5 Best Trap Exercises to Build a Better Back

Take charge and let your shoulders and back get jacked. Here are some of the best trap exercises you can do to strengthen and grow your trapezius muscles.

In this article, we’ll give you a look at the trapezius muscles, taking some time to run through their structure, function, and where they sit in your body.

Next, we’ll illustrate what you can expect to see when you train your traps. (Hint: there are many great benefits to strong traps!)

Finally, you’ll get to know some key exercises that you may or may not be familiar with to get your traps looking big and strong. Once you target these muscles, the only traps you’ll be thinking about are how good you’ll look in your thirst traps.

Let’s get familiar with a few of the best trap exercises to grow your back.

What Are the Trapezius Muscles?

The trapezius muscles, aka “traps,” are large, trapezoid-shaped muscles that span across your neck, shoulders and upper back.

They attach at the center of your mid-back to the thoracic spine (the middle part of your spine).

They're named for their shape: the trapezius muscles are shaped like trapezoids. These muscles are responsible for helping to stabilize your shoulder joints.

The upper trapezius muscles can help you to extend your neck, while the lower traps that sit along your back help to move your scapula (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 hange 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, 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 Traps

Better Posture

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.

Bigger Shoulders

If you have bad shoulder genetics or narrow clavicles, you may be struggling with a bit of insecurity in 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.

Neck Strength

The trapezius muscles extend all the way up your neck to your occipital bone (base of your skull). That means strengthening these muscles 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

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.

Best Trap Exercises

This rundown of shoulder exercises includes a series to strength training moves to build upper body strength. Although everyone's capacity is different, you can vary these moves by using lighter weight or heavier weight as needed.

Now, with all that said, let’s take a look at the best trapezius exercises you can do to build up your shoulders and back.

Shrugs

• • Set-Up: Stand and hold a barbell with a shoulder-width overhand grip.

• Body Position:
• Lift: Draw your shoulder blades backwards and downwards, then shrug your shoulders upwards as high as possible, keeping your arms straight. Briefly hold.
• Reverse: Slowly lower the barbell until your shoulders are neutral.
• Reps: Aim for 2-4 sets of 8-12 reps.

Upright Rows

Upright rows are a great beginner-friendly exercise to target the traps. To perform this move:

• Set-Up: Grab a medium-weight straight barbell or EZ bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip. Pick it up and let the bar hang in front of you, touching your thighs.
• Body Position: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Roll your shoulders back to help engage the back muscles and create a proud position with your chest. This will allow you to maintain a neutral spine and hold onto your posture during this exercise.
• Lift: Start to bend your elbows and lift your arms. Slowly start to slide your barbell up your front body with control, bringing the weight up to just under chin or shoulder height. Your barbell should slide along your body as you lead with your elbows to lift and the elbows should bend past 90 degrees. Think about making the motion of peeling off your T-shirt.
• Reverse: Pause briefly at the top, then resist your weight as you slide your barbell back down, bringing yourself back to the starting position.
• Reps: Continue for 3 sets of 10-12 reps.

Pro-Tip: Think about sending your elbows out wide and using them to drive this movement.

Farmer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry or farmer’s walk is a moving carry exercise with a weighted load. Typically, people use kettlebells for this move because of their convenient carry handles, but you can also swap them out for regular heavy dumbbells.

• Set-Up: Grab a set of heavy dumbbells or kettlebells. Hold one kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand.
• Lift: Bend down to grab your weights by their handles with your palms facing toward each other. Pick up the weights, bracing your core to lift them up to sit by your sides. Roll your shoulders to reset your posture so the rest of your back muscles can assist your traps.
• Carry: Keeping an upright and stable posture, walking forward in a straight line. Try not to swing or rock your weights around. Instead, keep them stable. Walk for at least 30 seconds, keeping a normal pace, then put your weights down. Repeat as needed.

Pro-Tip: Don’t be afraid to lift heavy here. In the farmer’s carry, you don’t actually need to curl, push, or lift your weights up, they simply hang by your sides.

Although this is still an active exercise, in that you need to engage your core, shoulders and back to avoid hunching over, there’s more room for a heavier lift, since you don’t need to hoist the weights up.

Avoiding overhead pressing or pressing the weight in any given direction and simply maintaining good weighted posture as you walk is a unique way to work the muscles.

Face Pulls

• 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.

Rack Pulls

• Set-Up: Find a squat rack or cage. Attach the catch hooks to a slot that sits around knee height.
• Body Position: Stand with a slight bend in your knees, keeping your feet about shoulder-width apart. Grab your barbell with an overhand grip of approximately the same width.
• Lift: Pull from your lower back and shoulders to bring your weight up. Drive your hips forward at the same time to come to the top of this movement. Keep your shoulders back and chest proud once you’re up. Engage your glutes.
• Reverse: Hold for a moment, then slowly lower your barbell down with control.
• Reps: If you’re lifting heavy, aim for 3-6 sets of 5-6 heavy reps.

Trap Warm-Up and Cool-Down

If you’re specifically targeting your traps, there’s a good chance you’re doing a lot of isolation moves. In this case, it’s a good idea to get your muscles warmed up before you lift heavy.

Take a look at one potential warm-up move you can try before trap exercises:

Warm-Up: Shoulder Rolls

This dynamic shoulder warm-up helps you create some movement in the shoulder joints, stimulating the surrounding muscles to prepare for more intense exercise.

• Roll each arm at the shoulder joint in circles. Start small, increasing the size of the circles until you are making wide arm circles.
• Reverse the direction of your arm circles, starting with big circles and getting smaller.

And to cool things off, never skip a cool down stretch. Here’s one you can consider:

Cool-Down: Cross-Body Shoulder Stretch

This stretch involves pulling the arm laterally across your body to stretch out your shoulders and upper back.

• Pull one arm across the body with the other to stretch your shoulder.
• Hold for 10 seconds or as needed.
• Repeat on the other side.

In Conclusion…

Building up your traps is one of the best ways to get an impressive frame.

Since these muscles span from your neck, across your shoulders to anchor at the mid back, you’re covering a lot of ground when you decide to perform trap exercises.

The benefits of training your trapezius muscles can include creating a wider frame and giving you the look of broad shoulders.

From an aesthetic standpoint, this can help you gain confidence and create presence any time you decide to step into a room. You’ll not only look better, but feel better too.

If you struggle with neck, shoulder, or back tension, training and stretching the trapezius muscles with trap exercises is a great way to manage pain or localized strains.

Try out moves like face pulls, rack pulls, shrugs, rows and farmer’s carrys.

It’s a good idea to vary your exercise routine, so see which of these moves feel best for you body.

Always remember to stretch and recover after a workout. Get in the habit of warming up and cooling down. Make sure to hydrate and refuel with plenty of protein after your workout.

Want more targeted upper body workouts?

Check out these upper body moves that will take you from couch potato to Greek God.

• Best Chest Workouts with Dumbbells
• Arnold Press vs. Shoulder Press
• The Best Chest Day Warm-Up Exercises

References

Brandt, M., Sundstrup, E., Jakobsen, M. D., Jay, K., Colado, J. C., Wang, Y., Zebis, M. K., & Andersen, L. L. (2014). Association between Neck/Shoulder Pain and Trapezius Muscle Tenderness in Office Workers. Pain research and treatment, 2014, 352735. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/352735

Opara, M., & Kozinc, Ž. (2023). Which muscles exhibit increased stiffness in people with chronic neck pain? A systematic review with meta-analysis. Frontiers in sports and active living, 5, 1172514. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1172514

Ourieff J, Scheckel B, Agarwal A. Anatomy, Back, Trapezius. [Updated 2023 Mar 11]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK518994/

Turgut, E., Duzgun, I., & Baltaci, G. (2016). Effect of trapezius muscle strength on three-dimensional scapular kinematics. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(6), 1864–1867. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.1864