Body Hack: Use your tongue to strengthen your neck

​Did you know that the position of the tongue in your mouth can affect the strength of your neck, and possible other areas of the body?  When doing exercises like sit ups or exercises where you need to hold your head up, it can put extra stress through your neck leading to neck pain. There is a simple body hack you can do with your tongue that can actually help strengthen your neck and protect it from injury.  Keep reading to see what to do.

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This Body Hack is easy, simply push your tongue into the roof of your mouth. There is a spot in the roof of your mouth called the Palatine Spot where there are Trigeminal Nerve endings. The Trigeminal nerve is one of the Cranial Nerves and is responsible for sensation to the face and muscles in the anterior neck that help with chewing.  When you push the tongue to the roof of your mouth you stimulate this spot which activates the anterior neck muscles and you help stabilise your neck. Its as easy as that.

Why don’t you try it?  Start by lying down on your back, try a curl up with the tongue relaxed and then pushed to the roof of your mouth and see if you can feel a difference in how the neck feels.

Interestingly, research has shown that tongue position could also influence the strength the legs by as much as 30% in some exercises.  You can read the full post on this here.  It is worth a read.

Next time you are doing exercises or are just in a weird position that is putting stress on your neck, try this simple body hack.  Your body will thank you for it.