It is now the homestretch of our Elite Characteristics series! We’ve worked our way from the ankles, knees, hips, thoracic spine, shoulders, and will culminate with the neck. Specifically, we’ll address the concept of packed neck for swimmers, which is one of the leading developments in the strength and conditioning field. Many are familiar with packing the shoulder for scapular stability and packing the low back for lumbar stability. Packing the neck, though less familiar to most coaches and athletes, carries a high return on investment is one of the first places to look for repairing postural flaws and plugging power leaks.
Why is a packed neck important for swimmers?
1. Decreased frontal exposure. A head position too high or too low will increase drag by expanding the swimmer’s frontal profile.
2. Balance. Extending the neck and raising the head can cause the legs to sink, which also leads to poor hydrodynamics via increased drag.
3. Protect the cervical spine. The cervical spine is a commonly injured area among swimmers. In my observation, neck injuries are underreported because they frequently present as low grade aches that athletes try to ignore, or as problems elsewhere in the body such as jaw pain, chronic headaches, shoulder injuries, or referring nerve pain into the arms.
4. Muscle length, strength, and timing. Reciprocal inhibition/Janda’s upper and lower crossed syndromes. Dr. Vladimir Janda is credited with first observing the phenomenon of reciprocal inhibition and the related postural syndromes of the upper cross and lower cross. In reciprocal inhibition, the glutes, abs, serratus anerior, lower traps, and deep neck flexors are prone to inhibition or weakness. These are known as the phasic muscles. The tonic muscles such as hip flexors, low back extensors, pectorals, upper traps, and levator scapulae are prone to tightness or hyperactivity.
Point number 4 is our focus in this series. Considering the deep neck flexors within the phenomenon of reciprocal inhibition brings us full circle from previous weeks. The lower trapezius supports the shoulder girdle and allows for the ranges of motion achieved by elite swimmers. Abdominals help maintain a tight streamline, drive rotation in long axis strokes, create undulation in short axis, and allow for expression of power in starts and turns. Serratus anterior is essential for optimal breathing patterns and overall stability. The glutes drive posterior chain activation and are vital muscle group in Dr. Mullen’s ongoing quest to find a cure for Assless Swimmer Syndrome (Is poor posture slowing you down?)!
Inhibition of the deep neck flexors usually occurs not in isolation, but instead as part of an overall pattern. If the deep neck flexors are inhibited, the body must find stability in the neighboring muscles such as the upper traps, pecs, and levator scapulae. When these muscles are tight, the swimmer is at risk for a variety of shoulder injuries and stroke flaws.
Human growth from infancy through adult bipedalism is contingent on sequential maturation and co-activation of the phasic muscles listed above. Inhibition in any of these muscles leads to compensations, which manifest as tightness or shortness in other muscle groups. Look again at that list above and the tight areas should look familiar as common problems in the swimming world…
- Hip flexors (psoas) –> kicking flaws
- Low back –> weak core, limited body undulation
- Pectorals, upper traps, and levator scapulae –> shoulder mechanical flaws, thoracic spine mobility limitations
Deep neck flexors operate as a feed-forward mechanism to encourage optimal muscle timing (Falla 2004). A feed-forward mechanism is a neurological activation pattern resulting in activation or inhibition elsewhere without conscious thought. Another example of a feed-forward mechanism is taking a firm grip on an object to activate scapular stabilizers (See Dr. Mullen’s Dryland Mistake: Bench Press Part I and Part II for more on role of grip strength). It behooves us to exploit feed forward mechanisms to accelerate learning and promote automaticity of quality movement habits and stroke mechanics.
Teaching an athlete proper neck mechanics who has never had neck stability can be a beautiful sight, much like Clark Griswold getting to experience the magic of his Christmas lights finally working! Many things fall into place elsewhere in the body independent of conscious thought.
The packed neck in swimming
Fly
Neck stability supports body undulation, although the neck does not remain packed during the entire stroke (we need to breathe at some point). The best butterflyers return the neck to a packed position and maintain cervical spine alignment when pressing the chest down. Weaker butterflyers extend the neck toward the bottom of the pool, which is an inefficient way to create undulation.
Back
A packed neck keeps the body in proper alignment. During starts, many swimmers throw their entire head back and extend the neck. While some neck extension is permissible, too much can lead to poor timing and loss of power. Below, Natalie Coughlin shows that you can maintain a packed neck during the entire start cycle.
Breast
A common breaststroke flaw is lifting the head to look forward. Packing the neck stabilizes the whole body for a strong pull and kick.
Packed neck
NOT a packed neck
Free
Head position in freestyle can be a controversial topic. Some coaches want swimmers to stare directly at the bottom of the pool, which is more consistent with a packed neck. Others permit a higher head position and allow mild neck extension. While I’d be cautious to overhaul an idiosynchratic yet effective stroke grooved by millions of yards, improvements in neck stability can transfer to other areas of the body based on the feed-forward mechanisms of deep neck flexor stimulation. Even if a neck is not packed to the maximal extent, neck stability is important to keep the neck movements within a certain range. A higher head carriage is acceptable…head bobbing is not.
Block starts
Watch track and field athletes setting up and exploding out of the blocks: Head is down. Neck is packed. Remember that activation of the deep neck flexors is tied to activation of the glutes and relaxation of the hip flexors. As such, neck posture is critical to pre-load energy for release via triple extension of the ankles, knees, and hips when the gun goes off.
Conclusion
The packed neck for swimmers is not an absolute in the water, but is an underutilized power source. Stroke aficionados can undoubtedly find examples in each stroke of swimmers winning Olympic medals without packed necks. However, if you sample the averages of the fastest swimmers in the world, you’ll likely find high levels of neck stability specific to stroke demands. In the next installment, we’ll explore how to assess neck stability, how look to coach the packed neck on dryland, and how to transfer these concepts into the water.
References
- Falla D, Rainoldi A, Merletti R, Jull G. Spatio-temporal evaluation of neck muscle activation during postural perturbations in healthy subjects. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 2004 Aug;14(4):463-74.
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