Should i do traps with back

Use a shoulder width grip and keep the bar close to your torso and as you raise it to your clavicle. Your middle and lower traps are worked with many back exercises, so it makes sense to implement these movements so that you are killing two birds with one stone. The best examples for the middle traps are:. You can also hit the middle traps from a different angle with rear shrugs on a Hammer Strength machine.

Use the grip where your palms are facing in and bend your elbows slightly. By using a moderate weight, you can really control it and feel the squeeze towards the middle of your upper back. The lower traps are the most difficult of the trio to isolate, but there are a few movements that will allow you to work them the right way. For example, the one-armed dumbbell row is a popular back exercise that also engages the lower traps.

Just as most people never do anything else but shrugs for traps, they also tend to stick with standard straight sets. If this approach has been delivering the gains for you, wonderful! If not, it's time to shock your traps with something they aren't expecting. Supersets are a great way to provide new stimulation to your trapezius muscles. The best combination I've found is to follow shrugs immediately with narrow-grip barbell upright rows.

This is a classic pre-exhaust superset: Shrugs isolate and fatigue the traps, and upright rows bring in the shoulders and arms to really torch your traps. Three or four rounds of reps each of this superset and your traps should have all the stimulation they need for a sweet little growth spurt.

Dropsets are another good technique. However, unless you have a training partner to help you strip plates, dumbbell shrugs are a better option than a barbell or plate-loading machine. Warm up to using your heaviest weight, then immediately rack those and pick up a lighter pair. If you're really in a masochistic mood, do yet another, lighter set right after that. Your traps will be screaming—and on their way to growing.

Some people insist that wrist straps are for sissies, and that you'll develop a much stronger grip without them. Your grip will always be a weak link when it comes to training the large, powerful muscles of the back, including the traps.

If your grip gives out before your traps have truly fatigued, you'll never develop them to their fullest capacity. Most men who are strong can do good reps on barbell shrugs with pounds or more.

Not many would be able to hold that much weight for a rep set without straps. There's no reason to think that using wrist straps is somehow "cheating" or "not hardcore. So strap up for big weight! Any stubborn body part can benefit from some extra attention. If your traps aren't living up to your hopes and dreams, start hitting them twice a week. Work them once at the start of one workout say, for back , then again at the tail end of another session maybe on chest or shoulder day.

Hit your traps like this and they'll have no choice but to adapt. In addition, many delt-specific exercises actually bring the upper traps into play and work them directly and very effectively, such as lateral raises and upright rows , so you will want to promote them in your workouts.

Hammering your traps on shoulder days does indeed come with plenty of benefits, especially if your back days are typically centered around mid-back and lats activation; if nothing else, you should be better able to focus on them while training your shoulders. The middle portions, which perform the important function of pulling the shoulder blades together think seated cable rows , so you can best isolate them with cable rows but as long as you make sure to keep your arms straight at all times.

All in all, if your goal is to strengthen your middle traps and improve their definition, put trap training in your back day schedule or combine it with your upper trap work.

Research has shown that EMG activity in the middle trapezius is the greatest during shoulder external rotation and flexion in the prone position think mini-range lat pull-downs, voyeur shrugs, half T-raises and standing calf raise shrugs , so make the most use of that. And finally, the lower trapezius is responsible for rotating the shoulder blades downward. That being said, the best way to isolate these low fibers is by doing just the first few inches of a pull-down by keeping your arms perfectly straight.

Then, you will want to add snatches and front raises on an incline bench to build power in this portion of your traps.