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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 August 2009 )
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Introduction Trapezius muscles are amongst the most important in the body and also the most overlooked when it comes to working out. Indirectly, the trapezius muscles are responsible for the promotion of stability throughout the upper body and for that reason keeping them hard and toned should be a priority in any workout. The exercises mentioned below are going to help you do exactly that. We highly recommend you spend some time on our site and read other exercise reviews, best shoulder exercises and best ab exercises, kettlebell workouts, and best bicep exercises to really get a hot rocking toned body.
Shoulder Shrug (Weightless, Dumbbell)Believe it or not, but one of the most effective exercises in this area is an exercise that you might have done on a semi-regular basis throughout the other parts of your life. Shrugging your shoulders is actually an act that stretches the trapezius muscle quite effectively and for that reason putting it together into an exercise motion with one or two additions resulted in the creation of what we believe is the most effective trap exercise that is currently known.
In order to do a shoulder shrug exercise motion, what you need to do is start from a rest position with your arms shoulder width apart and your shoulders as low as they can possibly go while at the same time maintaining a normal posture. From that rest position, shrug your shoulders, holding momentarily at maximum shrug and then lowering back down to the rest position. You can even shrug your shoulders in circular motions, coming to the top of the circle and holding before going back on the downward arc. This is definitely one place where that concentric motion can help you work more parts of the trapezius muscle and in the end that can make your workout a lot more efficient and effective.
In regards to the resistance that you might want to use in this exercise, there is actually nothing wrong with doing it weightless. If you were to do that, you should use the open palm technique that has been discussed in other articles. Simply keep your palms open instead of closed into fists and you will slightly reduce the chance of a strain as a result of the exercise motion. If you would like to add resistance, the best way to do so is through the use of dumbbells as this is more of a weight exercise than it is one of elastic resistance.
Upright Row (Weightless, Exercise Band)The upright row is a secondary trap exercise. Depending on how you do it, you can work primarily the traps or the shoulders, but one thing to understand about workouts is that the different parts are not normally independent of each other. One part of your body will affect another depending on how weak or strong it is and that is why exercises that mesh different and connected parts of the body together are good exercises to have. The upright row, through its ability to strengthen both the trap and shoulder muscles, is synergistic with the shoulder shrug and that is why it has made it into the number two slot on our list of the best trap exercises around.
In order to do an upright row, the first thing that you need to do is stand perfectly upright. Do not bend either forward or backward and make absolutely sure that you avoid swinging motions when you are doing the exercise. The upright row more so than many other exercises is a movement of precision and for that reason you will get a lot more out of it in terms of results if you take the extra time and care to make sure that you are rigidly upright during each repetition. During the rest part of the exercise, you should stand with your hands following your shoulders at shoulder width. Your hands should be clasped in front of you if doing the exercise weightless or they should both be holding the same handle of the exercise band if you are using that form of resistance.
In order to actually do the motion, you need to go from that rest position and pull your hands up so that they are just underneath your chin, flexing the trapezius muscles as you do so. At the end of the motion, your hands should be clasped or holding the handle just under your chin with your arms both parallel to the floor and bent at the elbow. Hold that position momentarily, before slowly lowering them back to the rest position. Remember that this is a precision exercise, so practice the movement and make sure you have it down pat before you incorporate the upright row into your exercise routine.
Band Shrug (Exercise Band)The third and final exercise on our list of the best trap exercises is a modified version of the first exercise. The slight modifications that have been put into the exercise have been put there in order to allow people that are big fans of exercise bands to still make use of the most effective trap exercise out there.
The only real difference between the band shrug and the shoulder shrug is that you start the exercise sitting down instead of standing up. The shoulder position is exactly the same, as is the relative starting position of the hands. Each hand should have one end handle of the exercise band with the feet resting on the band to provide the resistance from the bottom. With enough of the band contained under the feet to provide resistance on the movement, you can once again begin to circulate the shoulder shrug movement.
Generally, this exercise cancels out in terms of the efficiencies. In other words, what you lose by adopting a sitting posture you gain through the introduction of the elastic resistance that the exercise band is known for. Keeping that in mind, you should be able to pick either the band shrug or the shoulder shrug as your primary trap exercise and include the row as a secondary measure. Once you have accomplished that, you will have two great trap exercises either way. In the end, that is certainly the way to do things.
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Monday, 27 July 2009 |
