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Trap exercises for men can enable activation of the muscles, exert pressure on them, and force the muscle fibers to grow back thicker and stronger.
If you don’t do trap exercises that focus on the trap muscles, you’ll never be able to add mass. Trap muscles come into play during various shoulder and back compound exercises, but to grow a muscle group, you need to do isolation exercises.
However, before understanding which trap exercises for men are good for adding mass and improving strength, it’s important to know why you should train the trap muscles.
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What are the Trap Muscles?
Traps are a muscle group that begins at the bottom of the neck, moves across the shoulder, and extends towards the middle back.
This muscle group is responsible for the movement of the upper body, such as shoulders, neck, head, arms, and torso. Additionally, it helps with improving posture too.
Best Trap Exercises to Add Mass
Here are six of the best trap exercises for men to build a great set of trap muscles:
1) Dumbbell Shrug
This is the most common exercise among trap exercises for men. You need a pair of dumbbells for this exercise.
Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, and place your arms beside your torso. Ensure that your shoulders are down and arms are stable. To do the exercise, shrug your shoulders upwards using your trap muscles, making sure the arms do not take over to push the dumbbells.
You can use weight plates to do this exercise instead of dumbbells, for variation.
2) Farmer’s Walk
The farmer’s walk is a unique trap exercise, as it allows you to focus on your balance and stability while working on the trap muscles.
To do this exercise, you need to hold moderately heavy dumbbells in each hand, and walk across a distance or the gym floor. When you’re walking, keep your shoulders down, core engaged, and walk swiftly.
You shouldn’t lift the weights with your arms at any point, as that will take away the pressure from the trap muscles.
3) Face Pull
Face pulls work on the middle traps (upper back) along with the rear delts. As the two muscle groups are connected, it’s important to strengthen them together to add mass and attain overall muscle development.
To do the exercise, attach the ropes to the cable pulley machine, and adjust the anchor slightly above your forehead. Hold the ropes with each hand, and pull them close to your face to keep your elbows flared.
You should engage your rear delts by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Take precautions to not pull it too fast or hard, otherwise the ropes could hit you in the face.
4) Bent Over Y
The bent over Y is an excellent way to target the trap muscles without allowing other muscles to take over.
To do the exercise, bend over from the hips, and keep your back straight. Keep your hands beside your legs and knees slightly bent. You can use resistance bands or dumbbells to do this workout.
Take a dumbbell in each hand (preferably light weight), and extend your arms upwards from the traps but in a 'Y' shape. Therefore, your left arm will be slightly towards the left and right arm towards the right. Hold the position for a second or two before lowering your arms.
5) Upright Row
Upright rows are a good trap exercise, but they're not the easiest to do. You need to constantly be aware of the complexity of this exercise, and as a result, be extremely careful when doing it.
To do the exercise, hold a barbell, and pull it towards yourself in an upright motion, keeping it parallel to your torso. Ideally, you’ll feel the stress on your shoulders and trap muscles, but when you’re lowering the barbell, you must ensure to not lower it with a sudden jerk.
If you do this exercise with sudden jerks, you may end up injuring yourself.
6) Behind-the-neck Pulldown
If you can incorporate this exercise into your workout routine, you’ll be able to activate all the smaller muscles around your upper back, traps, and rear delts.
To add mass, it’s important to activate every muscle that makes up a muscle group.
To do this exercise, you need to hold the lat pulldown bar with a wide grip, and pull it down. At the top of the motion, the bar should be behind your neck and not in front of you. If you pull it in front of you, you’ll end up working your middle and lower back.
Bottom Line
It’s important to note that you work on your trap muscles on days you’re doing your shoulders and back.
As a result, you don’t have to keep a day separately for traps (unless you want to). You can just add some isolation exercises on the days your traps are being used as secondary muscle groups.
The best trap exercises for men do not end with the above list. There are several advanced variations of each exercise. However, it's crucial that you incorporate the beginner version first. Form a foundation, and then move to advanced variations.
