Lower Trap Exercises for Better Posture and Back Strength

Be a trap god and make sure to hit the lower part of your trapezius muscles. Today, we’ll take a look at the best lower trap exercises to hone and grow the upper trapezius muscles for a more functional and shapely back.

What Are the Lower Traps?

First off, it’s helpful to understand your trapezius muscles as a whole.

Why? Understanding the span of these large muscles will help you contextualize the importance of zeroing in on the lower part.

The trapezius muscles (“traps”) are large, trapezoid-shaped muscles. They span the length of your neck, shoulders and upper back. The lower traps sit from about the middle to low part of your shoulder blades down to your mid-spine.

Technically, the traps are considered a back muscle. But the upper part sits as far up as your neck! The upper traps are mainly used to extend your neck and support your posture, but that’s not what we’re looking to train here.

Your lower traps sit along your back, attaching to the middle of your spine. These muscles help to move your scapulae (shoulder blades).

These large muscles cover quite a lot of surface area. The upper traps let you lift and rotate your shoulder blades up. They also help you extend your neck.

Through your mid traps, you get the ability to retract your scapula. This means pulling your shoulder blades together. Knowing how to engage your shoulder blades is useful for s whole host of exercises, like push-ups or calisthenics moves.

The effect of trapezius muscle strength may be able to significantly change your scapular kinematics and even determine the way your shoulder blades sit.

Because of this, it’s important to build stronger traps to keep your shoulder blades both supported and mobile.

You need healthy and functional scapulae for a variety of movements. Think about any time a fitness instructor has ever told you to pull in, and engage your shoulder blades. Strong traps will help to make your back highly functional.

To learn more about trapezius muscle structure and function, see Anatomy, Back, Trapezius.

Benefits of Training Your Lower Traps

Better Posture

Firstly, the trapezius muscles are considered a postural muscle group, meaning they help to define your body’s posture and alignment.

Think of these muscles as an essential framework of what keeps you standing.

Back Growth

Furthermore, training for big shoulders and a stronger back can have a positive impact on the way you look. If you struggle with bad shoulder genetics or narrow clavicles, performing exercises that grow your lower traps can have a strong impact on how your shoulders look.

After all, many guys are looking to build wider frames, and one key component is strong shoulders.

For the ladies as well, the shoulders and upper back (along with a shelf butt) are a defining part of building a physically attractive hourglass shape.

If you want to practice an aesthetic workout program, the traps are a great area to focus on to create the impression of more overall size.

Aesthetics

Next, there’s no shame in wanting to look good. If you train for aesthetics, the look of your back can be easily enhanced by throwing some trap training in there. Both guys and gals can benefit from better back muscles.

Neck Strength

The trapezius muscles extend all the way up your neck to your occipital bone (the base of your skull). That means strengthening these muscles using lower trap exercises can help to give you a stronger neck.

It’s an area that many people don’t consider in their regular training, but improving the muscular strength in the part of the trapezius muscles that run along your neck can help the neck feel better supported.

With being tied to our desks and working from home, too, many of us carry a lot of tension in the neck area. Tight trapezius muscles are linked to increased stiffness in people with chronic neck pain. When you strengthen your neck muscles, you’re more considerate of that part of your body and may be more likely to stretch it too to reduce pain and tension.

For more information, see:

• Neck/Shoulder Pain and Trapezius Muscle Tenderness in Office Workers

Reduce and Prevent Injuries

Lastly, the traps are a great body part to train because they connect to so many different areas of your body at once.

Being a relatively big muscle that covers the neck, shoulders, and upper back, strong traps can help you ward off pain in all these areas.

One of the main benefits of training your lower traps is to be able to control your shoulder blades, mostly for scapular retraction. This means pulling your shoulder blades back and down. This is useful not only for creating proper posture but for keeping your shoulders injury-free

Unhealthy scapulae (shoulder blades) that don’t get the chance to move can often have a “stuck” feeling or may not glide comfortably across your back. This can cause back tightness or shoulder injuries.

Best Lower Trap Exercises

Now, let's get familiar with the best lower trap exercises you can do to develop the lower trapezius muscles.

Rear Delt Raise

Though it has “delt” in its name, signalling the deltoids, this move will hit your traps too. This move is a shoulder-strengthening exercise that helps with most upper-body movements.

If you want more force to push, pull, twist, or do whatever you may need to with your back, don’t skip the rear delt raise.

• Set-Up: Grab a medium or lightweight set of dumbbells.
• Body Position: Come to a standing position with the feet shoulder-width apart. Bring your arms out in front of you, holding the dumbbells. Hinge from your hips to lean your body slightly forward, bending your knees.
• Raise: Engage your back muscles and bend your elbows slightly, raising your arms out to your sides. Think of opening up your chest and squeezing your shoulder blades together to target your back while facing your palms slightly forward.
• Reverse: Continue engaging your back to resist your weights and slowly return to your starting position.
• Reps: 3 sets of 10-15 reps.

As a bonus, rear delt and front delt workouts are another way to compound your overall shoulder strength. Not only can you build up the trapezius muscles, but you’ll build stronger and more functional shoulders all around.

Reverse Shrug

Regular shrugs focus on elevating your scapula, working mostly into the upper parts of your trapezius muscles. So, it only figures that a reverse shrug would do the opposite. Depressing your scapula (sending your shoulder blades down) is a great way to target the lower traps.

For this shrug variation, the weight is transferred to the back side of your body.

• Set-Up: Grab a barbell with both hands, bring it behind your back and flip your palms so they face away from you to hold the weight. This may feel a bit awkward at first, but the reverse shrug is a behind-the-back lift.
• Body Position: Keep your feet and hands shoulder-width apart. Your barbell should hang down at arms-length, just below your seat.
• Shrug: With straight arms, lift your barbell by shrugging your shoulders. Hold for a moment.
• Reverse: With control, lower your barbell back down to the starting position.
• Reps: Aim for 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps.

Y-Press

This is a “lightweight” move that packs a heavy punch. The Y-press sends your arms out into a Y-shape using lighter weights to target your traps and shoulders.

If you love choosing the heaviest weights possible for all your lifts, Y-presses are a great way to humble yourself. We promise that the key here is choosing lighter weights, focusing on form and going S-L-O-W. This lower trap exercise isn't meant to burn you out by going hard and heavy. Instead, the key here is to focus on your quality of movement.

Focus on really feeling each part of your back during the whole motion of your press.

• Set-Up: Grab a light dumbbell or weight plate in each hand. Some find this move is easier with plates, since you can hook your thumbs in the center for an easy grip.
• Body Position: Brace your weights at your shoulders with your elbows pointing downward.
• Press: Press both arms up and diagonally, so that your arms are at a 45-degree angle to your body, making a Y-shape. This will feel uncomfortable to hold at first, but try your best to keep your arms up in this position for a moment, engaging your shoulders and core to stay steady.
• Reverse: Slowly bend into the elbows, bringing your hands back to your shoulders. This is one rep. Continue as needed.
• Reps: 3 sets of 8-12 reps.

Face Pulls

Face pulls are great for targeting every part of your traps, including the lower portion. If you focus on pulling directly towards your face, you’ll be able to feel the burn in your lower traps, setting your back on fire.

• Set-Up: Start by attaching a rope or handle to a cable machine. Your attachment should sit at face height.
• Adjust the pulley to this level. Step back to stand a few feet away from your machine. You can also choose to kneel at the same distance away if it’s more comfortable, although you’ll need to adjust your pulley height accordingly.
• Grip and Position: Grab your rope or handle with an overhand grip. Keep your hands around shoulder-width apart. Step far enough back to put some tension in your cable. If you’re standing up, keep a slight bend in your knees.
• Movement: Extend your arms all the way. Pull the rope or handle towards your face by bending your elbows and squeezing your shoulder blades together. Your upper arms should stay parallel to the ground. Make sure you’re pulling directly towards your face (this can feel strange at first!). Think about externally rotating your shoulders.
• Return: Slowly reverse your movement. Extend your arms and slowly let the weight pull you back to the starting position. Work against the resistance to control the weight.
• Your cables should never be jerking your shoulders into position. Focus on engaging your rear delts and upper back muscles the whole time.
• Reps: Keep going for as many reps as you’d like. We’d recommend 3-4 reps of 8-12 reps for new lifters.

Pro-Tip

Are you looking for some serious back burnout? If you want to really challenge yourself, try combining the face pull and Y-press.

Swap out your free weights on your Y-press to use cables instead. For this exercise, simply turn both moves into a combined exercise: Face pull to Y-press. You can perform this move for as many reps as you would if you did either exercise solo.

If you choose this set-rep variation, there’s no need to tack these moves on as separate sets.

Big Picture— Lower Trap Exercises

Lower traps exercises are a great training style to help you build a bigger back. If you want strong, hulking shoulders that don’t hunch over and prouder posture, don’t neglect the back.

Trapezius muscles are mostly postural and can help give you the illusion of perfect posture if you make the effort to grow them. These muscles help to create the scaffolding of your body, supporting your spine and shoulder blades.

Isolate your lower traps using moves like the Y-press and face pulls to grow your mid back.