Most resistance training exercises in training regimens focus on the upper and middle trapezius, frequently omitting the lower traps. In order to move and control the scapula, the lower traps are essential. Poor scapular retraction, particularly during overhead movements, can also may put athletes at risk for injury and shoulder soreness. In this article, we’ll go through the top lower trap workouts for improving your back strength, adding lean muscle mass, and enhancing your athletic performance.
Lower Trap Anatomy
The trapezius and lower trapezius are responsible for four main scapular movements: retracing, depressing, posterior tilting, and upward rotation. As you might expect, the lower taps are essential for scapula control, stabilisation, and movement mechanics for Lower Traps. Poor scapular positioning during overhead exercises like the overhead press, snatch, clean and jerk, or push press puts the athletic shoulder at risk for impingement, subacromial bursitis, and instability, all of which can cause shoulder pain.
Large and superficial, the trapezius has a trapezoid-like shape. It runs laterally to the spine of the scapula and down to the lower thoracic vertebrae from the occipital bone. Upper, middle, and lower sets of muscle fibres make up the trapezius.
While targeting the upper and intermediate Lower Traps, traditional training programmes frequently overlook to emphasise the bottom traps.
Recommended Lower Traps Exercises
Facial pull
There are numerous varieties of the face pull for lower traps exercises. Although bands, rings and even a sledge can be used, using a rope on a cable pulley machine is the most typical. Studies using electromyography (EMG) have revealed that actions involving scapular retraction, including the face pull, strongly activate the lower trap.
- Grab one side with your palms facing out using a cord or band.
- Position the cable pulley so that the system is above your head at the top.
- With your palms facing out, extend your arm and take hold of the rope handles with both hands. When your arms are fully extended, take a step back.
- Tighten and activate your core while assuming a 20-degree backwards slant.
- Engage your shoulders and pull the rope just far enough towards you to begin lifting the weight from the stack.
- Draw the rope’s handles towards the direction of your forehead. Engage your rear delts and traps while retracting your scapula (squeezing your shoulder blades together). You should keep your palms facing in and your elbows should be pointing out to the sides.
- Reverse the motion and slowly extend your arms, maintaining good posture the entire time. • Don’t let your shoulders or chest roll forward as you extend.
Farmer’s Carry/Walk
The farmers walk involves carrying heavy loads over a certain distance and can significantly enhance athletic conditioning and core stability. Farmers carries considerably stimulate the lower and upper traps as well as a variety of other muscular groups.
- You must decide what you will carry before you can perform the farmer’s carry. Walk a predetermined distance while engaging your abs and core while carrying a pair of weights or kettlebells. Make sure the laden weight is difficult but not impossible to handle.
- Begin standing up straight with your weights by your sides. Shoulders must be higher than the feet.
- Squat down while keeping your shoulders back, chest high, and hands to the sides, as if deadlifting.
- Firmly grasp your weights, stand tall, maintain a tight core and active shoulders, put your eyes forward, and start taking tiny, controlled steps. Try to avoid using a side-to-side bobbing motion to generate forward momentum.
- Walk for 20′ to 50′, put your gear down, take a brief break, and repeat.
Vertical Press
Another excellent lower trap workout is the overhead press. Overhead presses provide more than just isolated strength; they also have practical advantages. An overhead press helps increase mobility, core stability, and balance because it involves several muscle groups, stabilising muscles, and joints.
- If using a barbell, set it up in a rack at a height that is around shoulder-height.
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and brace your abdominals to create a strong base.
- Hold the bar with your hands approximately shoulder-width apart and your palms facing up.
- Dip under the bar to remove it from the rack, letting it lay across the top of the shoulders with the elbows pointing straight forward and the palms facing the ceiling.
- Take a step back while maintaining a tall, straight back, and push the barbell squarely overhead while exhaling when doing so and inhaling when bringing it back across the top of the shoulders.
- After the necessary number of repetitions, slowly return the weight to your shoulders.
 T-Bar row
One of the best exercises for your lower traps is unquestionably the T-Bar row. With a focus on scapular retraction, this exercise successfully isolates the trapezius, enhancing strength, lean muscular mass, and improving core stability.
- Increase the t-bar machine’s weight by a manageable amount.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart on the foot plate at the back of the machine.
- With your chest lowered, walk over until the t-bar machine’s grips are immediately beneath you.
- Pull the t-bar row towards you by tightening and activating your core (this motion is like a bench press done backwards).
- Sweep your elbows back at the apex of the movement while retracting your scapulae and squeezing your shoulder blades together.
- Reverse the motion and slowly extend your arms, maintaining good posture the entire time. Don’t let your shoulders or chest roll forward as you extend.
Good morning there
A compound functional strength movement is a good morning. The action pattern resembles a romanian deadlift, but you carry the weight on your shoulders instead of your hips, earning it the nickname “squat-deadlift.” Compound motions improve strength, mobility, and balance by using many muscle groups, joints, and stabilising muscles all at once.
The muscles in your posterior chain, such as your hip flexors, abductors, lower traps, hamstrings, glutes, and quads, are extensively recruited in the mornings. As your hips extend, your glutes, core, quads, hamstrings, and calves are worked, which increases the need for core stability. Your lower back, quads, and glutes are worked as you press the weight back up or during the eccentric phase.
- The straight leg deadlift and a good morning are pretty comparable. Both movements work the hamstrings, but instead of lifting the weight off the ground, you support it with your shoulders while holding the barbell behind your neck, similar to a barbell back squat.
- Slightly higher than the position of a barbell back squat at a squat rack, place the barbell with a moderate or light weight on your upper traps behind your neck.
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, tighten your abdominal muscles, and slowly hinge at the hips, bending forward from the hips, until your trunk is about parallel to the floor.
- Stand your weight back up to the beginning position by extending your hips and pushing through your heels and feet.
Lower Traps Workouts: Away
A strong core foundation for larger, heavier, and more technical strength training movements can be built by intentionally strengthening your lower traps. Scapular retraction primarily engages the lower traps, which have a significant impact on posture, balance, and stability while increasing lean muscular mass and strength.
