Episode #57: Neck Training and Life w/ Mike “The Machine” Bruce

September 08, 2021

Mike is well known across the world for some of his amazing strength feats. Some of these feats include a 1,500lb partial rack pull @ 202lb bodyweight, a seated 300lb Neck raise, Sit-ups with 400lb on his chest for reps, allowing a 5/8 piece of 4ft steel bar to be bent across the front of his throat and even performing the very dangerous Hangman’s Noose where Mike hung himself with a noose to demonstrate his insane neck strength.

While these feats of strength have garnered Mike the aptly titled nickname “The Machine” he is also recognized for his character. Many in the industry site The Machine as a gentleman who always strives to help others while maintaining the highest form of humility.

A former United States Marine himself, The Machine still adheres to the Honor, Commitment and Courage he learned long ago in the Corps and practices these principles in his daily life.

Some of his other accomplishments include:

*2x New England grappling Champion
*Ct State Judo Champion
*VA Beach State Shootfighting Champion (Pro)
*East Coast Shootfighting Champion (amateur)
*Western MA Submission Wrestling Champion (Pro)
*Sampalis Kickboxing Champion (amateur)
*Gilletts Mixed Martial Arts Full Instructor 2005

Learn More About Mike and His Training Here:

Mike’s Youtube Channel

Machine Shop Gym

Neck Flex Harness

Full Transcription of Our Podcast with Mike “The Machine” Bruce

Interview with Mike “The Machine” Bruce talking about neck training and coaching life

Corey Beasley [00:00:01]: Hey guys, this is Corey Beasley with fight cam conditioning. I’m on the phone here with Coach Mike Bruce. Mike, how are you doing?

Mike Bruce [00:00:06]:Very good. How are you doing?

Corey Beasley [00:00:08]: I’m doing good man. Thanks so much for joining me today. So Mike, for everybody that’s listening, just get everybody a little too sense of who you are and what you’re doing?

Mike Bruce [00:00:21]:Some people in the strength industry know me as Mike the machine Bruce, I’m a professional performing strong man and motivational speaker. I run a private gym here where I live in Kentucky and I’ve been blessed to be able to I’ve done some things in a strength world that’s kind of got my name out there. Basically with heavy rack pulls and mainly neck training is what I’m known for. I’m a former United States Marine on a graduate out of Paris Island as well as former five times submission wrestling champion between 1996 and 2000. So that’s a basically to spend time training my clients. And then when I’m not with my clients at my gym, I love spending time with my wife and my two dogs. That’s pretty much of course if I’m out on the road speaking and doing a show that’s pretty much where I’m at.

Corey Beasley [00:01:11]: Mike, how long have you been trained for?

Mike Bruce [00:01:14]:I’ve been trained as I was 13 years old. I’m 42 right now I will turned 42 in a week. I’ve been training pretty much nonstop since I was 13. I started off as an amateur wrestler and I’ve trained ever since. Never really missed the time except for a few injuries. But training is my life. I only high I have real, you don’t get this love to getting the blood flowing and building our body the best we can.

Corey Beasley [00:01:41]: Now you grew up a wrestling and then you did a submission wrestling afterwards, is that correct?

Mike Bruce [00:01:49]:Yes, I was an immature wrestler and to high school, but I had quite an attitude on my sleeve that I wore. And it hindered me a lot. I was that I was a starting wrestler at one 71, but my attitude and my ego was so out of control that I actually was the moated and taken down and put on JV. And then I was kicked off the team two years in a row cause my attitude. So I try to make over some lost time. So I ended up taking six in the state, Massachusetts my senior year. And then when I went and joined the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps straightened me out. And I’m like, as I said earlier, I was on, I was selected as your honor undergrad. I have a particular 2170 hotel company. And then once I got out of the military at that time the MMA world was not a buzz like it is now. It just started. And so I ended up competing in submission, grappling mainly submission, wrestling. I’m not a jiu jitsu player at all. And I ended up becoming a five time champion as well as the state champion in judo. So much later in life when I was about 22, 23, 24 is where I had my final success that many in high school thought I would have had been. I learned that you get a head Southern lights being a gentleman and not wearing your attitude on your sleeve and that there’s always someone better than you and be humble. So I ended up achieving the goals that I have for myself at a younger age, but later on in life.

Corey Beasley [00:03:08]: That’s awesome man. So you’re a big competitor that when you’re growing up I went to the Marine Corps that out of the Marine Corps competed again. Did real well kind of had your attitude straight. How’d you get into the strength and conditioning world?

Mike Bruce [00:03:23]:Well, I was always trained as I was 13. And I’ve remember when I was a kid, a lot of people in the gym, the older guys that had taken me out under their wing and trained me and taught me how to train they always said, you’ve got such good genetics and you’re so strong. And I was always a thinner kid. Back when I was younger. I had big goofy ears and a weird looking hair. Hair color was like a pipe cleaner or a pencil eraser. So I had to build my body up to support the ears and the ego I guess. And I’ve just always trained and when I went in the Marine Corps and they select you as the honor grad, they select a person. And of course I was the number one guy for the PFT in boot camp and then I was selected as honor grad. And I’ve just always I came from a real trouble childhood as a kid. And so that the gym was always my safe house. It’s what helped me to not go down the same route that was put before me as a child. I was beaten really badly by my mom’s second husband. My biological father was not a good person and it took a long time. When my mom finally remarried again to the man whose name I have, Mr. Bruce you know what, I was able to get out of that avoid the bogeyman, let’s say the dark spot in my life as a child. So I contributed that to Mr. Bruce as well as the gym. The gym has always been my safe Haven. I feel more comfortable in the gym than I do in church.

Corey Beasley [00:04:49]: It’s good you found an outlet, you know?

Mike Bruce [00:04:52]:Yeah, the gym you can learn everything in the gym, to me the gym is not just like, let’s go in there and see who’s the biggest bad has got to go in the gym. To me it’s spiritual to me. I mean, it sounds kind of funky. I guess, but when you’ve been in, if there’s anyone out there who’s been through hard times as a child or even as an adult, but for me as a kid, for what I went through as a kid, being beaten on by a 260 pound man as a little skinny kid, when you go into gym and you go through failures, but if you never quit, you never going to be a failure. And that’s something I always say when I do my shows and I speak across the United States, I know I do one thing, greatness be me and I never quit and I’ve had many failures in the gym. But when you keep going and you say, okay, I didn’t get this certain lift today, I didn’t get it tomorrow, I didn’t get it last week. But then eventually when you do get that lift or that maybe it’s an extra rep or maybe you finished a certain conditioning drill in a certain time and you bettered yourself that rewards from that it’s almost euphoric. It’s a high and the gym is why I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t smoke. I’ve never done any kind of drugs. I’m probably the only Marine you’ll ever meet that’s never been drunk. But I attribute that to because my biological father was an alcoholic, so that’s why I don’t drink alcohol. But the gym it’s always been said iron never lies. And so you learn success you learn failure, you learn discipline, you learn consistency, you learn work ethic, all of those things. Of course you learn those in wrestling, but in the gym by yourself, I think when you have the self-discipline to push yourself when you’re alone and not with other people, I think it can make you a stronger man or a woman. It just depends on what you decide to do with it.

Corey Beasley [00:06:40]: Now you train hard and you competed, and then you kind of made a name for yourself, like neck training. How did you kind of get started with that?

Mike Bruce [00:06:52]:Well, the whole thing was the neck was of course as you know wrestling, you have to have a strong neck because where the head goes, the body follows. And that’s an old saying that all the rest of us have said. And I started working in my neck very young, at 13 of course in wrestling we did bridges and also the neck bridges. But I was the only guy in the gym, the commercial gym. I’d sell newspapers I think back then we had paper routes. I don’t know if they still do that nowadays, but out in Massachusetts we had paper routes. So I’d say my money and try to get a membership at the gym and I was one of the first guys in the gym or kids I should say to do neck curls with a plate on my head. I didn’t have a neck harness and didn’t have the money for one. And I remember along with the wrestling there was more to it than that based off my childhood is I could never look a man in the eye. Because I was so scared, I shook with a real loose handshake and a limp wrist and I couldn’t look a man in face because of my childhood. And I thought, well if I build my neck up a lot, I can only look up or I can look straight, I can’t look down anymore. And that’s even as a young kid, I figured that out and I thought, well, I’m going to build myself up enough not to be a big tough guy but as armor to basically combat my stepfather. And the neck I just did it religiously nonstop. And I always had a really big thick neck, even at 170 pounds. I wrestled in high school. My neck was like 18 almost 19 at the time. And that’s pretty big for a guy, 170 is not really a big guy you’re really lean. I was really lean because I was about five, 10 and a half at one 171. And then as I got older, I’ve always trained, so I started going to put some real big numbers. So I set a world record in 2007 in Lakeland, Florida with a neck harness. I picked up 300 pounds for two reps and I didn’t do a stiff lift. I actually lifted with my head where my head went down and I came back up. And we have pictures of that. Unfortunately, the video of that got damaged in the mail when I did it at a gentleman named bud Jeffries. He was one of my first mentors in a strength game. But there is pictures all over. That’s one of the most used photos for strength sites that want to talk about neck training they usually take my picture and I has been in some bodybuilding magazines that are very common. I’m not a bodybuilder, that’s not my thing, but it’s very humbling when they use your pictures in magazines.

Corey Beasley [00:09:09]: Of course, at 300 pounds and neck extension is ridiculous weight?

Mike Bruce [00:09:19]:I was in my thirties and I was 202 and then I also, recently in 2012, I set a record here in Kentucky. Because I’m known, I used to always have a bar of five eights piece of steel going across the front of my throat. I’d be on my knees, have someone get behind with their knee, between my shoulder blades and they rack the bar around my neck. And I did up many of them over the years. But I set a record, I was able to have seven, five, eight pieces of steel and across my throat within 57 seconds. And now I no longer allowed to do that anymore due to I caused too many scorings around my esophagus. And the risk afterwards, if I keep doing it, it doesn’t mean it’ll happen. But the cardiologist said that I could have scarring flake off and give me a stroke. So my wife’s threatened me and said, you are not allowed to do that anymore. And then my doctors too. So I don’t do that one anymore.

Corey Beasley [00:10:15]:Now, for a lot of guys that are listening, we got wrestlers and jiu jitus guys and boxers and coaches and MMA guys and all different types of people, but a lot of combat athletes. I mean I think the benefits of having a strong neck are very apparent and from injury prevention to even as research and stuff, now talking about concussion and preventing can check concussions with it by having a strong neck. For a lot of these guys that are listening, where would you recommend that they start?

Mike Bruce [00:10:48]:Well, I can only say what worked for me and I was known back in 2006 actually, there wasn’t much written about in that training. There was some stuff. But when I came out with a program that back then called TNT total neck training, it was a DVD and it, it came out and I trained very high volume. Because again, I was a wrestler so I wasn’t trying to be like a bodybuilding like, I’m going up on a build my neck and then rest the day. What I did was I can just tell you what I did and then how I would train a new person. Now what I did was any time I was in a gym, which was usually five days a week, sometimes six, I worked my neck every day. The reason for this was because I had wrestled since I was 13. So I believed in building my neck up enough endurance wise to handle the load of a match because in a wrestling match or if you’re a jiu jitsu player or even in an MMA or because I was a judo player. Well that guy’s not going to pull in the back of your head nice and gentle. Like he’s trying to give you a hug. He’s going to grab your head or grab your ear and try to snap you down at hard as he can. So I believe in training to duplicate what I was going to experience on the match. So if I think of the guys that come combat athletes, I think you should train your neck to match that accordingly. So my thing was always three sets of a hundred. I would lay on my back and do net corrals. I’d do a hundred reps that I’d use a neck harness and do a hundred reps and then I would lay on the side of my body and put a plate on the side of my head. And I would do a hundred reps each side. And as I got better in time, of course, now remember I was doing this since I was 13 so when I was a kid, I’d start off with a five pound plate and then I gradually worked up to the point where I was using the 45 pound plate, then I would use 90 pounds on my head. So that’s just the progression. I didn’t just start off and say, I’m going to put a 45 on my head and do it. We got to use our brain. We have one. It’s just unfortunately this day and age so many people don’t want to use their brain. They want to just act like they’re lunacy or something. They weren’t looking around and not know what they’re doing. You got to think so you start off small progressions and I would train to match. So if you’re an amateur boxer and you’re going to your rounds are two minutes, then I would suggest working your neck from each angle for two minutes to match what you experienced for the rounds. If it’s a three rounds or four rounds, whatever it may be. Now if you had a guy coming that was looking to build more mas and not necessarily a strength and endurance, then of course I would say, let’s do three sets of maybe 20 reps and each in each angle of the neck, front, back and sides and let’s go Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Because you want to have a day of rest in between. But what’s going to happen is that you probably know is that when you never worked your neck before, the first few times you do it, you’re neck going to be so stiff. Because the lactic acid in the muscle, you got to be able to turn your head. So I think it’s important to work that don’t go through that Callison period, which is two to four weeks to where that feeling goes away. Because at first can be like, my god, I hurt myself. What did I do? Because the muscle and then the in your neck is not used to the load that I’m being put under. So I think for all combat guys, football players, anything like that, I think it should be worked daily because you want to get it to point where you’re not getting sore anymore and you want to get your neck used to what it’s going to experience.

Corey Beasley [00:14:22]: So just get used to that day in, day out grind?

Mike Bruce [00:14:26]:It worked for me. That doesn’t mean of course its going work for everybody else. But that is what works for me. And many of the people that I’ve trained over the years or that had that TNT course back in the day, the results have been very good all across the world. So it just, the person’s going to be decided what their goal is and what they’re looking to do and then go from there. Because everybody’s different the same as when you’re with training someone for jiu jitsu or MMA, you can’t train everybody to sing cause everybody, one guy might want to fight tall, one guy might want to fight short, one guy might want to lean to the side, one guy might be a counter puncher and one guy might be super aggressive. So you’ve got to kind of tweak it to the individual’s needs.

Corey Beasley [00:15:11]: That’s awesome. Now, Mike, over the years you said you had a few people that you learn most of your stuff from. Who are some of the people that you kind of studied under?

Mike Bruce [00:15:24]: Okay. When it comes to submission grappling. I was the best I ever was when I had a couple instructors, but when it comes to submission grappling it was Tim Gillette of the and in me out of fall river, Massachusetts and was trained by Jason DeLucia who was one of the early fighters from the UFC back in I think UFC one in either two or three, I don’t remember. And then he had a successful career in Tanqueray’s. So Tim was trained under Jason and Tim has a system called PCs five, which is positioning controls submission and it’s basically catch wrestling. And that’s what I studied under certified as a full instructor under him in 2005. In judo, my instructor was [Inaudible 00:16:10] form Mayo quasi judo club at a westward land, a super successful with judo. He’s also served as an assistant for the Olympics. I don’t think it was this past Olympics. I think it was the one prior when it comes through strength training, and performing feats of strength such as twisting horseshoes, bending steel. My two mentors are Bud Jeffries that are leaked in Florida. And then a Grandmaster strong man, Dennis Rogers, Bud trained me and had been things and got me started. And then Dennis kind of took me from there and kind of tweaked me more on how to perform when you’re in front of an audience. Because everything we do, there’s a lot of tricksters out there. And when I twist a horseshoe, it’s legit. We don’t do anything fake. We’re not a magician or illusionist. So those two guys. And then one other person that sparked my interest in strength training was Judd Johnson from the diesel crew. So that’s basically my lineage. And all those guys are very nice and humble people. They’re not clowns. I don’t act foolish or talk bad about anybody.

Corey Beasley [00:17:19]: That’s good. So to this day, I mean, you’re still training hard. You’re training five, six days a week?

Mike Bruce [00:17:29]:I train as the best I can. I got hurt in the Marine Corps and then I’ve done 93 strength shows over the years since 2007 and I suffered a very life changing lower back injury about a year and a half ago. So I am training the best I can with certain limitations. But thankfully I avoided surgery and I had nerve damage in my left leg, but everything’s good, so I’m still pushing and I lost a lot of weight. I went down to 181 pounds when I was injured because I couldn’t walk for like three weeks. I had to use a Walker after that. So I’m back up to 217. I’m about to start, I’m actually speaking this Friday for veteran’s day at a school here in town. And I’ll probably start doing some shows again. Maybe still bend some things, but not anywhere near the volume that I did before, I used to do like 12 different sets. Now I’ll probably do four or five, but I do the best I can as we get older you got to really watch what you’re doing. You can still train hard, but you still try to get better every day, but you just got to train a little smarter than before.

Corey Beasley [00:18:35]: Absolutely. Your ego takes a back seat for sure. As you get a little bit long, you start navigating a few more things and we tend to have a little bit more responsibilities and stuff like that as can sidetrack us as well, you know the gym and family and friends and kids and all that type of stuff. It all distracted me to say the least. So for you, aside from the neck training and stuff that guys that you’re doing what are some other principals are on equipment or splits or what are some of the workouts that you do outside of neck train?

Mike Bruce [00:19:14]:Well, my workout is kind of now due to the injury that I’m about 95% healed I would say. But a lot of the things that I was known for strength wise was like dead lifting. I did lifted 695 at 198 pounds, all natural. And I can’t do that stuff anymore. So my workout now, I train five to six days a week. And what I do is Monday would be an upper body day, Tuesdays, lower body. And then I alternate that every day. And most of my stuff I have to do, I have to do it laying. I have to be supported somehow whether I’m laying down on her, like if I was going to do dumbbell rows for example, or I can’t do barbell rows. So if I was doing dumbbell rows, I’d have to lay down on a bench and do a short motion on an incline bench. So my workouts, for example, I would do, like yesterday I did close grip barbell presses, I did heavy chin-ups with weight attached that doesn’t bother me. I did seated dumbbell shrubs. So I did some grip work and I twisted some horseshoes because a lot of the things with me, I can’t do a lot of functional training anymore, which is the big thing now. Like I can’t jump rope, I can’t ruin so I’m kind of on the rebuilding phase for myself. So like legs, I can’t do barbell squats. I can’t have anything pushing down on my shoulders. But I’ve been able to rebuild my body up to 217 pounds. I still have a 33 inch waist, depends on the pants, sometimes 32 but at my size or I got big legs and things like that. But of course my neck is about 20 inches. So I’ve got to be really careful. I can’t say my workouts like there used to be, because they’re not as exciting before I’d do heavy rack pulls with 1800, 1500 pounds. I would do heavy shrugs 585, 635, 740. And all that stuff. I have all those videos on out on social media people wanting to look at them, but now, like I said, the rebuilding phase, but the neck work, I do neck work every day still when I’m in the gym of course I, now I use a I don’t have to put the plate on my head anymore. I’m using the neck flex now, of course.

Corey Beasley [00:21:32]: All right. I was going to ask you about that as far as equipment and stuff like that. Because I know a lot of guys, there’s some different products and stuff like that out there. What are some of the tools or equipment and stuff like that if somebody is wanting to build up their neck in particular that people should be looking at?

Mike Bruce [00:21:49]:Well, if you go to a commercial gym one of the best pieces you can use if they have it as a hammer, string plate loaded four-way neck machine. I have one in my gym. I always, I’ve always had one. Because what I like about the four-way neck machine is that it’s a smooth motion throughout. You don’t get any jerking unless you go really fast and like the energizer bunny and you’re going too quickly. Then it gets kind of, you can get a little sloppy. You want to try to strictly use your neck. You don’t want to use your accessory muscles’ of your stomach where you’re doing or if you’d like, you’re doing a hyperextension. Some guys I’ve seen on video, they’re doing the back of their neck and they’re doing like a hyperextension for crying out loud and their neck, the head not even moving. Then I get no direct network. They’re doing like lower back. I think that’s a great piece. I think of course a standard neck harness, if you don’t one’s in the gym. The problem of the normal neck harnesses is that there’s all different brands and there’s lot of cheap ones that’ll break as soon as you put a lot of load on there and when you build your neck. So if you had a neck harness to use or choose from, I think the two best ones to use other than the neck flex. Because the neck flex is all by itself in my opinion. I would say a Spud Inc and I don’t get any, I don’t get any proximities these guys, I’m just telling you what I think are the best ones, Spud Inc makes a great neck harness. And then the Yukon Hercules’ strip by Ironmind makes a great harness. I never broke one. And they are different, but I think you couldn’t go wrong with either one. The Yukon one a little more expensive actually. It’s quite more expensive than a Spud, but they’re both comfortable. The differences is that the Spud Inc is a chain based neck harness, whereas the Yukon Hercules is two straps and it’s got like a crossbar down where the straps hook too. So it’s a little different. They were both very comfortable. And if you don’t have the money for any of that stuff, but you’re in the gym you can just use a normal weight plate just like you can do a search online, put a plate on your head and lay off the bench and do curls with your chin to your chest. The problem with that is though, as you get a big dot on your head, you look like you just got smashed in the head with a glass or something. And then you’ve got the neck flexed as well, which is different than the other pieces I talked about.

Corey Beasley [00:24:13]: Now the neck flex, you said is your favorite. What makes it different?

Mike Bruce [00:24:22]:Well, the company that made the people that made it, Tom and Zach they contacted me and if I want to try this thing out and at first I thought, here’s another company because I’ve been blessed over the years and have companies contact me about trying some neck products and most of it is junk. It’s just not good in my opinion. So I tried to piece out and they said it was a neck harness with bands and I thought, this is going to be terrible because I’m thinking, come on now with bands, it’s going to be cheap or sloppy. When I got it, I was actually pleasantly surprised that it’s one of the most comfortable in that corner since I’ve ever used the quality is like triple stitched. It’s nylon, the stitching is great. And when you think about a band, you’re thinking, how am I going to get workout with this? I’ve put that thing through. Any kind of exercise I could think of. And that’s one of the beauties with it is that a normal neck harness, you can’t work the sides of your neck. It’s very awkward if you try to do it because there’s no way for the chain to go into science, going to bump your shoulder just doesn’t work. Now the Yukon, they say, you can work this side of your neck and it’s too hard for me to explain it to get a picture to you over the phone. But I tried, I don’t like it. So the neck flex, what it does is it has four rings around the harness and then you can attach the band in abandoned think is 14 pounds of strength. So the closer, for example, if you took the band and you attached it to a fixed object and you stepped further weight in a band, well now the tension of that band is it’s increased. So it’s going to be even harder to move that band. Of course, the closer you are, the easier it is. So that gives us progression that allows a beginner all the way to an intermediate to an advanced person that use that one band. And I’ve got a heck of a workout out of that thing. It’s never broke on me and I’d be able to make it super hard for myself. So I know what I was saying, I kind of got off track was how can we work our side of our neck with that? Well, since we got four rings, you can wrap the band through the front of the rings over your forehead and all you got to do is posted and hock the band around on a fixed objects. And now you can turn your head side to side so you can also work rotation. So you can do forward, you can do rare and you can also rotate, which can symbolize replicate. If you got punched in the side of the face of your fighter and someone gave you a hook shot, well you can duplicate that by turning your head, which we’ve never been able to do that with any other kind of neck harness on the market. Another thing I like about the neck flex is that there’s no jerking. So if anyone’s ever done neck training, you’ve used a neck harness with a chain. I’m sure you guys have all, or ladies have all experienced the jerking motion. When you get it at a good pace, you’re in the zone, you got some heavy weight on there and you’re killing it. And the next thing you know, it starts to jar and then you get a zinger down your neck, which goes into your trap. It’s like a pulled muscle. We call it a zinger in the game. The next set, you don’t have that. It’s even smoother than using a four-way neck machine, if you can believe it because it’s just nice, constant tension. There’s no jerking, there’s no there’s no impingement in the neck. There’s no zingers, nothing like that. And the possibilities of what you can do with this thing all comes down to your imagination. I’ve posted all sorts of videos that I’ve done on my YouTube channel, but as even other exercises that I’m sure other people could think of, it’s quite an amazing piece. I still can’t figure out how somebody didn’t come up with the idea many years ago to use a band, but Tom and Zach have done a really great job with what they’d come up with.

Corey Beasley [00:28:14]: Well, I would imagine that you have flection and extension and but having that rotational aspect is a huge deal.

Mike Bruce [00:28:27]:It changes the whole game. And like you’ve mentioned earlier when we were talking about net training was doing for concussions and even rehab, concussions have become more and more newsworthy now. I mean, it’s in the news all the time you see this person got hurt, this person, and I’m not saying that if you train your neck, you’re not going to get a concussion, but has been proven. There was a study the Comstock is study. That said, if you train your neck, now don’t hold me to exact percentage. I could be saying it wrong, but if you train your neck, then there’s a automatically increases by I think 10 or 20%. You lessen the chance of you getting a concussion just by training your neck. And why would you not want to, I mean, you’re thinking about it. Your head has what inside at your brain, your brain housing group, we call it in the Marine Corps. Well that is a test to your neck. So if you could build your neck up enough to try to protect that, why would you not want to? And same thing with fighting if you have a strong neck, it doesn’t mean you not going to get choked out, but it does give you a better opportunity to prevent being choked unless of course someone gets you full blown on the front. I mean, obviously, but if you have a strong neck, at least give you more chance of not being choked out.

Corey Beasley [00:29:46]: Well, you’re gaining position, wrestling and all that stuff. You use your head a lot. I mean jockeying for position or controlling your opponent or getting around the back or whatever it is.

Mike Bruce [00:29:56]:Yeah, I think it’s imperative that anybody that wants to, that’s in a combative sport or even aesthetics we didn’t talk about that really, because I’m not into that whole thing. But if you think about it this day and age, unfortunately we have a bunch of people in our society, the entitlements syndrome. People are the people that think being a tough guy’s cool. And if you look at people like, I think it was last year, you had these guys that were going around and they were doing that knock out game slept behind you and they smash in the face to women. I mean, what a weak person like where’d all the real men go in this day and age? Think about that. Who are they picking on? They’re usually picking on people that don’t look like they’re in shape. They look weak that look like prey. If you have a big strong neck aesthetically like a football player or a wrestler or something, at least it gives you the look of someone like, it makes you look strong. I’m not saying it would deter a bully, but for the most part, bullies don’t want to scrap with someone that looks depart. And having a big neck does act as a deterrent if you’re also a bodybuilder you don’t want to have a huge shoulders and traps and little stack of dimes for deck, so might not work it’s like when you train, you don’t want to have a little tiny skinny caps when you have big size. I mean, you should work everything, we should, we have one body, we should try and make it the best we can, I think.

Corey Beasley [00:31:36]: Yeah, for sure. Well, good stuff. Well, Mike, if people wanted to learn more about what you’re do, where’s the best place for them to reach out and get more information?

Mike Bruce [00:31:47]:You can reach me at the machine shop. It’s www.machineshopgym.com and then you can also reach me through thenextflexmachine.com and I can get contacted through either one of those that the neck flex machine you can learn more about the neck flex. It’s not a machine, it’s just a harness with bands. But since that’s my nickname, that’s one of the best ways to get to that page. And then YouTube is just like the machine Bruce on those. That’s pretty much because all the emails come through me the machine shop gym page so they can learn more about me that way.

Corey Beasley [00:32:26]: Good stuff. And guys, I’ll put all those links and stuff like that down below. But Mike, thanks again man. I appreciate you sharing and talking with us and we look forward to learning more from you soon.

Mike Bruce [00:32:36]:Was my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I hope that if anything, this at least opened some people’s eyes up to the possibilities of neck training and just strive to be the best you can every day and don’t worry attitude on your sleeve and never quit. I’ll close with this. If you’ve never quit, you’re never going to be a failure no matter what you do in life, on the mat, in a ring or on the field.

Corey Beasley [00:32:55]: Thanks again man. I appreciate it.

Mike Bruce [00:32:57]:Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Have a great day.

Episode Transcript

Full Transcription of Our Podcast with Mike “The Machine” Bruce
Interview with Mike “The Machine” Bruce talking about neck training and coaching life

Corey Beasley [00:00:01]: Hey guys, this is Corey Beasley with fight cam conditioning. I’m on the phone here with Coach Mike Bruce. Mike, how are you doing?

Mike Bruce [00:00:06]:Very good. How are you doing?

Mike Bruce [00:00:21]:Some people in the strength industry know me as Mike the machine Bruce, I’m a professional performing strong man and motivational speaker. I run a private gym here where I live in Kentucky and I’ve been blessed to be able to I’ve done some things in a strength world that’s kind of got my name out there. Basically with heavy rack pulls and mainly neck training is what I’m known for. I’m a former United States Marine on a graduate out of Paris Island as well as former five times submission wrestling champion between 1996 and 2000. So that’s a basically to spend time training my clients. And then when I’m not with my clients at my gym, I love spending time with my wife and my two dogs. That’s pretty much of course if I’m out on the road speaking and doing a show that’s pretty much where I’m at.

Corey Beasley [00:01:11]: Mike, how long have you been trained for?

Mike Bruce [00:01:14]:I’ve been trained as I was 13 years old. I’m 42 right now I will turned 42 in a week. I’ve been training pretty much nonstop since I was 13. I started off as an amateur wrestler and I’ve trained ever since. Never really missed the time except for a few injuries. But training is my life. I only high I have real, you don’t get this love to getting the blood flowing and building our body the best we can.

Corey Beasley [00:01:41]: Now you grew up a wrestling and then you did a submission wrestling afterwards, is that correct?

Mike Bruce [00:01:49]:Yes, I was an immature wrestler and to high school, but I had quite an attitude on my sleeve that I wore. And it hindered me a lot. I was that I was a starting wrestler at one 71, but my attitude and my ego was so out of control that I actually was the moated and taken down and put on JV. And then I was kicked off the team two years in a row cause my attitude. So I try to make over some lost time. So I ended up taking six in the state, Massachusetts my senior year. And then when I went and joined the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps straightened me out. And I’m like, as I said earlier, I was on, I was selected as your honor undergrad. I have a particular 2170 hotel company. And then once I got out of the military at that time the MMA world was not a buzz like it is now. It just started. And so I ended up competing in submission, grappling mainly submission, wrestling. I’m not a jiu jitsu player at all. And I ended up becoming a five time champion as well as the state champion in judo. So much later in life when I was about 22, 23, 24 is where I had my final success that many in high school thought I would have had been. I learned that you get a head Southern lights being a gentleman and not wearing your attitude on your sleeve and that there’s always someone better than you and be humble. So I ended up achieving the goals that I have for myself at a younger age, but later on in life.

Mike Bruce [00:03:23]:Well, I was always trained as I was 13. And I’ve remember when I was a kid, a lot of people in the gym, the older guys that had taken me out under their wing and trained me and taught me how to train they always said, you’ve got such good genetics and you’re so strong. And I was always a thinner kid. Back when I was younger. I had big goofy ears and a weird looking hair. Hair color was like a pipe cleaner or a pencil eraser. So I had to build my body up to support the ears and the ego I guess. And I’ve just always trained and when I went in the Marine Corps and they select you as the honor grad, they select a person. And of course I was the number one guy for the PFT in boot camp and then I was selected as honor grad. And I’ve just always I came from a real trouble childhood as a kid. And so that the gym was always my safe house. It’s what helped me to not go down the same route that was put before me as a child. I was beaten really badly by my mom’s second husband. My biological father was not a good person and it took a long time. When my mom finally remarried again to the man whose name I have, Mr. Bruce you know what, I was able to get out of that avoid the bogeyman, let’s say the dark spot in my life as a child. So I contributed that to Mr. Bruce as well as the gym. The gym has always been my safe Haven. I feel more comfortable in the gym than I do in church.

Corey Beasley [00:04:49]: It’s good you found an outlet, you know?

Mike Bruce [00:04:52]:Yeah, the gym you can learn everything in the gym, to me the gym is not just like, let’s go in there and see who’s the biggest bad has got to go in the gym. To me it’s spiritual to me. I mean, it sounds kind of funky. I guess, but when you’ve been in, if there’s anyone out there who’s been through hard times as a child or even as an adult, but for me as a kid, for what I went through as a kid, being beaten on by a 260 pound man as a little skinny kid, when you go into gym and you go through failures, but if you never quit, you never going to be a failure. And that’s something I always say when I do my shows and I speak across the United States, I know I do one thing, greatness be me and I never quit and I’ve had many failures in the gym. But when you keep going and you say, okay, I didn’t get this certain lift today, I didn’t get it tomorrow, I didn’t get it last week. But then eventually when you do get that lift or that maybe it’s an extra rep or maybe you finished a certain conditioning drill in a certain time and you bettered yourself that rewards from that it’s almost euphoric. It’s a high and the gym is why I don’t drink alcohol. I don’t smoke. I’ve never done any kind of drugs. I’m probably the only Marine you’ll ever meet that’s never been drunk. But I attribute that to because my biological father was an alcoholic, so that’s why I don’t drink alcohol. But the gym it’s always been said iron never lies. And so you learn success you learn failure, you learn discipline, you learn consistency, you learn work ethic, all of those things. Of course you learn those in wrestling, but in the gym by yourself, I think when you have the self-discipline to push yourself when you’re alone and not with other people, I think it can make you a stronger man or a woman. It just depends on what you decide to do with it.

Corey Beasley [00:06:40]: Now you train hard and you competed, and then you kind of made a name for yourself, like neck training. How did you kind of get started with that?

Mike Bruce [00:06:52]:Well, the whole thing was the neck was of course as you know wrestling, you have to have a strong neck because where the head goes, the body follows. And that’s an old saying that all the rest of us have said. And I started working in my neck very young, at 13 of course in wrestling we did bridges and also the neck bridges. But I was the only guy in the gym, the commercial gym. I’d sell newspapers I think back then we had paper routes. I don’t know if they still do that nowadays, but out in Massachusetts we had paper routes. So I’d say my money and try to get a membership at the gym and I was one of the first guys in the gym or kids I should say to do neck curls with a plate on my head. I didn’t have a neck harness and didn’t have the money for one. And I remember along with the wrestling there was more to it than that based off my childhood is I could never look a man in the eye. Because I was so scared, I shook with a real loose handshake and a limp wrist and I couldn’t look a man in face because of my childhood. And I thought, well if I build my neck up a lot, I can only look up or I can look straight, I can’t look down anymore. And that’s even as a young kid, I figured that out and I thought, well, I’m going to build myself up enough not to be a big tough guy but as armor to basically combat my stepfather. And the neck I just did it religiously nonstop. And I always had a really big thick neck, even at 170 pounds. I wrestled in high school. My neck was like 18 almost 19 at the time. And that’s pretty big for a guy, 170 is not really a big guy you’re really lean. I was really lean because I was about five, 10 and a half at one 171. And then as I got older, I’ve always trained, so I started going to put some real big numbers. So I set a world record in 2007 in Lakeland, Florida with a neck harness. I picked up 300 pounds for two reps and I didn’t do a stiff lift. I actually lifted with my head where my head went down and I came back up. And we have pictures of that. Unfortunately, the video of that got damaged in the mail when I did it at a gentleman named bud Jeffries. He was one of my first mentors in a strength game. But there is pictures all over. That’s one of the most used photos for strength sites that want to talk about neck training they usually take my picture and I has been in some bodybuilding magazines that are very common. I’m not a bodybuilder, that’s not my thing, but it’s very humbling when they use your pictures in magazines.

Corey Beasley [00:09:09]: Of course, at 300 pounds and neck extension is ridiculous weight?

Mike Bruce [00:09:19]:I was in my thirties and I was 202 and then I also, recently in 2012, I set a record here in Kentucky. Because I’m known, I used to always have a bar of five eights piece of steel going across the front of my throat. I’d be on my knees, have someone get behind with their knee, between my shoulder blades and they rack the bar around my neck. And I did up many of them over the years. But I set a record, I was able to have seven, five, eight pieces of steel and across my throat within 57 seconds. And now I no longer allowed to do that anymore due to I caused too many scorings around my esophagus. And the risk afterwards, if I keep doing it, it doesn’t mean it’ll happen. But the cardiologist said that I could have scarring flake off and give me a stroke. So my wife’s threatened me and said, you are not allowed to do that anymore. And then my doctors too. So I don’t do that one anymore.

Corey Beasley [00:10:15]:Now, for a lot of guys that are listening, we got wrestlers and jiu jitus guys and boxers and coaches and MMA guys and all different types of people, but a lot of combat athletes. I mean I think the benefits of having a strong neck are very apparent and from injury prevention to even as research and stuff, now talking about concussion and preventing can check concussions with it by having a strong neck. For a lot of these guys that are listening, where would you recommend that they start?

Mike Bruce [00:10:48]:Well, I can only say what worked for me and I was known back in 2006 actually, there wasn’t much written about in that training. There was some stuff. But when I came out with a program that back then called TNT total neck training, it was a DVD and it, it came out and I trained very high volume. Because again, I was a wrestler so I wasn’t trying to be like a bodybuilding like, I’m going up on a build my neck and then rest the day. What I did was I can just tell you what I did and then how I would train a new person. Now what I did was any time I was in a gym, which was usually five days a week, sometimes six, I worked my neck every day. The reason for this was because I had wrestled since I was 13. So I believed in building my neck up enough endurance wise to handle the load of a match because in a wrestling match or if you’re a jiu jitsu player or even in an MMA or because I was a judo player. Well that guy’s not going to pull in the back of your head nice and gentle. Like he’s trying to give you a hug. He’s going to grab your head or grab your ear and try to snap you down at hard as he can. So I believe in training to duplicate what I was going to experience on the match. So if I think of the guys that come combat athletes, I think you should train your neck to match that accordingly. So my thing was always three sets of a hundred. I would lay on my back and do net corrals. I’d do a hundred reps that I’d use a neck harness and do a hundred reps and then I would lay on the side of my body and put a plate on the side of my head. And I would do a hundred reps each side. And as I got better in time, of course, now remember I was doing this since I was 13 so when I was a kid, I’d start off with a five pound plate and then I gradually worked up to the point where I was using the 45 pound plate, then I would use 90 pounds on my head. So that’s just the progression. I didn’t just start off and say, I’m going to put a 45 on my head and do it. We got to use our brain. We have one. It’s just unfortunately this day and age so many people don’t want to use their brain. They want to just act like they’re lunacy or something. They weren’t looking around and not know what they’re doing. You got to think so you start off small progressions and I would train to match. So if you’re an amateur boxer and you’re going to your rounds are two minutes, then I would suggest working your neck from each angle for two minutes to match what you experienced for the rounds. If it’s a three rounds or four rounds, whatever it may be. Now if you had a guy coming that was looking to build more mas and not necessarily a strength and endurance, then of course I would say, let’s do three sets of maybe 20 reps and each in each angle of the neck, front, back and sides and let’s go Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Because you want to have a day of rest in between. But what’s going to happen is that you probably know is that when you never worked your neck before, the first few times you do it, you’re neck going to be so stiff. Because the lactic acid in the muscle, you got to be able to turn your head. So I think it’s important to work that don’t go through that Callison period, which is two to four weeks to where that feeling goes away. Because at first can be like, my god, I hurt myself. What did I do? Because the muscle and then the in your neck is not used to the load that I’m being put under. So I think for all combat guys, football players, anything like that, I think it should be worked daily because you want to get it to point where you’re not getting sore anymore and you want to get your neck used to what it’s going to experience.

Corey Beasley [00:14:22]: So just get used to that day in, day out grind?

Mike Bruce [00:14:26]:It worked for me. That doesn’t mean of course its going work for everybody else. But that is what works for me. And many of the people that I’ve trained over the years or that had that TNT course back in the day, the results have been very good all across the world. So it just, the person’s going to be decided what their goal is and what they’re looking to do and then go from there. Because everybody’s different the same as when you’re with training someone for jiu jitsu or MMA, you can’t train everybody to sing cause everybody, one guy might want to fight tall, one guy might want to fight short, one guy might want to lean to the side, one guy might be a counter puncher and one guy might be super aggressive. So you’ve got to kind of tweak it to the individual’s needs.

Corey Beasley [00:15:11]: That’s awesome. Now, Mike, over the years you said you had a few people that you learn most of your stuff from. Who are some of the people that you kind of studied under?

Mike Bruce [00:15:24]: Okay. When it comes to submission grappling. I was the best I ever was when I had a couple instructors, but when it comes to submission grappling it was Tim Gillette of the and in me out of fall river, Massachusetts and was trained by Jason DeLucia who was one of the early fighters from the UFC back in I think UFC one in either two or three, I don’t remember. And then he had a successful career in Tanqueray’s. So Tim was trained under Jason and Tim has a system called PCs five, which is positioning controls submission and it’s basically catch wrestling. And that’s what I studied under certified as a full instructor under him in 2005. In judo, my instructor was [Inaudible 00:16:10] form Mayo quasi judo club at a westward land, a super successful with judo. He’s also served as an assistant for the Olympics. I don’t think it was this past Olympics. I think it was the one prior when it comes through strength training, and performing feats of strength such as twisting horseshoes, bending steel. My two mentors are Bud Jeffries that are leaked in Florida. And then a Grandmaster strong man, Dennis Rogers, Bud trained me and had been things and got me started. And then Dennis kind of took me from there and kind of tweaked me more on how to perform when you’re in front of an audience. Because everything we do, there’s a lot of tricksters out there. And when I twist a horseshoe, it’s legit. We don’t do anything fake. We’re not a magician or illusionist. So those two guys. And then one other person that sparked my interest in strength training was Judd Johnson from the diesel crew. So that’s basically my lineage. And all those guys are very nice and humble people. They’re not clowns. I don’t act foolish or talk bad about anybody.

Corey Beasley [00:17:19]: That’s good. So to this day, I mean, you’re still training hard. You’re training five, six days a week?

Mike Bruce [00:17:29]:I train as the best I can. I got hurt in the Marine Corps and then I’ve done 93 strength shows over the years since 2007 and I suffered a very life changing lower back injury about a year and a half ago. So I am training the best I can with certain limitations. But thankfully I avoided surgery and I had nerve damage in my left leg, but everything’s good, so I’m still pushing and I lost a lot of weight. I went down to 181 pounds when I was injured because I couldn’t walk for like three weeks. I had to use a Walker after that. So I’m back up to 217. I’m about to start, I’m actually speaking this Friday for veteran’s day at a school here in town. And I’ll probably start doing some shows again. Maybe still bend some things, but not anywhere near the volume that I did before, I used to do like 12 different sets. Now I’ll probably do four or five, but I do the best I can as we get older you got to really watch what you’re doing. You can still train hard, but you still try to get better every day, but you just got to train a little smarter than before.

Mike Bruce [00:19:14]:Well, my workout is kind of now due to the injury that I’m about 95% healed I would say. But a lot of the things that I was known for strength wise was like dead lifting. I did lifted 695 at 198 pounds, all natural. And I can’t do that stuff anymore. So my workout now, I train five to six days a week. And what I do is Monday would be an upper body day, Tuesdays, lower body. And then I alternate that every day. And most of my stuff I have to do, I have to do it laying. I have to be supported somehow whether I’m laying down on her, like if I was going to do dumbbell rows for example, or I can’t do barbell rows. So if I was doing dumbbell rows, I’d have to lay down on a bench and do a short motion on an incline bench. So my workouts, for example, I would do, like yesterday I did close grip barbell presses, I did heavy chin-ups with weight attached that doesn’t bother me. I did seated dumbbell shrubs. So I did some grip work and I twisted some horseshoes because a lot of the things with me, I can’t do a lot of functional training anymore, which is the big thing now. Like I can’t jump rope, I can’t ruin so I’m kind of on the rebuilding phase for myself. So like legs, I can’t do barbell squats. I can’t have anything pushing down on my shoulders. But I’ve been able to rebuild my body up to 217 pounds. I still have a 33 inch waist, depends on the pants, sometimes 32 but at my size or I got big legs and things like that. But of course my neck is about 20 inches. So I’ve got to be really careful. I can’t say my workouts like there used to be, because they’re not as exciting before I’d do heavy rack pulls with 1800, 1500 pounds. I would do heavy shrugs 585, 635, 740. And all that stuff. I have all those videos on out on social media people wanting to look at them, but now, like I said, the rebuilding phase, but the neck work, I do neck work every day still when I’m in the gym of course I, now I use a I don’t have to put the plate on my head anymore. I’m using the neck flex now, of course.

Mike Bruce [00:21:49]:Well, if you go to a commercial gym one of the best pieces you can use if they have it as a hammer, string plate loaded four-way neck machine. I have one in my gym. I always, I’ve always had one. Because what I like about the four-way neck machine is that it’s a smooth motion throughout. You don’t get any jerking unless you go really fast and like the energizer bunny and you’re going too quickly. Then it gets kind of, you can get a little sloppy. You want to try to strictly use your neck. You don’t want to use your accessory muscles’ of your stomach where you’re doing or if you’d like, you’re doing a hyperextension. Some guys I’ve seen on video, they’re doing the back of their neck and they’re doing like a hyperextension for crying out loud and their neck, the head not even moving. Then I get no direct network. They’re doing like lower back. I think that’s a great piece. I think of course a standard neck harness, if you don’t one’s in the gym. The problem of the normal neck harnesses is that there’s all different brands and there’s lot of cheap ones that’ll break as soon as you put a lot of load on there and when you build your neck. So if you had a neck harness to use or choose from, I think the two best ones to use other than the neck flex. Because the neck flex is all by itself in my opinion. I would say a Spud Inc and I don’t get any, I don’t get any proximities these guys, I’m just telling you what I think are the best ones, Spud Inc makes a great neck harness. And then the Yukon Hercules’ strip by Ironmind makes a great harness. I never broke one. And they are different, but I think you couldn’t go wrong with either one. The Yukon one a little more expensive actually. It’s quite more expensive than a Spud, but they’re both comfortable. The differences is that the Spud Inc is a chain based neck harness, whereas the Yukon Hercules is two straps and it’s got like a crossbar down where the straps hook too. So it’s a little different. They were both very comfortable. And if you don’t have the money for any of that stuff, but you’re in the gym you can just use a normal weight plate just like you can do a search online, put a plate on your head and lay off the bench and do curls with your chin to your chest. The problem with that is though, as you get a big dot on your head, you look like you just got smashed in the head with a glass or something. And then you’ve got the neck flexed as well, which is different than the other pieces I talked about.

Corey Beasley [00:24:13]: Now the neck flex, you said is your favorite. What makes it different?

Mike Bruce [00:24:22]:Well, the company that made the people that made it, Tom and Zach they contacted me and if I want to try this thing out and at first I thought, here’s another company because I’ve been blessed over the years and have companies contact me about trying some neck products and most of it is junk. It’s just not good in my opinion. So I tried to piece out and they said it was a neck harness with bands and I thought, this is going to be terrible because I’m thinking, come on now with bands, it’s going to be cheap or sloppy. When I got it, I was actually pleasantly surprised that it’s one of the most comfortable in that corner since I’ve ever used the quality is like triple stitched. It’s nylon, the stitching is great. And when you think about a band, you’re thinking, how am I going to get workout with this? I’ve put that thing through. Any kind of exercise I could think of. And that’s one of the beauties with it is that a normal neck harness, you can’t work the sides of your neck. It’s very awkward if you try to do it because there’s no way for the chain to go into science, going to bump your shoulder just doesn’t work. Now the Yukon, they say, you can work this side of your neck and it’s too hard for me to explain it to get a picture to you over the phone. But I tried, I don’t like it. So the neck flex, what it does is it has four rings around the harness and then you can attach the band in abandoned think is 14 pounds of strength. So the closer, for example, if you took the band and you attached it to a fixed object and you stepped further weight in a band, well now the tension of that band is it’s increased. So it’s going to be even harder to move that band. Of course, the closer you are, the easier it is. So that gives us progression that allows a beginner all the way to an intermediate to an advanced person that use that one band. And I’ve got a heck of a workout out of that thing. It’s never broke on me and I’d be able to make it super hard for myself. So I know what I was saying, I kind of got off track was how can we work our side of our neck with that? Well, since we got four rings, you can wrap the band through the front of the rings over your forehead and all you got to do is posted and hock the band around on a fixed objects. And now you can turn your head side to side so you can also work rotation. So you can do forward, you can do rare and you can also rotate, which can symbolize replicate. If you got punched in the side of the face of your fighter and someone gave you a hook shot, well you can duplicate that by turning your head, which we’ve never been able to do that with any other kind of neck harness on the market. Another thing I like about the neck flex is that there’s no jerking. So if anyone’s ever done neck training, you’ve used a neck harness with a chain. I’m sure you guys have all, or ladies have all experienced the jerking motion. When you get it at a good pace, you’re in the zone, you got some heavy weight on there and you’re killing it. And the next thing you know, it starts to jar and then you get a zinger down your neck, which goes into your trap. It’s like a pulled muscle. We call it a zinger in the game. The next set, you don’t have that. It’s even smoother than using a four-way neck machine, if you can believe it because it’s just nice, constant tension. There’s no jerking, there’s no there’s no impingement in the neck. There’s no zingers, nothing like that. And the possibilities of what you can do with this thing all comes down to your imagination. I’ve posted all sorts of videos that I’ve done on my YouTube channel, but as even other exercises that I’m sure other people could think of, it’s quite an amazing piece. I still can’t figure out how somebody didn’t come up with the idea many years ago to use a band, but Tom and Zach have done a really great job with what they’d come up with.

Corey Beasley [00:28:14]: Well, I would imagine that you have flection and extension and but having that rotational aspect is a huge deal.

Mike Bruce [00:28:27]:It changes the whole game. And like you’ve mentioned earlier when we were talking about net training was doing for concussions and even rehab, concussions have become more and more newsworthy now. I mean, it’s in the news all the time you see this person got hurt, this person, and I’m not saying that if you train your neck, you’re not going to get a concussion, but has been proven. There was a study the Comstock is study. That said, if you train your neck, now don’t hold me to exact percentage. I could be saying it wrong, but if you train your neck, then there’s a automatically increases by I think 10 or 20%. You lessen the chance of you getting a concussion just by training your neck. And why would you not want to, I mean, you’re thinking about it. Your head has what inside at your brain, your brain housing group, we call it in the Marine Corps. Well that is a test to your neck. So if you could build your neck up enough to try to protect that, why would you not want to? And same thing with fighting if you have a strong neck, it doesn’t mean you not going to get choked out, but it does give you a better opportunity to prevent being choked unless of course someone gets you full blown on the front. I mean, obviously, but if you have a strong neck, at least give you more chance of not being choked out.

Mike Bruce [00:29:56]:Yeah, I think it’s imperative that anybody that wants to, that’s in a combative sport or even aesthetics we didn’t talk about that really, because I’m not into that whole thing. But if you think about it this day and age, unfortunately we have a bunch of people in our society, the entitlements syndrome. People are the people that think being a tough guy’s cool. And if you look at people like, I think it was last year, you had these guys that were going around and they were doing that knock out game slept behind you and they smash in the face to women. I mean, what a weak person like where’d all the real men go in this day and age? Think about that. Who are they picking on? They’re usually picking on people that don’t look like they’re in shape. They look weak that look like prey. If you have a big strong neck aesthetically like a football player or a wrestler or something, at least it gives you the look of someone like, it makes you look strong. I’m not saying it would deter a bully, but for the most part, bullies don’t want to scrap with someone that looks depart. And having a big neck does act as a deterrent if you’re also a bodybuilder you don’t want to have a huge shoulders and traps and little stack of dimes for deck, so might not work it’s like when you train, you don’t want to have a little tiny skinny caps when you have big size. I mean, you should work everything, we should, we have one body, we should try and make it the best we can, I think.

Corey Beasley [00:31:36]: Yeah, for sure. Well, good stuff. Well, Mike, if people wanted to learn more about what you’re do, where’s the best place for them to reach out and get more information?

Mike Bruce [00:31:47]:You can reach me at the machine shop. It’s www.machineshopgym.com and then you can also reach me through thenextflexmachine.com and I can get contacted through either one of those that the neck flex machine you can learn more about the neck flex. It’s not a machine, it’s just a harness with bands. But since that’s my nickname, that’s one of the best ways to get to that page. And then YouTube is just like the machine Bruce on those. That’s pretty much because all the emails come through me the machine shop gym page so they can learn more about me that way.

Mike Bruce [00:32:36]:Was my pleasure. Thanks for having me. I hope that if anything, this at least opened some people’s eyes up to the possibilities of neck training and just strive to be the best you can every day and don’t worry attitude on your sleeve and never quit. I’ll close with this. If you’ve never quit, you’re never going to be a failure no matter what you do in life, on the mat, in a ring or on the field.

Corey Beasley [00:32:55]: Thanks again man. I appreciate it.

Mike Bruce [00:32:57]:Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Have a great day.

Episode #57: Neck Training and Life w/ Mike “The Machine” Bruce

Full Transcription of Our Podcast with Mike “The Machine” Bruce

5 Physical Challenges to Test Your Limits