Build Bigger Traps With These Effectie Bodyweight Exercises

Building strong trapezius muscles (traps) is desirable for several reasons. Strengthening your traps can improve aesthetics, provide stability, postural, and mobility benefits, and help with injury prevention.

Bodyweight trap exercises improve trap strength and muscular endurance that require minimal or no equipment. The bodyweight nature of the movements can lend themselves quite well to beginners and can be done almost anywhere. However, more advanced athletes will still be able to reap benefits.

Here are six great exercises to train your traps without weights. If you need more resistance, check out these trap dumbbell exercises. Read on to see how to incorporate them into your routine and how they can benefit you.

6 Bodyweight Trap Exercises

Bodyweight exercises can be a great way to train your traps at home or on the road. Add some or all of these movements into your program for a good strength or endurance stimulus.

Shoulder Roll

Shoulder rolls are a simple way to engage your traps and improve mobility. Athletes in sports like softball, golf, cricket, swimming, and hockey will benefit from shoulder rolls.

They effectively work the scapulae (shoulder blades) through their range of motion. Shoulder rolls early in your program will help prepare you for more forceful movements later in the session. This will help you better maximize strength gains in your other shoulder exercises. 

How To Do

1. Stand upright with a good athletic posture. 
2. Shrug your shoulders upwards and inwards towards your neck. 
3. Roll your shoulders backward, downwards, and inwards. Squeeze your shoulder blades together as your shoulders move toward the ground. 
4. Return your shoulders to the starting position. 

Tips

• Have this be one of the first movements in your warm-up routine before moving on to more complex and forceful exercises.
• Slowly and deliberately move through as much of the range of motion as you can. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Reverse Snow Angel

Reverse snow angels are another trap movement that can be done anywhere and incorporated easily into a warm-up routine. These are more challenging than shoulder rolls so they will better challenge the strength and endurance of your traps. Like shoulder rolls, they utilize a large range of motion but work in a different plane of motion. 

This movement also engages the deltoids, latissimus dorsi, and rhomboids. By strengthening the muscles of the upper back and shoulder girdle, reverse snow angels can improve posture. Additionally, it can improve shoulder mobility, stability, and strength for overhead athletes like volleyball players, rock climbers, and butterfly swimmers. 

How To Do

1. Start in a prone position (lying on your stomach) with your legs together and arms at your sides. 
2. While keeping your arms fully extended, sweep them above the floor until they are directly in front of your head. Slowly and deliberately move through the full range of motion.
3. After pausing for a moment, sweep your fully extended arms back until they are down by your sides. 

Tips

• Allow your shoulders to rotate freely throughout this movement. Your hands should start facing up when by your hips then rotate to be facing down when above your head. 
• Only move your arms and shoulders. Engage your core and glutes while keeping your chin tucked.
• Try to get as large of a range of motion as possible. Visualize doing this in the snow and trying to move as much snow as you can. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Pulse Row

Pulse rows are another accessible way to target your traps, shoulders, and upper back muscles. As the name suggests, this movement is meant to be done with a consistent rhythm, like a pulse. That consistent timing is important for sports like rowing where synchronicity with teammates is crucial to maximizing boat speed. 

This exercise improves the endurance of the traps, lats, and deltoids to help maintain rowing form as these muscles fatigue. Add pulse rows to your routine to maintain proper spinal form with high-intensity rowing. Even if you aren’t a rower, this exercise still enhances your strength and muscular endurance. 

How To Do

1. Lie down on your stomach, face down, and with arms at your sides. Your palms should be facing up. 
2. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, raising your shoulders off the ground as high as you comfortably can. Keep your arms parallel to your body throughout the movement.
3. Lower your shoulders back down to the starting position. 

Tips 

• Be deliberate and controlled with the movement. 
• Establish a consistent rhythm for this movement as if you were rowing a boat with a constant cadence. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Prone Y Raise

The prone Y raise is a commonly used shoulder rehabilitation exercise but can also be an effective injury prevention tool. It is often done as part of the I, Y, and T movements, named because of the shape your body makes.

The prone Y raise will help athletes who regularly utilize their shoulders. The I (180 degrees), Y (135 degrees), and T (90 degrees) positions of shoulder abduction reliably quantify shoulder girdle strength. Shoulder abduction is where you lift your arm up and away from the midline of your body.

Strengthening these positions will benefit weight lifters and bodybuilders who lift heavy and athletes in most team sports. Whether you are looking to come back from a shoulder injury or prevent one, add this to your routine. For more ideas, check out this shoulders and traps workout. 

How To Do

1. Lie down on your stomach, face down with legs slightly wider than hip-width. Your ankles should have approximately a 90-degree angle with your shins. 
2. Place both arms on either side of your head, slightly wider than shoulder width with your thumbs pointing up. So, your limbs should form an X shape. 
3. Raise your thumbs as high as you can while keeping your arms fully extended. 
4. After a momentary pause at the top of the movement, slowly lower your arms back to the starting position. 

Tips 

• Move through as large a range of motion as you can while being controlled. 
• Consider alternating between the I, Y, and T positions for some useful variety and to emphasize different muscles. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Bent-Over Rear Delt Fly

This is another great upper back and shoulder exercise that can be done anywhere. The traps and rear deltoids work together in this movement with the rear deltoids being particularly activated. If this movement is too easy, add weight and check out this upper-body dumbbell workout. 

This can prevent shoulder injuries in overhead athletes like volleyball and basketball players. Since both sides need to work independently, it also helps correct muscle imbalances, which can help in managing shoulder impingement. 

This movement can improve posture by countering the forward shoulder position associated with prolonged sitting and repetitive movements. Adding this into your main training and/or warm-up/prehab program can improve muscular symmetry and reduce injury risk. 

How To Do

1. Start in a standing position then lean forward. Hinge forward at your hips and have a slight bend in your knee as if you are about to deadlift. Your arms should hang directly down from your shoulders in the starting position.
2. While keeping your back flat and upper body stable, raise your fully extended arms out to the side. Raise your arms at a 90-degree angle to your body, forming a ‘T’ shape with your torso at the top of the movement. 
3. After a momentary pause at the top of the movement, slowly lower your arms back to the starting position. 

Tips

• Visualize you are a bird flapping its wings. Try to move as much air as possible by using a large range of motion and keeping your elbows straight.
• Maintain good posture. Keep your spine neutral and your torso stable. The only parts of your body that should move are your shoulders and arms. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Reverse Plank

The reverse plank is a fantastic compound movement that targets the muscles of the upper back, hips, shoulders, and core. The traps, deltoids, abdominals, quadriceps, and hip flexors all work together to move the body up into the plank position. 

This exercise has concentric (muscle shortening to generate force) and isometric (muscle contraction with movement) benefits. Whether you get into the plank position and hold it, or raise it up and down you can get different benefits. Certain sports, like running, will benefit more from isometric training, and others, like weightlifting, more from the concentric training. 

Reverse planks can also yield significant postural improvements in a short period. One study found reverse planks immediately improved participants’ forward shoulder angle by 5.34 degrees on average. This trains your core while simultaneously training several other muscle groups.  

How To Do

1. Sit on the floor with your hands located behind your hips and your legs fully extended in front of you. Your fingers should be pointing forward, toward your legs. 
2. While engaging your core, hips, and glutes, lift your hips to form a straight line from shoulders to ankles. 
3. To do this movement isometrically, hold this position continuously. To do this movement concentrically, lower yourself back to the starting position, then repeat for the rest of the set. 

Tips

• If doing this as an isometric hold, be sure to keep your hips up. Don’t let them sag and lose that straight line from your shoulders to ankles. 
• If doing this as a concentric exercise, be sure to move slowly enough to maintain proper form. 

Optimal Sets And Reps

Best Bodyweight Trap Workout Routine

These movements can be combined to target the traps. They can also be combined with other exercises as part of an upper or whole-body workout.

Anatomy Of The Traps

The traps are large muscles on both sides of the upper back. It has three parts, the upper, lower, and middle, and originates from the thoracic and cervical spine. 

The traps’ three main functions involve moving the scapulae, which are commonly known as the shoulder blades. The traps raise, lower, and retract (squeeze together) the scapulae. They also externally rotate the scapulae, as it happens when lifting your arms to the side.

The traps are important for shoulder stability and mobility. Overhead athletes, in particular, will want to train them to prevent injury and enhance athletic performance. 

Upper Trapezius

Triangular shaped muscles located between your neck and shoulder blades.

Middle Trapezius

Muscles located in the middle of your back between your upper and lower traps.

Lower Trapezius

Small, triangular shaped muscles located below your middle traps and between your lats.

Benefits Of Bodyweight Trap Exercises

Beyond the convenience and accessibility of bodyweight trap exercises, they provide many other benefits. 

Better Posture

Good posture is obviously important for athletic movement but is also important for general health and well-being. In our modern world with desk jobs and binge-watching good posture is something most of us need to work for. Strengthening our traps, upper back, and chest muscles along with pectoralis major stretching helps keep our shoulders from rounding forward.

Stronger Pulling

Pulling movements are key for many athletic movements like rowing, grappling, power cleans, and deadlifting. As the traps retract the scapulae they play a key role in this foundational athletic movement. Whether you are a rock climber or a powerlifter, you will benefit from improved pulling power and stability. 

Improved Shoulder Mobility And Injury Prevention

Improving the strength and muscular endurance of your traps allows your shoulders to move with more power and stability. This can greatly benefit athletes in overhead and throwing sports who need to move powerfully through large ranges of motion. Given the relative instability of the highly mobile shoulder joint, strengthening the surrounding muscles is key to providing functional stability. 

Expert Training Tips 

• Good form is key for these movements. Maintaining proper posture and moving properly will help to maximize training benefits while also reducing injury risk. As previously mentioned, the shoulder’s mobility requires stability from strength and good movement mechanics. 
• Focus on the muscles you are using in these movements to enhance the mind-muscle connection. 

Conclusion

Bodyweight trap exercises have numerous benefits and can be done anywhere. Working on your traps can help reduce shoulder, back, and neck injury risk. They are a convenient way to improve trap strength and muscular endurance that can be done anywhere.