Trap Exercises Ranked (BEST TO WORST!)

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[Heavy metal music playing]  Yeah, no, don t keep rolling.   What's up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, athleanx.com.  What you see behind me is a bunch of different   trap exercises, many of which you either do right  now or you're going to want to start doing by the   time this video is over. And I'm going to make  your job a lot easier, because I'm going to   show you the ones you should focus on by ranking  them from the worst all the way up to the best,   so that you know which ones you should invest your  time in to get the gains that you're after.   Now, as always, it's important to understand  the criteria for which these exercises are   going to be judged on. Because they all, first  and foremost, have to be able to build muscle.   And before you think, yeah, here. Well not  really, that's just part of the traps. We   want them to be able to build here, here and here  because that is the entire trap muscle. And it's   possible with the right exercise selection  to cover all your bases. That being said,   all the exercises on this list always have to  be safe exercise choices. As you'll see here at   the bottom of the list, some not so much. And we kick it all off at the bottom of the   barrel as I break out my red marker to cover  the first of the Worst exercises. And can we   just get this one out of the way? Can we  talk about the Upright Row? Now, look,   I understand you might point me towards a video  that you got click baited into thinking you were   going to find the reason why the Upright Row was  actually good. Only to have the person essentially   backtrack with all the same reasons why I've been  saying they're not so good for all these years.   Guys, there's a better alternative to the  Upright Row. Sure, they can hit the traps,   but at what expense? When you raise your  shoulders up and then drive them down   with additional weight into internal rotation,  you're recreating one of the physical therapist   tools for provoking pain and testing for  impingement. I'll pass. So, for me, guys,   I'll put the big red X first and foremost through  the upright row and the Worst of the Worst.   Moving on, I get to stick with my red marker as  we stick in the Worst of the Worst category. This   time for a Shrug, but not any Shrug. This Shrug,  the Rolling Shrug. I m not sure who invented this,   but it does no extra benefit for you, and it  does a whole lot of detrimental things. The   bottom line is, when you allow your shoulders  to round forward, you do two things to that   glenohumeral joint. One, you're bringing it into  internal rotation, which again will start to cause   some of that stress onto the anterior shoulder  capsule. The second thing is you're adding a   compressive force to that joint that has an  effect on the clavicle or collarbone.   As the collarbone sits down onto something called  the thoracic outlet, you can get some of the   symptoms of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which can  lead to numbness or tingling or vascular issues   in your arm. And the rolling component isn't  helping you at all anyway, because the real   main function of the upper traps is simply going  to be lift up and down. So, what I do here with   the Rolling Shrugs is just roll right on past  them to better exercises that lie ahead.   I stick with my red marker one more time as we  finish up the Worst of the Worst, this time with   the Above the Knee Rack Pole. And once again, this  exercise is causing a lot of the same issues that   I just had with the Rolling Shrug. When you have  that much weight in your hand held out in front of   your body, it sends those shoulders into that  protracted state and causes that compression,   also traction down the arm that can create some  of those thoracic outlet issues. That being said,   there is some light at the end of the tunnel.  There is a version of the Rack Pull that you   could do coming up later on. That's going to rank  higher because it alleviates a lot of those issues   that I have. But for now, let's suffice it to  say that it also gets a big red X and belongs   in the Worst of the Worst category. And so, with that, I now get to break   out my blue marker as we work our way up into  the Better category. All good trap exercises,   but still some limitations that are holding them  back from being up at the top with the best. That   being said, I want to start with the Incline Y  Raise and most of the exercises in this category   are more corrective in nature. In other words,  not the biggest muscle builders, but doing an   all-important job of hitting different areas of  the traps that you're not used to hitting. And   with the Incline Y Raise, we're getting the lower  traps very effectively. A lot of people out there   don't even train their lower traps or even know,  again, as I mentioned in the beginning, that they   even exist. But you can train them really well  with this exercise and very, very light weights.   The key to lower trap development is that whenever  you perform any overhead weighted exercise,   even like an Overhead Shoulder Press, you're  going to provide more stability for the scapula,   giving you safer biomechanics on the exercise. The  bottom line is bigger weights don't always equal   bigger traps. Especially when those overlooked  areas just aren't getting hit often enough.   And that's why the Incline Y Raise gets the  first blue circle in the Better category.   Next up is an exercise that you would think would  be at the top of every one of my lists. Hell,   I would even try to find a way to do it as a  leg exercise. We're talking about Face Pulls,   but not so fast, because the Face Pull does a  really good job of hitting some of the traps,   but not everywhere. You see, there's no elevation  going on here, so the upper traps are not really   in focus, and the lower traps here are not  really doing much of anything either. But we   do know that this is a good middle trap exercise,  as well as obviously hitting the rhomboids and the   rear delts, and it's just a great exercise  for building up the overall health of your   shoulder. It belongs in the Better category,  but we'll make it better, just stick around.   Next up is another one of those small  exercises that pays big dividends if you   start to incorporate it into your programing. And  again, this is another one of those corrective   exercises that actually plays an important part  in all my Athlean-X programs. It's called an   Urlacher. And what's nice about this exercise is  it's also incorporating some rotator cuff into   the already existing upper trap and middle  trap work that it's accomplishing. Again,   this is not an exercise that you're getting your  benefits from the amount of weight you're using,   but more so from developing that synchronization  between the components of the exercise,   moving smoothly through elevation and retraction  and external rotation as you bring the dumbbells   up to the top. Again, good shoulder biomechanics  rely on you having good segmental ability to   control all portions of the shoulder movement as  your arm moves through space. Remember, it's a   three-dimensional joint with a lot of available  movement. If you don't get it right, you can be   asking for some issues down the road. So why not  invest just a little bit of extra time into good   shoulder exercises? The Urlacher is one that's  also going to help you to develop your traps.   This next exercise in the Better category  is an interesting one, because it introduces   a different function of the traps that  you might not be leaning into right now,   and we call it the Trap Pulldown. And we lean into  the shoulder stabilizing action of the upper traps   during traditional pulldown. See, what you do  here is you take a much narrower grip, and your   goal is not to drive with the lats, or even bring  your elbows very far down at all. Instead, what   you're going to try to do is pull the bar down by  shrugging up with the shoulders. In other words,   counteract that pulldown by driving up into  the weight with your Shoulder Shrug. Trust me,   you'll feel that right away. And what's  happening here again is you're tapping into   that stabilization capability of the traps during  a weighted pulldown. And what's nice is you can   use a pretty good amount of weight here to create  this big contraction that you're feeling.   Don't be misled by the behind the neck positioning  of the bar. Your elbows are squarely in the   scapular plane out in front of your body, avoiding  any of the issues that would come from behind the   neck pressing or pulldowns. The bottom line is, we  know that isometric contractions can contribute to   overall muscle development, especially if they  occur in the stretch position. We'll get to that   later, but for now, the Trap Pulldowns wrap up  our Better category with another blue circle.   And now we continue up the ranks. This time I  break out my yellow marker as we move into the   Better Still category. And the first exercise  up for me here is the Farmer's Carry and talk   about isometric based exercises. This is one, and  it's just a little bit more superior to the last   one because there's some additional benefits here.  Number one, the isometric contraction is occurring   more in that lengthen or stretch position of the  traps, which has been shown to be a good stimulus   for hypertrophy. But we also have those additional  benefits making this a more multidimensional   exercise option. You have the ability to  train your forearms and grip strength here,   or to perform this as a conditioning exercise, or  really even just to work on your mental toughness,   because this could be a ball buster if you have  to do it for any length of time. But because this   exercise has an incredibly high capacity to be  loaded and more importantly, progressively loaded,   you'll find that this exercise will be  able to pay big dividends not just now,   but in the future for you as a means of building  bigger traps. And therefore, it belongs as   the first in our Better Still category. Remember I told you I'd fix those Rack Pulls?   Well, it's time to fix the Rack Pulls, and all  we have to do is take them from above the knee   to below the knee. Because that fixes everything.  Why? Because we're changing the mechanics of the   upper body when you perform the exercise. You  see, when you perform an Above the Knee Rack   Pull like we talked about, you're getting all  that protraction stress on the shoulders that   leads to all the issues I already said. But  when you perform them from below the knee,   you're transitioning this more closely to a  deadlift, and by performing them from that   lower elevation, you're forcing your torso to  tilt more forward and allowing your scapula to   have to be retracted and set before you perform  the exercise. The setting of the scapula prevents   that excessive thoracic rounding that leads to all  those issues we already discussed. Not to mention,   this is a great accessory exercise for those that  are trying to build up to the full deadlift from   the floor. The point is that even though certain  exercises look very similar; the details always   matter. And that's what I stress to you on  this channel. And because of those details,   the changes were made to pull this exercise all  the way up into now the Better Still category.   Third up in our Better Still category now is  something called the Plate Trap Raise. And this   is another one of those exercises that could  be considered a little bit more corrective,   but you can perform it with slightly more  weight. But the goal here once again,   is to get your focus all the time off of the upper  traps, and this time shifted all the way down to   the bottom once again to those lower traps. And  this exercise does a great job if you perform it   correctly. You want to take that grip on the sides  of the plate rather than a palms down positioning,   because as the plate gets up overhead, you don't  want to be an internal rotation, but be more in a   neutral position. Also here, yes, the shoulders  will be working the front delts specifically   during the first half of the exercise, but the  real action actually happens from the shoulders   up as we go into that elevation overhead. If you  wanted to, you could actually shorten the range of   motion to perform just the upper half from fully  extended overhead down just to parallel to the   floor. Whichever way you perform it, there's no  way around it, this exercise is a great way to   hit the lower traps with a good amount of weight,  and it belongs as a Better Still exercise.   Next up in the Better Still category is the  anti-upright row and that for me is the Dumbbell   High Pull. Now look I'll stand here and defend  this exercise all the way till the day I die   because I'm that confident in its superiority to  the Upright Row. Why? Because I can accomplish the   same exact things that we were trying to do with  the upright row in that safer shoulder position,   because I can keep the elbows beneath the wrist.  And what that does is it takes me out of internal   rotation and puts me into external rotation.  At guess what, no compromise to what you're   doing for your traps or even for your shoulders  in this case. And the only thing that's keeping   this exercise from ranking even higher is that  when it comes to building traps, it's one of the   secondary benefits, it's also obviously building  those middle and rear delts. But because you're   also performing this exercise with a slight lean  forward, you're going to also effectively hit   those rhomboids and here in the middle traps to  make this even a more well-rounded trap exercise.   If you want the cliff notes Upright Rows suck and  the Dumbbell High Pull doesn't. And any attempt   to say well, I haven't gotten hurt yet with the  Upright Row just isn't good enough for me. So,   the dumbbell high pull gets yet another yellow  circle for a Better Still exercise option.   Next up, we wrap up our Better still Category,  this time with an interesting variation of a   shrug, and it's called the Haney Shrug, and it's  named after the eight-time Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney.   And he used to say, if the traps are a muscle on  your back, then why are we training them from the   front, why don't we train them from the back?  And all you did was put the bar behind his back   and pull up like this. And it's an interesting  exercise variation because you're still getting   that elevation, getting that upper trap work  that you're looking for. But you also can get   more of that middle trap work because you can get  more shoulder retraction due to the fact that you   have to lean forward when you do this. Now, the  compromise is you're not going to be able to use   as much weight. That's fine, except you're going  to be able to get a better contraction. And Lee   Haney, like myself, is someone that believes that  it's not always about the amount of weight you're   lifting on Shrugs you've probably lifted a ton of  weight throughout your entire lifting career on   shrugs. But have you ever dropped the weight and  focused more on the quality of the contraction?   If you haven t, this is a great opportunity  to do it, and the exercise itself is going   to force you to. But it wraps up our Better Still  category, the Haney Shrug deserves to be here.   And next we continue our way up the rankings, this  time I get to break out my green marker for the   first time as we work our way into the Almost  Best category. That's right, Almost Best. But   we do get a chance to take one of the almost best  exercises of all time, that Face Pull I promised,   and make it even better with the added extension  at the end of every repetition. And what this does   is it adds on to the already existing work  that we're doing for those middle traps by   incorporating that lower trap work that happens  whenever we raise our arms up overhead. But look   what else is happening. Because the resistance  is not just below us, but in front of us too.   It's also resisting that overhead shoulder  extension and retraction, which gives us   additional benefits for the exercise. This truly  is one of the best exercises you can possibly do,   taking that Face Pull and making it even better.  And it belongs in my Almost Best category. You   just can't weight it a whole ton, but you're  not going to need to to see its benefits. This   one deserves to be surrounded in green as  the first in the Almost Best Category.   Now, up to this point, any time we talked about  middle trap development our exercise selections   were those that were probably a little bit on  the lighter end in terms of how we're weighting   them. But not anymore, because the Wraparound  Row is one of my favorite ways to start to   introduce some real weight to the development  of those middle trap muscles. And the key here   is to actually perform this with a crossover grip.  With the right hand holding the left grip handle,   and with the left hand holding the  right grip handle. And keeping your   elbows as tight to your body as you wrap them  around and almost try to touch them together,   with your spine being the meeting point. Of  course, it's not going to happen, but what will   happen is you're going to light up these middle  traps like you never had before. And again, with   equal parts ability to feel the contraction and  still load them enough to create that overload,   this exercise is just one you don't want to skip.  And because it does it so well, I put it all the   way up here in the Almost Best category, because  it hits this area in such a good, focused way.   Now, as we continue on here and work our way  all the way to the tippy top of this list,   it's about time we start talking about the  Dumbbell or Barbell Shrug. But to me there's   a difference and actually, it really matters to  you what you're doing already. Because you see,   like Lee Haney said, it's not always about  having to load the exercises up when you're   trying to train your traps. So, for me, if you're  already deadlifting a lot and are doing it for a   long period of time, you're likely not going  to benefit from the continued focus on heavy,   heavy Barbell Shrugs. Instead, I would invite you  to actually start to consider Dumbbell Shrugs as   an option. On the other hand, if you're  not doing a lot of deadlifting right now,   then that's where I would say to do the Barbell  Shrug, because you can load it heavier and expose   your traps to more of that tension stress, as  well as just the overall loads. That being said,   the Dumbbell Shrug has the additional benefit  of being able to be held in neutral out at your   sides, which will put less of that stress on your  shoulders. That would come from having that bar   out in front of you and the Barbell Shrug. Either  way, it goes without saying, no matter which you   choose, the Dumbbell or Barbell Shrug does a great  job of building up those upper traps of yours,   and therefore belongs in the selections when  you're talking about the Best of the Best,   or in this case, Almost Best trap exercises. Now, before we get to the trap exercise that wears   the crown, there is one more that demands your  consideration here in the almost best category,   because it applies the science of trap training.  And we're talking about the Cable Angled Shrug.   What's interesting here is if you were to look  at the direction of the upper trap fibers,   it doesn't run straight up and down. Meaning  that a straight up and down movement like the   traditional Shrug wouldn't ideally hit the muscle  or allow it to contract to its fullest. So,   what will? The Angle Shrug. Because we can do this  with a lot of weight and perform it with just a   simple cable machine down the low angle position.  And what you're trying to do is basically allow   your arm to drift out to the side to put those  trap fibers in a better alignment to pull. What   results when you do this is perhaps one of the  strongest contractions you've ever felt during   a trap exercise. And maybe even more superior to  you because of the novelty of it then any Dumbbell   or Barbell Shrug you've already done. It's one of  those exercises that, ever since I discovered it   for the first time, have never stopped using it  in my trap training approach and it's definitely   one that I think you should try as well. But it  caps off our list of the Almost Best exercises   with that well-deserved green circle. And so, with all exercises bearing some color   here behind me except for one, it leaves only one  to be the best of the best. And yes, it is a shrug   variation, but it's the Trap Bar Shrug. And for  the same rationale we just talked about, it gives   you better alignment for targeting those trap  muscles effectively, or at least the upper traps,   because with the trap bar I have a wider grip. My  arms are held out about 20 or 30 degrees from my   side, again giving me a better angle of attack to  hit those upper traps. And again, when it comes to   loading here, it certainly meets that criteria. We  can load this exercise incredibly heavy. And once   again, because of the neutral grip positioning of  the handles at your sides rather than out in front   of you, I find it to be a safer option for those  of us who are going to load the exercise up with a   lot of plates. The bottom line is through safety,  science and strength capacity, there is only one   best and for me it is the Trap Bar Shrug getting  that green star here or crown whatever it looks   like to you, in the Best of the Best category. If you're looking for others in this series, check   out the Chest Exercises Ranked video here and also  the Shoulder Exercises Ranked video there. Guys,   if you haven't done so, click Subscribe and turn  on your Notifications so you never miss a video   from me when we put one out. Full programs  available over at athleanx.com. See you!
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Channel: ATHLEAN-X™
Views: 650,048
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Keywords: trap exercises, trap exercise, exercises for traps, exercise for traps, trap exercises at home, trap exercise home, best traps exercise, best traps exercises, exercises for bigger traps, exercise for big traps, dumbbell trap exercise, dumbbell trap exercises, trap workout exercises, trap workout an exercises, how to get bigger traps, how to build bigger traps, trap workouts, trap workout, big trap workout, workout for big traps, athleanx, athlean x, jeff cavaliere
Id: w7OSC-RfKOI
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Length: 17min 8sec (1028 seconds)
Published: Mon Nov 13 2023
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