Isometric neck exercises – around the world – are prescribed strengthening exercises and maneuvers that can be done soon after neck surgery (in the cervical spine) to continue to tone the muscles. Isometrics pit one muscle against its antagonist (the muscle that performs the exact opposite motion). In this way, there is no motion of the attached vertebral structures (in this case the neck) but the muscles gain the benefit of use to prevent deconditioning.
There are 4 directions of neck motion: forward (flexion), backwards (extension), lateral bending to the left and to the right. If you place your hand against your head and push with equal strength your head against your hand and vice versa, there is muscle contraction of the neck but no neck motion. If you do this in the 4 compass directions around your head-you have effectively completed “around the world neck strengthening exercises.”
