Neck size and strength predict brain injury
At the 2013 Youth Sports Safety Summit, Dawn Comstock, an epidemiology professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, unveiled new data supporting the idea that concussion risk is inversely related to neck strength. The study compared neck length, neck circumference, and measurements of neck strength in flexion, extension, and lateral rotation among 6,704 male and female athletes engaged in three sports (soccer, lacrosse, and basketball). Measurements were taken before and during the season, and athletic trainers reported the data.
Comstock’s results showed that athletes diagnosed with concussions had much smaller necks and less strength overall than those who did not. The study found that for every one-pound increase in neck strength, the chances of sustaining head trauma fell by 5 percent.[2]
Dr. Bob Cantu, M.D., a renowned neurosurgeon and leading authority on concussions, said in an NBC interview with Kate Snow that athletes with weak necks are much more susceptible to head trauma. He added, “Girls as a group have far weaker necks. That same force delivered to a girl’s head spins the head much more because of the weak neck than it does to the guys.”[3]
In an interview with Athletic Business, Comstock said the more the head spins, the more chance of concussion. “As the head rocks back and forth, it’s also twisting a little on the brain stem, and it’s those accelerative and rotational forces as the brain is impacting inside the skull that are really what’s causing these concussions.”[4]