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G5 – 4-way neck rear
Neck muscles are the muscles that work nonstop on our behalf. It is the Trapezius & Co who slave day in and day out to keep our head in balance. Monotony is the main enemy of muscles, i.e. the lack of movement when working at a screen or driving a car. This often causes tension because muscles are in a state of permanent contraction. What makes it even worse is that painful neck muscles can significantly affect our general wellbeing – and in some cases can even cause balance or sight problems. The Cervical Extension Therapy Machine provides first aid as well as long-term relief for those with serious symptoms. It is the neck expert amongst our back machines. However, if the tension is minor and symptoms only slight or if you want to prevent problems in the first place, you can use its smaller sister, the G5. It also trains both surface muscles and middle and deep neck muscles. If training is to be effective it‘s important to keep the shoulders still – otherwise you squander the benefits of this valuable exercise. The super-slow method produces particularly good results: here you maintain the load for up to 120 seconds. This will provide the best defence for neck muscles and arm them for their daily support work.
Expert’s Tip
Anika Stephan
Kieser Training Research Department
At Kieser Training, customers usually do each exercise, if possible, over their full range of motion. This in turn increases mobility. However, when it comes to training the neck muscles on the G5, this is not necessarily appropriate because it can cause side-effects. Customers often have degenerative changes or blockages in the joints in the middle and lower sections of the cervical spine – even though they may not feel or notice anything in everyday life. However, training in the last 25% of the range of motion can trigger pain from a preexisting damage.
When using the G5 machine, only do the range of motion that feels comfortable. Do not increase the weight unless you are able to do the exercise with an existing weight without any problems. Although the load intensity on the G5 may be lower than on other machines, you will still benefit from the valuable effects of strength training, i.e. you will mobilise and strengthen your neck, improve blood circulation in the neck muscles and improve nutrition in intervertebral discs.
As soon as you have found a training weight that keeps your neck problems in check, “freeze“ the weight. From years of practical experience we know that for men the weight should not exceed 110 lbs and for women it should not exceed 80 lbs.
Latest research – this training is a HIT!
Minimum outlay for maximum return – we like that when it comes to training, particularly if there is also scientific evidence that the training works. Research by the German University of Koblenz-Landau into single-set training – similar to that offered at Kieser Training – has provided clear evidence of the effects. The study looked at High Intensity Training (HIT). With this method, you do just one set of each exercise but the maximum possible number of repetitions. “Muscles fatigue if you do several sets of an individual exercise but they also fatigue if you do one set at a sufficiently high intensity.“ This is how Professor Dr. Dr. Jürgen Gießing from the University of Koblenz- Landau explains the HIT Principle. “A muscle grows if it is subject to a stimulus in excess of a certain threshold but that does not have to be the maximum possible stimulus.“ In other words, you need a weight that makes the muscle work at a reasonable level. If you fail to achieve that, the training is ineffective.
The study involved students who trained in the fitness room for ten weeks, twice a week. They all did a total of 9 exercises. One group did traditional multi-set training consisting of three sets, i.e. a total of 27 sets per training session. The other group just did one HIT-set per exercise, i.e. 9 sets per training session. In other words, the HIT group did one third of the training done by the multi-set group. Despite that, the strength gains in the HIT group were significantly greater. Particularly impressive was the fact that almost all those in the HIT group significantly increased muscle mass in just ten weeks (on average just under 1 kg) whilst at the same time reducing their percentage of body fat.
“Intensity is crucial to successful training – if it‘s high enough, just one set of each exercise is sufficient,“ is how Professor Gießing sums up the results. “That may be strenuous but in return both men and women only need to do a limited number of exercises twice a week.“ A further benefit compared with the normal multi-set training offered by many fitness studios is that this sort of training saves you time.
Tales from the Training Floor ... A coffee in New Zealand
The best stories always come from real life – or from training. Life does not simply grind to a halt when the thousands of Kieser Training customers do their training. Quite the opposite, life goes on around them. Tales from the Training Room is the name of our new series. This time we meet globetrotter Ray Galvin who writes about his travels and training.
If there were to be a world record for the most Kieser Training facilities used, I would probably be right up there at the top. I really ought to count up the number of towns in which I have trained in the last seven years but unfortunately it’s so many that I can only hazard a guess – it would be at least 25, possibly 35 or maybe even more!
The curious thing is that when I’m at home in Cambridge, I only manage to train once a week. England has the decided disadvantage that the only Kieser Training facility is in London and so I have to “travel“ to London every week to train. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Kieser infrastructure is significantly better. This was one of the reasons why in 2004 I decided to try Kieser Training having been advised to do so by a German doctor friend of mine. Membership is valid internationally and so I now train during both business and personal trips. And the other reason? No doubt about that – my back pain. This is now much improved even if I only manage to train once a week.
However, training has another benefit. Every summer I do a long cycle tour in Europe with my partner – sometimes in excess of 1,000 kilometres. As I cycle, I pass many Kieser Training facilities, e.g. in Würzburg, Augsburg, Ulm, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Hamburg, Zurich, Vienna and Graz. Often, I spontaneously stop to do some training when I cycle past the typical yellow and blue sign. This means that during these trips I am normally able to train twice or three times a week. I make sure that I have a copy of my training programme in my bag. I have only forgotten it once but the facility telephoned London and asked them to fax over my training programme.
Irrespective of where I am, staff are always pleased to welcome a guest from London and give me helpful tips about how to improve my technique. Kieser Training is after all Kieser Training wherever you are! Sometimes, it’s rather surreal. Everywhere the same machines, colours, filing cabinets, lockers and showers. Only the clock tells a slightly different time and sometimes the entry sign can be a little difficult to spot.
After training, I normally manage to find a good coffee. Surely Vienna must have the best cafés. It was in Vienna that I enjoyed the most delicious espresso in the McCafe immediately below Kieser at the Franz-Josefs Station. And then there’s Freiburg: if you wander through the old town on a morning, you can get a good cappuccino in the Café Ramazzotti for only 1 euro. Sometime or other, I would like to drink a coffee in Auckland after training – after all that‘s where I hail from. I am still waiting for the opening of the first Kieser Training facility in New Zealand.
