Saturday, December 13, 2008

Weight Lifting Exercises for your TRAPEZIUS

By Westy

The traps, as they are commonly called, are the Trapezius muscles. They connect your back and your neck (to put it simply). Most often they are trained when working out the shoulders or back. There are only a few exercises you can use to train these muscles. But don't let that put you off. You can achieve massive growth in this are using just a few simple movements. Often it's enough to simply do a few shrugs after your main workout exercises.

The main exercises that will work these muscles are the upright row and the shrug.

The first exercise that is typically used is the shrug.

You can perform this exercise very simply with a barbell or dumbbells. You can do these exercises from a position in the back or the front.

All you will have to do is hold the weight and shrug your shoulders. That is all you have to do. Some bodybuilders will use a variation of this exercise by rolling the shoulders instead of simply lifting them up and down. All you do to do this is roll your shoulders when you are performing the shrug.

How it's done:

1. Hold your weight in front of you using an overhand grip.

2. Lift the shoulders and try to reach your ears with your shoulders.

3. Hold your shoulders up and then lower them slowly, repeat the movement.

One of the most important parts of this exercise is the amount of control that you use when you are lifting your shoulders. Avoid straining the neck and keep control over the movement. You can use a very heavy weight because of the small range of motion. There are other exercises that you can do, including the upright row. This is often used as a part of the shoulder exercise and it can work the traps and the shoulders at the same time.

How it's done:

1. Take a wide grip if you're intending to hit the traps with more intensity.

2. Hold the bar with a wide grip at arms length near your thighs

3. Lift the bar up to the chin

4. Hold for a moment, then lower and repeat

It's important to keep you elbows high so they are higher than the bar throughought the movement. These 2 exercises, combined with some solid shoulder exercises and back workouts will help you develop the stronger neck and traps muscles you've been looking for.

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