Today, I’m going to quickly discuss what the Trapezius does, where it is and show four good exercise to help BUILD IT!
The Trapezius – a.k.a Traps or Trapz – is one of the major back muscles responsible for moving, rotating and stabilising the shoulder blade as well as extension of your head from the neck.
In the gym it’s commonly split into 3 parts. The upper Trapezius – which we’re going to discuss today. The lower Trapezius and middle Trapezius.
In my opinion – having big traps makes a big statement of strength and power.
Today, I want to show you how to grow your upper Trapz so it looks like you have two small mountains sitting either side of your neck.
The main role of the UPPER Trapezius is ELEVATION of the shoulder girdle.
So, we need to do exercises that involve – you guessed it – elevation of the shoulder girdle.
It’s important also, to get a full range of movement from stretch and extension at the bottom – up to fully squeezed and contracted as hard as possible at the top.
It’s common to see lads in the gym using massive weights doing super heavy shrugs.
That almost certainly results in shit technique and half reps that cause more damage to your shoulder joint than anything else.
Normally, your best bet is to lower the weight – which will allow you complete full range of movement and increase the TUT (Time Under Tension).
By controlling the movement, all the way down, stretch, control and squeeze up – hold and SQUEEEEZEE for 2 seconds at the top of the rep… You’ll almost certainly notice your traps developing.
By also incorporating these exercise I’m giving you today – you’re sure to be on the way to big powerful looking upper traps.
Just remember, all the way down, stretch, all the way up squeeze hard for 2 seconds.
In Summary – increase the range of movement – increase the time under tension – hold the weight at the top with a hard squeeze – then add these exercises below to your routine!
Exercise #1) Dumbbell Shrugs
Exercise #2) Single Arm Anterior Shrug
See the above video for typical dumbbell shrug.
To complete this exercise adjust the technique slightly.
Hold only one dumbbell or plate. To the front of your thigh – not to your side.
Shrug the weight.
By holding the weight in front of you, rather than to the side – you should notice you are able to shrug a lot higher doing one arm at a time and also by holding the weight in front of you.
Thus, increasing the power of the contraction and enabling you to SQUEEZE the Trapezius harder.
Exercise #3) Barbell Upright Rows
Exercise #4) Upright Row – Above Head
Typically, with an upright row as in the video above – you’d just bring the bar up to neck height.
By dropping the weight, using the same technique – get that bar a little higher and bring it above your head.
