Traps

About the Traps

Your trap muscles help you shrug your shoulders and pull them back. They work together with your back muscles. When you do a shrug or pull your shoulders back, your traps are working.

Upper Traps: From your neck to your shoulders. They help you shrug your shoulders and look up.
Middle Traps: Between your shoulder blades. They pull your shoulder blades together and help you stand up straight.
Lower Traps: From your shoulder blades to your mid-back. They help rotate your shoulder blades down and are crucial for overhead movements.

Best Traps exercises

Upper traps shrug; mid and lower traps retract and depress the scapula. Shrugs plus rows and face-pull patterns beat shrugs alone.

Barbell Shrug (barbell)
Barbell Shrug Behind The Back (barbell)
Cable Shrugs (cable)
Clean Shrug (barbell)
Dumbbell Shrug (dumbbell)
Standing Dumbbell Upright Row (dumbbell)
Middle Back Shrug (dumbbell)
Snatch Shrug (barbell)

Common mistakes

Rolling the shoulders on shrugs (no benefit, extra irritation).
Using so much weight you cannot pause at the top.
Ignoring mid-trap rowing and only loading the upper fibers.

Log Traps work in Easy Reps

Open the lift in the app library, log weight and reps, and PRs update when you earn them. No account and no subscription. Download Easy Reps or browse the full exercise library.