Gymnasts' neck thickness and an advice.

Which exercise/s are the cause for those huge necks? Advanced ring stuffs or also basic/foundation ones?
I think I'll never reach the point of doing supercool things on rings (gymnastic/bodyweight training is more of a passion/mania on my free-time, not a job nor a full-time-in-mind thing), but I'd like to train my neck and gain some mass. I cant spend any money on equipment.

So, should I stick with Foundation or should I implement other exercises? Which one are the most effective?

P.S. I searched through the forum and found someone mentioning head bridges and head-to-wall twisting. Are headstand also good? with hands support.

Haven't been aware of gymnast's necks yet. But if I compare to mine I think: This comes from handstands etc. and has nothing to do with forces onto your head. With strong forces onto your head you will mainly trash your upper cervical spine.

Gymnasts are noted for their traps strength and size, but not generally neck thickness IME if that's what you're looking for

Old time wrestlers did a lot of headstands and neck bridges. Some guys hang weights around their necks while doing dips and pushups. Explosive power moves like the snatch and clean and jerk are also good for building a strong neck because you brace a lot. 

EDIT: I think anyone can get to advanced gymnastic stuff as long as they keep progressing(and are able to), Its just like anything, you get what you put in, If a beginner puts in time to get to 75 pushups, no reason he cant put in time to do 75 second handstand on the rings. Most things in life are not hard or impossible, they just take time, and that right there is why most people give up and they don't even realize it. The hardest part is waiting for the results after you did the work, I realize this after a failed career path that I was pretty good at but wanted results sooner. 

@Christoph, a lot of wrestlers do neck bridges and headstands, as MattProulx said. 

I've seen evidence of boxers putting only their head on the ground, and their feet are held up against a wall or by their trainer, and then they tilt their head from side to side, and back to front. 

Saying they will trash their upper spine by loading weight onto the head is the same as saying BB squats will trash the lower spine because it's loaded weight onto the back (which, for both cases, is only true if the person is too weak for said exercise and instead of bracing the weight with their muscles they use their skeletal structure instead).

ForzaCavaliere said:

I've seen evidence of boxers putting only their head on the ground, and their feet are held up against a wall or by their trainer, and then they tilt their head from side to side, and back to front. 

I do this one a few times a week freestanding (hands and head) and like it.

Keep in mind that wrestling in itself without all the specific neck conditioning includes a lot of neck work. One's head gets pulled in many directions by the opponent, different throws and rolls require good support from the neck and so on.

Thanks a lot for the answers, guys!

@Matt: thanks for the motivation! The point is that I never gave up on my goals, especially sport-related, but with work, study and some social life I really have little time to dedicate to my body. I have some consistency in my training sessions throughout the week and in that time I put 110% of what I can give.

good day to everyone

A word of advice when it comes to neck bridging: Be very very careful with these and progress slowly.  I had stabbing pains in my spine whenever i raised my head for quite a while from rushing into neck bridges. 

Coach's athletes do perform neck conditioning, for the same reason they perform inside squats, fingertip pushups, and similar exercises. In the real world, things don't always go as planned. Sometimes you're going to catch a finger, or your knee will track way off of your foot, or if you really mess up, you may land on your neck. These aren't avoidable occurrences: they are a fact of life for gymnasts. So they strengthen these areas to mitigate the injurious effects of accidents. 

Want a big neck? Drink lots of beer and listen to death metal 

"A lot of security guys will come up to me and complain about working out, but having skinny necks, and ask how I do it. I tell them to listen to [sLAYER's] 'Reign In Blood' and headbang the whole way through after working out."

So, is there a routine for beginners you would suggest?
Like: first you should try static holds, then you can move the head "up and down", then you can procede to headstand etc... and the very basic exercise?

^ Could have sworn you were asking for a Headbanging-to-Slayer progression...

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'd recommend you start with this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM6wEC1_YoQ

Before a 30-sec hold, you'd want to start with much smaller sets, like 5 secs. If that leaves you in pain, take some weight off with your hands. If flexibility is an issue, you can also do it facing the other direction (Downward Dog-style instead of Back Bridge-style).

Eventually, you can be as cool as this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0vg5T4vkew

EDIT: Just tried messing around a little bit and realized that neck bridging from your knees & rolling around a bit could be another good way to ease into it. Whatever you do, take Bipocni's advice and PROGRESS SLOWLY.

EDIT2: Wow, forgetful today. Just remembered that the guys from Renegade Fitness recommended starting off with laying with your head hanging off your bed or something similar and doing neck-lifts from each angle (laying on your sides, front, back)

Thank you very much, NoHiddenCosts! I'll give it a try as soon as I can!

I hope that one day I will reach that ultimate Slayer-move!
Rock on, guys

NoHiddenCosts said:

EDIT2: Wow, forgetful today. Just remembered that the guys from Renegade Fitness recommended starting off with laying with your head hanging off your bed or something similar and doing neck-lifts from each angle (laying on your sides, front, back)

Wouldn't recommend this.  Hella tension headaches.

Start with headstands.  Work up to a really long headstand (like, 5 min plus) then you can start working on front and back neck bridges.  Again, work up to a long static hold (maybe 3 minutes each) before you start moving around in the position.  Do other exercises to build up your traps (large traps are excellent for protecting your neck.)

I'm not sure of specific scapula positioning for neck bridges, but I know for headstands you should raise your shoulders towards your ears.

Hm. I find headstands much more rough on the bones than bridges, and have not had problems with the neck lifts. Matteo.Za, I think you'll have to try things out and see what works best for you.

Neck stretches and the extra weight of my dreadlocks have helped me develop a stronger neck.

Three words guys!.....HEAVY FARMERS CARRY!!...you ever seen a strongman with a small neck??....no me neither

Also, lots and lots of food helps aswell!

Joshua Slocum said:

Coach's athletes do perform neck conditioning

Would be very interesting to hear more about what they do for neck training.

Joakim Anderson said:

Would be very interesting to hear more about what they do for neck training.

Our neck training was relatively straight forward and simply included in our daily warmup; 10 reps of wrestlers' limbers forward and backward with no hands.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Had a feeling it was that simple. All the advanced neck work out there is very straight forward, you just have to build up to it. The wrestlers backbridge/front bridge is pretty much the bulk of it. I know I saw a youtube video of a guy doing his neck training.

Here:

I'd recommend only doing static holds at first I'd you've never done this type of work before. It works the neck and entire spine musculature as well as some glutes. I always focused on feeling it in the spine and neck, while squeezing the abs. There are better glute exercises out there, to make this a glute focused exercise would be a waste.

Coach Sommer said:

Our neck training was relatively straight forward and simply included in our daily warmup; 10 reps of wrestlers' limbers forward and backward with no hands.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the insight.

Don't know for sure, but I think that free hip handstands and stuff on bars are really intense on the neck. When I do them I have to tighten all my neck muscles or otherwise I have the feeling that my head will fly away   

What I notice is that the trapezius is used a lot in planches and press handstands. At least, I am always sore when I did a lot of them. Maybe this is also leading to huge "necks".