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Some Great Exercises to Build Your Trapezius Muscle

The trapezius muscle or traps is an important muscle group in your upper body, which provides support to your neck and spine. This broad muscle runs from the base of your skull to the shoulder blade and collar bone. When fully developed, the trapezius gives your body a lean, muscular and "wow" look. Moreover, a set of well built and strong traps makes you look imposing, powerful and aggressive. There are different traps exercises which you can include in your routine training sessions to build your trapezius muscles. Not only can well developed and strong traps help you avoid injuries from sudden neck movements, but they also strengthen your upper body to perform other lifts such as the pull ups and bench press.

Among different traps exercises, Dumbbell Shrug is a wonderful exercise for building and strengthening your traps. To begin the exercise, stand straight in a way so you hold the weight at your sides. Now, you should rotate your shoulders in either a backward or forward direction without moving your arms. Make sure that you don't put extra stress on your back by allowing your body or head to lean forward during exercise. This exercise is very effective to get your desired results as it fully stimulates the traps, making them work out heavily. Barbell shrugs make a great exercise for developing the upper trapezius.

 To begin this exercise, grab a bar and then shrug your shoulders slowly up towards the ceiling. Bench shrugs work very well for developing the middle part of your trapezius. In order to perform this exercise, you need to lie on an incline bench with dumbbells in your both hands. Now slowly pinch your shoulder blades back together.

Another great exercise to develop your trapezius muscles is Dumbbell Press. This exercise can also be performed with a weighted barbell. Clean and Jerk is another very effective trapezius exercise that builds and strengthens your traps in a quick span of time. In order to start this exercise, stand over a barbell and grip the bar. Bend over and pull the bar off the ground with straight arms. Now, raise the bar to your shoulder level while performing a deep knee bend and jerk the bar quickly upwards over your head. While doing so, it is a good idea to bring your one foot forward and other backwards in order to maintain balance and stability.

Upright rows is an important exercise for strengthening and building your traps. Not only is this exercise very effective for developing your trapezius muscle, but it also improves your grip strength. This exercise can be done with a cable, barbell or dumbbells. In order to perform this exercise, hold the bar with your both hands in a way so your palms face in towards your body. Keep the bar at least 8 to 9 inches away from your body with hands shoulder width apart. Using your back and shoulders, lift the bar until it is level with your chest.

Hold it there for 4-5 seconds and lower it slowly to the starting position to finish one rep. This exercise should be practiced with care as it may cause injury to your lower back or wrists, if not properly executed.

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