of the neck engaged. If this is feeling intense on the front of the neck, keep it small!

3. Then start to tilt your torso over to the left (using the muscles in the side of your neck to keep the head from “flopping” towards the left shoulder)

4. Then tilt to the front, keeping your wait tall and angling your chest towards the floor. Engage the muscles in the back of the neck to keep the neck long (don’t let the chin come all the way to the chest)

5. Keep circling to tilt over to the right

6. Then finish your circle to the back

7. Repeat for 3-5 slow circles in one direction, then 3-5 in the other direction

Let’s Do These Together! (Follow-Along Video)

Want to Learn More?

If you’re looking for even more help with your flexibility/mobility for zouk, check out this hour-long, follow-along Flexibility for Zouk workshop:

You’ll learn more neck, upper back (soooo much upper back), hip and ankle drills to improve your active flexibility for zouk. That means bendier and more comfortable head movement, slinkier body rolls, improved torsion, and strong ankles to support you for many more years of dancing!