It’s okay to say we’re obsessed with the neck. We want to help this crucial joint complex get the love and attention it deserves. The neck is the head stabilizer. It’s what you use to look around, to nod, to show where your body where to go.
Although we are seeing a new focus on increasing neck strength in some sports, the neck only receives the most attention when it has already been injured.
The neck is a complex body part with multiple mobile joints. This mobility comes at the cost of stability. Our necks are responsible for so much more than looking around. They’re attached to the most essential part of your body — the head.
Over time, the weakening of your neck’s natural support system and destabilization of its joints renders you more susceptible to serious injuries and pain from sudden, large impacts, repetitive, low-force impacts, and prolonged postural positions.
While it’s critical to look at the neck as it relates to potential injuries, strains, and pains, we also need to think about the neck concerning overall performance.
The gap in neck protection
This gap in knowing how critical the neck is and the lack of protection is why we do what we do. It’s our mission to create a lightweight and mobile solution to protect the neck in a way that has never been done before.
We know through research that tired or underdeveloped muscles increase the potential risk of neck and head injury. When muscles are supported, it reduces stress on the nervous system. We also know that supporting ligaments in the neck reduces the risk of injury.
What does that mean?
When your active systems (aka, your muscles) are properly supported, they naturally don’t have to work as hard. For the athlete, that means they can potentially train harder and longer. It also means that your muscles can dissipate forces and keep you protected.
Passive structures like ligaments also need to be protected and supported. This protection and support may reduce the natural weakening experienced by these connective tissues over time. Forces like high-velocity impacts to the head or neck complex can exceed the natural abilities of these ligaments to support them and lead to injury.
How does Kapsul help with performance and protection?
Performance
Your neurological system can communicate better and respond faster When your active systems are supported and not fatigued. Special Ops Mobility Units wore the collar in one testing session while riding ATVs and motorbikes for more than 45 minutes. When they arrived at their destination, they felt alert and had no fatigue. Snipers, who can shoot hundreds of rounds in a specific posture position, unanimously agreed there was a reduction in fatigue when wearing the collar as well.
These elite military members all see the benefit of stabilizing and supporting the neck to increase their performance. But what about sports? We have Alpine skiers who use the collar to support their neck when facing high-gravitational forces flying down the hills. We also tested with athletes who have long practices with repetitive hits and falls, like in football, lacrosse, and rugby. These elite athletes also spoke of the performance benefits of the collar in reducing fatigue and providing them the opportunity to train harder and longer.
Protection
When your neck becomes fatigued, you are at greater risk for neck injuries or neck-related head injuries. What we usually don’t think about, though, is that a neck injury may impact other areas of the body. If your neck is injured or suffers decreased nerve function, this can affect an athlete’s range of motion.
Neck injury in sports can come from force (falls, hits, quick turns, repetitive movements) or fatigue (long practices, workouts, games, or being in specific posture positions for extended periods).
We want to keep this joint protected, stabilized, and supported, always.
The more attention and awareness we can bring to the neck joint, the better the understanding we can all have about the importance of neck strengthening, training, supporting, and stabilization.
