How to pump up a powerful trapezius? 6 most effective exercises and trainer’s tips

boxing, kickboxing, Thai boxing trainer, fighter of “Nashe Delo” promotion

The shoulder girdle is an important part of the body. These muscles are involved in many back and arm exercises. The upper body can look visually incomplete if the trapezius muscles are not developed. There is an interesting nuance: everyone’s trapezius grows differently. For some people, even from a small load and a small weight, the muscles grow in proportion to the shoulders and back. For others, the picture can be quite different – even heavy weight and focused load on the trapezius gives a very modest result, violating the proportions of the body. In this article we will look at how to train the trapezius correctly and what exercises will give the best result.

Anatomy of the trapezius muscles

To understand how to properly load this muscle group, it is worth first delving into the anatomy. The trapezius is a triangular flat muscle that is located in the upper back and adjoins the neck muscles. Visually, it is divided into three parts:

1. Upper – adjacent to the neck, it is involved in lifting the shoulders upward.
2. The middle one is located between the shoulder blades and is involved in lifting them up.
3. Lower – located at the bottom of the shoulder blades, it is responsible for lowering the scapular bones.

Why train the trapezius?

Keeping this muscle group toned is essential for every athlete. A strong trapezius will increase your strength results in basic exercises such as deadlift or bench press. It will also reduce the load on your shoulder joints, reduce spinal curvature and minimize the risk of injury.

By working all parts of the trapezius, you will be able to:

• make your back muscular. The trapezius largely determines how powerful and sculpted you will look from the back;
• improve your posture. Underdevelopment of the trapezius results in slouching, and asymmetry results in scoliosis. A strong muscle helps keep your back straight and your shoulders squared. You will get rid of cervical pain and feel more confident;
• improve performance in a variety of sports. The trapezius stabilizes the shoulder blades and shoulders, increasing the power of your throw or kick. If you want to succeed in any sports, you can’t do without a strong trapezius.

What trapezius exercises should you perform?

Shrugs with free weights

Effective for pumping the upper part of the trapezius. The movement should be amplitude. You can work with more weight to better feel the stretching of the muscles.

Tehnika

• Stand up straight, feet shoulder width apart. Take a dumbbell in each hand and hold them at the sides of your body.
• Keep your back straight and tense throughout the exercise.
• As you inhale, lower your shoulders down, and as you exhale, raise them as much as possible.
• Use special straps to keep your arms from getting tired quickly.

You can perform shrugs and with a barbell. This will be a lighter version.

Shrugs on the block

In this variation of the exercise, the arms are angled away from the body for better workout of the trapezius.

Tehnika

• Grab the handle with your right hand and turn your right side to the simulator.
• Raise the working shoulder up, turning the body to the right.
• Do the same number of repetitions for the right and left arms.

Pulling the bar to the chin

A good exercise for pumping the trapezius. It is important to observe one nuance: it is necessary to grab the bar with a grip twice wider than the shoulders. Then the exercise will be safe, and you will better work the necessary muscles.

Tehnika

• Stand up straight, feet shoulder-width apart. Your back is straight, your abs are tense.
• Grasp the bar with a straight, wide grip.
• Raise your elbows to shoulder height and lower them back down.
• Perform the movement smoothly and make sure that you do not sway due to the work of your arms.

Arm out to the side on the block

This movement is often performed to pump up the middle delts, but it is also a great way to load the trapezius.

Tehnika

• Take the handle in your right hand and turn to the machine on your left side.
• Move your arm out to the side up to shoulder level and lower it back down.

Shoulder transfer from the Y-lift to yourself

This is a rather complex exercise that combines two movements at once: lifting the arms above the head and pulling.

Tehnika

• Lie on the floor on your stomach, place the dumbbells at shoulder level, pull them off the floor.
• As you inhale, bring your shoulder blades together and bend your elbows, pulling the dumbbells to your shoulders.
• As you exhale, extend your arms with the dumbbells in front of you.

Pancake overhead

It pumps the lower part of the trapezius muscle. It is better to perform this exercise in a limited range of motion.

Tehnika

• Stand up straight, feet shoulder width apart. Your back is straight, your abs are tense.
• Take a pancake, extend straight arms in front of you.
• Raise the pancake above your head and lower it down.

How often should I exercise the trapezius?

The trapezius tolerates loads well and recovers quickly thanks to the endurance muscle fibers. It’s important to remember that these muscles work in many other exercises, such as deadlifts, pull-ups, etc. You should not build a whole workout to pump the trapezius.

1-2 exercises will be enough to work this muscle group. Select the working weight so that you can perform repetitions with good technique, but at the same time feel fatigue and burning in the muscles on the last repetitions.

For all the benefits of these exercises, there are still some contraindications. For example, it is necessary to increase weights slowly and gradually, but this can be harmful to the spine if you have any chronic diseases. People who do not have a strong muscular corset of the back or have a herniated spine, it is necessary to perform these exercises lying on the bench. This way you will reduce the strain on your back, but your trapezius muscles will be well engaged.

It is important that the trapezius can only grow well from indirect loading, so for the first six months of training, pump your back and strengthen your torso. Only after that, move on to exercises that focus on the trapezius muscles.

Why shouldn’t beginners train trapezius muscles?

The trapezius only truly begins to develop and grow after the shoulders and back delts have grown and strengthened. If you start to train only the trapezius, your shoulders will visually appear narrow, breaking the natural proportions of your body.

Recommendations for trapezius training

Do not use too much working weight. In pumping the trapezius you need to watch the amplitude and feel the maximum contraction of the muscles at the top point, not chase the heavy weight.

Do not press your chin to your chest. This puts more strain on the cervical region and can lead to injury and post-workout pain.

Perform more reps. Typically, the standard 8-12 circuit doesn’t give the trapezius muscles enough time under load. Start with 12-15 reps and then move up to 15-20 reps. When you increase the number of reps, you’ll immediately feel soreness in your trapezius, which signals muscle growth. The key is not to strain your neck while performing the exercise.

Use supersets. You can combine shrugs with pulling movements – so you will properly “hammer the muscles”. Another technique that works is to do dropsets at the end. Reduce the working weight and do a few more sets with a light weight.

Watch your posture. Slouching does not allow you to fully train the trapezius, because the amplitude of movement is reduced.

Train the trapezius at the beginning of your workout. Start with a few exercises focusing on the trapezius and then move on to working the back. You’ll feel the workout become more effective.

Do stretching. For a good fascia stretch at the end of your workout, try wrapping your wrist straps around a heavy barbell and let your arms just hang in a stretched position. This will relax the muscles and they will recover much faster from the intense exercise.

Why should you pay attention to nutrition?

It plays a huge role in the training process, 60% of success depends on it. Calories should be selected from the chosen mode of exercise.

To pump up the trapezius, you will have to increase the total weight. Increase the total caloric content of your diet and pay attention to protein mass. But do not overeat! After all, when the stomach is full, the energy is spent on digestion, and the muscles at this time work on wear and tear.