Ask someone in the weight room to point to their trapezius muscle, or \u201ctraps\u201d in gym-speak, and they\u2019ll probably gesture toward the small mounds of muscle nestled in between their neck and shoulders. But while those are technically part of your traps, they\u2019re really just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s actually a lot more mass to the traps than most people realise,\u201d says Luke Carlson, founder and CEO of Discover Strength<\/a>. Your traps are a diamond-shaped group of muscle fibres that extend from the sides of your neck to your shoulders and down to a point at around your mid-back, covering about a third of the visible muscle on your back.<\/p>\n However, many of the best trap exercises live in a gray area somewhere in between shoulder day<\/a> and back day<\/a>, so they\u2019re often left out of both. \u201cWhen someone wants to add lean muscle<\/a> tissue, a lot of times they think about the chest<\/a>, the lats, the biceps<\/a>, and the triceps<\/a>,\u201d Carlson says. \u201cBut we usually miss out on training the traps, and there\u2019s a significant amount of muscle tissue there.\u201d<\/p>\n Increasing your overall muscle mass isn\u2019t the only reason to do trap exercises. According to experts, strengthening your traps can prevent injuries in and out of the gym and even help protect your neck from the posture-destroying effects<\/a> of staring at your phone.<\/p>\n Why you should train your traps<\/p>\n Developing your traps is a surefire way to fill out a formidable physique (see: Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine<\/a>) because, unlike most back muscles, they\u2019re also top-tier mirror muscles. \u201cI think it\u2019s a great muscle to train, because it\u2019s just so visible, whether you\u2019re wearing a T-shirt, tank top, or even a dress shirt,\u201d says Carlson.<\/p>\n But cutting a hulking silhouette isn\u2019t the only way that targeting your traps can benefit your appearance. \u201cThe other benefit of training the traps is we can prevent things like kyphosis, which is that forward curvature of the spinal column\u2014what we call \u2019tech neck\u2019 today,\u201d Carlson says. \u201cThe traps are what pull the head and the neck back. So, from a posture standpoint, it\u2019s an awesome muscle to train.\u201d<\/p>\n Giving your traps the attention they deserve can pay dividends in your other workouts too. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously great for posture and your day-to-day, but working your traps is also going to carry over into keeping your shoulders healthy for pressing and other movements,\u201d says Antony Brown, personal training leader at Life Time<\/a> in Lake Zurich, Illinois.<\/p>\n \u201cThe traps really stabilise the shoulder joint,\u201d says Brown. \u201cIf we can better lock the shoulders back and down on the bench press<\/a>, or keep them nice and stable while overhead pressing, that\u2019s going to lead to a much stronger press because you\u2019ve got a way stronger base.\u201d<\/p>\n Ready to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of your upper back? Here are the three best trap exercises, according to personal trainers.<\/p>\n Three trainer-approved exercises for building bigger traps<\/p>\n Shrug<\/p>\n Shrugs target the upper portion of the traps\u2014the part that\u2019s most visible in the mirror and, of course, selfies. \u201cThis is what you see when you look at someone\u2019s neck and shoulders from the front,\u201d Carlson says. Working on your upper traps is one of the best ways to get yoked around your neck area, and shrugs are both the simplest and most efficient way to do it. Fortunately, it\u2019s also one of the most accessible exercises out there. No gym membership?<\/a> No problem. You can do shrugs with a pair of dumbbells<\/a> or kettlebells, or a barbell or trap bar, but in a pinch you could use anything from grocery bags to backpacks filled with books, as long as you\u2019re able to keep the weight somewhat even between them.<\/p>\n How to do it:<\/p>\n Grab a pair of dumbbells and stand tall with one weight in each hand, arms hanging at your sides. This is your starting position.Keeping your arms straight, slowly shrug your shoulders up toward your ears. \u201cOf course, your shoulders aren\u2019t actually going to touch your ears, but that\u2019s kind of your goal,\u201d Carlson says. \u201cThe key is you\u2019re focused on pulling the shoulders straight up\u201d\u2014and not allowing them to roll forwards or backwards.Pause for a count at the top of the rep. You can accentuate the muscle contraction by \u201cpulling your collarbones up towards your ears and slightly bending your elbows,\u201d says Brown.Slowly lower your shoulders with control to return to the starting position. Be sure to lower the weights all the way down until you feel a stretch in your upper traps. That\u2019s one rep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask someone in the weight room to point to their trapezius muscle, or \u201ctraps\u201d in gym-speak, and they\u2019ll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,1100,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-291800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-gym","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}