He Credits Neck Training With Helping Him Walk Away From a Roof Fall and a Car Crash

He had just bought his first new car and was parked at a red light, with his mother beside him and his grandfather in the back seat, when another car rammed them at full speed.

Everyone was rattled. He was left sore in his back and neck, but no one suffered lasting harm.

For Andrew Huberman, a Stanford neuroscientist who hosts a health podcast, the crash recalled an earlier escape. He credits years of neck work, done for sport and stability, as one reason he came away without lasting damage.

Years earlier, he said in 2022, he had fallen off a roof. At the time he had been training his neck for a sport he played, and he walked away with a sore but unbroken neck.

He took that fall as an early lesson. He said he kept training after the car crash, in part because he notices shoulder trouble when he stops.

Huberman said anyone who understands torso and upper-body strength appreciates neck stability, and he pointed listeners to physiologist Dr. Kelly Starrett.

Huberman also noted the odd way large necks are described. People say a thick-necked man has no neck, when they mean he has a very large one.

His own method had changed by 2022. He said he used to do neck bridges and still sneaked one in, but he no longer favored them because he had learned the spinal discs can fail suddenly, without gradual warning.

At the time, he said, he wrapped a weight plate in a towel, so the marking on the plate did not leave a mark on his head or face, and moved his neck side to side and front to back. He trained it for stability and upright posture, not for size.