When you look in the mirror to judge your progress at the gym, which muscles do you focus on? If you’re like most people, you probably look at your forward-facing muscles like your abs, chest, biceps, and quads. And that makes sense because they’re the muscles you see first.

While those muscles are important, don’t forget the muscles in the back! The secret to maximum strength and a balanced physique is to pay attention to the muscles on the other side of your body, too, including your trapezoids.

What are the trapezoid muscles, and what exercises can you do to build them? In today’s blog, the team at AFAC’s gym in Thornton, Colorado, provides answers to these questions and more.

What Is the Trapezoid Muscle?

Your trapezoid muscle — also known as the trapezius or “traps” for short — makes up a large portion of your upper back area. It starts at the base of your neck, extends across your shoulders, and then goes down to the middle of your back. It’s called the trapezius because its shape resembles a trapezoid. Many people also compare its shape to a kite.

The trapezius lies just underneath the skin and attaches to several bones, including the spine, shoulder blades (scapulae), ribs, and collarbone (clavicle).

What Is the Purpose of the Trapezoid Muscle?

The trapezoid muscle is divided into three areas. Together, the three parts of the trapezius help you have good posture, shrug, move your head, stand up straight, raise your arms, and bend or twist your torso.

The three areas of the trapezius are explained below.

The Upper Trapezius

This is the smallest section of your traps. It starts at the base of your neck and extends along the tops of your shoulders. The upper trapezius helps you lift your arms; shrug your shoulders; and turn, tilt, rotate, and extend your neck and head.

The Middle Trapezius

The middle trapezius sits just below the upper trapezius. It extends all across your shoulders. The middle trapezius helps you pull your shoulders back and extend your arms behind you. It also helps stabilize your shoulders when you move your arms.

The Lower Trapezius

The lower trapezius starts at your shoulder blades and extends down to a V shape in the middle of your back. The lower traps allow you to “un-shrug” your shoulders (bring your shoulders down away from your ears). The lower trapezius also keeps your spine stable during twisting and bending movements.

What Are the Advantages of Building Your Traps at the Gym?

Since the trapezius makes up such a large portion of your back and is visible to the naked eye, training your traps will give you a bigger looking back.

In addition to improving the appearance of your back, building your traps will provide you with the following benefits.

Shoulder mobility — Stronger and more limber traps can improve your shoulder mobility and keep your shoulders pain-free.
Gym performance — Keeping your upper back strong and mobile is vital to maximizing your performance during deadlifts, squats, and bench presses. That’s because the traps help you maintain a neutral spine as your other joints and muscles work to lift weight. During deadlifts, your traps also help you keep the barbell close to your body.
Functional movement — Having stronger traps will give you strength to perform daily tasks involving the arms and shoulders.
Improved posture — These days, our posture suffers when we spend too much time looking down at our phone screens and sitting in front of our computers. Stronger traps can help prevent any negative impacts on our posture.
Better pulling strength — As a key muscle group in your upper body, your traps assist in all pulling exercises like rows. They also provide shoulder stability for heavy carries and Olympic lifts.
Reduced risk of concussions — If you’re an athlete in a high-impact sport, a strong upper back can help reduce the chance of getting a concussion and the severity of a concussive event.

How to Build Your Traps at the Gym

You might have heard that you need to shrug, shrug, and shrug some more to grow your traps. Shrugging is definitely a good exercise for your traps, but there are many other workouts at your disposal to build your back muscles. Here are a few to get you started.

Farmer’s Carry, AKA Farmer’s Walk

Your traps can benefit from doing a few laps of heavy carries around the gym. Just make sure to keep your back and shoulders engaged throughout the exercise, since slouching will kill your trap and core gains.

Step in between a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells.
Squat down, grip the weights tightly, and deadlift them up while pushing through your heels, keeping your back straight and your chest up.
As you grip the weights tightly at your sides, engage your back and core and hold a strong, upright posture.
Walk while taking even, measured steps around the gym.
Make sure to maintain your posture and control the weights as you walk.
Judge the length of space that you walk by doing laps.
Count each lap each time so that you can use your number of laps as a benchmark to track your improvement over time.

Face Pulls

Face pulls can be performed with a cable machine or even a resistance band. It’s important to focus on your form when doing this exercise to ensure it provides maximum benefits to your traps.

While you’re standing, set up the pully and rope attachment on your cable machine (or set up your resistance band) at chest height or slightly below chest height.
Get an overhand grip on the rope or resistance band and take a couple steps back to remove any slack.
Make sure your shoulders are dropped.
Keep your feet about shoulder-width apart.
Pull the rope or resistance band to your face.
As you pull the rope/resistance band to your face, make sure your elbows are always higher than your wrists.
Focus on getting a retraction in your back and a good pinch in your shoulder blades.
Squeeze your shoulder blades while keeping your elbows higher than your wrists.
Then, move your hands forward in a slow, controlled manner.
Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Barbell Shrugs

Barbell shrugs target the upper portion of your traps, which are responsible for lifting your shoulder blades. This is the king of upper-trap building exercises.

Stand up straight in front of a barbell that’s racked a little below your hips.
Your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
Grab the barbell with an overhand grip, with your hands a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Let the bar hang at arm’s length in front of you. This is your starting position.
Shrug your shoulders toward your ears as far as possible.
Hold the top contracted position for a brief pause.
Slowly return to the starting position.
Keep your arms straight at all times.
Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Barbell Bent-Over Rows

Rowing exercises target your middle and lower traps as well as your rhomboids, posterior delts, teres major, teres minor, and infraspinatus.

Approach a barbell that’s racked at about knee-height.
Your feet should be shoulder-width apart
Bend over with a straight spine and maintain a 45-65 degree angle with your back.
Grab the bar with an overhand grip. Your hands should be just outside of shoulder-width apart.
Keep a slight bend in your knees.
While maintaining a neutral spine, pull the bar right in toward your sternum and lower it back down. That’s one rep.
Make sure that, while you move the bar up and down with your arms and back, you keep your upper body stationary at the 45-65 degree angle.

Seated Low Cable Rows

The seated row is normally done with a narrow grip, but if you’d like to focus on your middle traps, you can use a wide-grip attachment.

Adjust the weight on your seated row cable machine for what you want to use for your exercise.
Use the close-grip V-bar attachment that allows you to have your hands close together.
Grab the grip with both hands and sit on the bench. Place your feet on the foot rests.
Scoot back on the bench so that your legs are mostly extended but you still have a slight bend in your knees.
Maintain a neutral spine.
Make sure your shoulders are down, your chest is out, and you’re maintaining the natural arch of your back. This will allow you to keep your shoulder blades pinched throughout the exercise.
To do the exercise, pull your hands back to your abdominals while squeezing everything nice and tight.
Allow your hands to move forward to the starting position, but keep your body at a 90-degree angle to your legs. That’s one rep.
Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Training Your Traps at AFAC Gym

Training your traps will help you build more than just a bigger back. Strong traps also support the movement of your arms, aid in good posture, and allow you to lift and carry heavy items like luggage so you can go on that trip you’ve always dreamed about. If you’re ready to give your traps some love, the team at AFAC gym is here to support you as you achieve your fitness goals. Our team of personal trainers can assist you with tailoring a strength training and cardio program that will provide maximum results for your efforts.

If you’re not a member of AFAC gym but would like more information about our strength training equipment, cardiovascular machines, and packed schedule of fitness classes, please stop by and speak to our team. We’ll give you a tour and show you why we’re the best gym in Thornton, Colorado. For more information and assistance, you can also contact our gym owner, Susan, at 720-849-0245 or susan@adventurefitness.club.