Best trapezius muscle exercises - Does overhead press work traps?

During an Overhead Press, stable shoulder blades are essential. As your trapezius' role is stabilizing your scapulae, this muscle gets worked to some extent with an Overhead Press. But for optimal trap strength and growth, other exercises are more effective.

Introduction

Does the barbell overhead press, or any other type of overhead press, work your trapezius muscle?

And if not, how do you work your traps?

I'll answer the first question in this article right after the introduction.

Then, we will dive into your traps' anatomy by discussing what regions or parts your trapezius consists of and the function(s) of each part of your traps.

With a better understanding of the anatomy and function of your trapezius, I'll finally list several exercises that target different parts of your traps more effectively than an overhead press does.

Let's begin by answering whether the overhead press is the best traps builder.

Does overhead press work traps

To get straight to the point and answer this question directly:

The trapezius muscles, often called the "traps", are involved in stabilizing and assisting your scapulae (i.e., your shoulder blades) during any overhead pressing exercises. However, the main muscles targeted by the overhead press are your deltoids (your shoulder muscles), particularly the anterior deltoid (front of your shoulder), lateral deltoid (side of your shoulder), and triceps (at the back of your upper arm).

So although overhead pressing also activates your traps to stabilize your shoulders and upper back during the exercise, other exercises are more effective in targeting specifically your traps.

Fortunately, there are several other exercises you can do to target your traps, such as, but not limited to, shrugging and different types of rowing exercises (scroll down below for more exercises targeting your traps.).

Anatomy and function of the Trapezius muscle

To better understand which exercises mainly work different parts of your traps, an understanding of your trapezius and its function can help you pick the correct exercise for each part. So, let's dive into some anatomy and muscle function!

Trapezius muscle anatomy

Your trapezius muscle is that large muscle that looks like a trapezoid and spans your upper back and neck region.

You can categorize your trapezius muscle into three parts:

• The upper trapezius.
• The middle trapezius.
• The lower trapezius.

Upper trapezius insertions

The upper part of your trapezius attaches to the base of your skull (to be precise, to the external occipital protuberance and the superior nuchal line) and neck (the ligamentum nuchae).

Middle trapezius insertions

The middle part of your trapezius attaches to the midpoint of your spine (i.e., the upper part of the spinous processes of C7-T12) to the lower part of the shoulder blades.

Lower trapezius insertions

Lastly, the lower part of your trapezius also attaches to your spine, but to the lower part of it (to be precise, to the inferior portion of the spinous process of C7-T12).

Trapezius muscle function

Your traps' main functions are stabilizing and moving your scapulae.

This comes down to several movements and functions, such as:

• Moving your shoulders: Think of raising, lowering, and rotating your shoulders; when you do these movements, your traps are involved.
• Stabilizing your posture: A correct posture involves keeping a straight spine (with its natural S-curve maintained) and having your scapulae retracted and stabilized... which is precisely the main function of your traps.
• Moving your neck: The upper traps also assist in tilting and rotating your head in conjunction with other neck muscles.

Let's see how each part helps in stabilizing your scapulae.

Upper trapezius function

Your upper traps help elevate your shoulders, as in shrugging and rotating the scapulae upward. Any time you raise your shoulders, as if you're signaling 'you don't know'... that's where your upper trapezius are activated.

Middle trapezius function

Your middle traps, on the other hand, help retracting your scapulae, which involves pulling the shoulder blades toward your spine (i.e., adducting, or 'drawing together' the two scapulae). This movement of your scapulae occurs whenever you properly do any type of rowing exercise, such as T-bar rows or bent-over dumbbell rows.

Lower trapezius function

Finally, your lower traps assist in retracting and depressing your scapulae (i.e., moving your shoulder blades down). This muscle also plays a role in stabilizing the shoulders.

Retracting your shoulders during exercise

Whenever you read in an exercise that requires you to retract your shoulder blades (for example, when doing any overhead pressing or when bench pressing), it means you need to pull your shoulder blades to your spine (i.e., this is what the middle region of your trapezius is responsible for) as well as pull your them down (which is the responsibility of your lower trapezius).

Trapezius muscle exercises

Now that you know how the trapezius muscle works and what its functions are, it's easy to select the correct exercises that mainly target that muscle.

Below, you'll find a list of such exercises. Feel free to pick a multiple of them to do during your workouts!

Upper traps exercises

Barbell Shrugs

Barbell shrugs involve lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates using a shoulder-shrugging motion. This exercise primarily targets your upper trapezius and is effective for building strength and size of your traps.

Dumbbell Shrugs

Similar to barbell shrugs, dumbbell shrugs involve lifting dumbbells using a shoulder-shrugging movement. They can be done one arm at a time or with both arms simultaneously.

Upright Rows

Upright rows involve pulling a barbell or dumbbells up close to the body while you're standing tall. This exercise targets your upper trapezius fibers and lateral deltoids. You can also do this exercise with a cable or resistance bands.

There is a lot of controversy around upright rows. Many physical therapists recommend skipping Upright Rows altogether, as it has been suggested that it can result in shoulder injuries.

However, the exercise actually does have some benefits, and there are certainly some ways to work around the biomechanical aspects that allegedly cause excessive strain on your shoulder joints. The most important thing to remember is that you need to experiment with different techniques when doing upright rows to see what works and feels best for you.

Here's a great video on some tips for doing upright rows without many problems:

Middle traps exercises

Face Pulls

Face Pulls is an exercise that's done on a cable machine, and it requires you to pull a rope attachment towards your chin or face. By doing so, you work your rear deltoids and the upper and middle parts of your trapezius muscle.

This exercise is a form of scapular retraction (which is what the middle trapezius are for, as we discussed previously in the section about anatomy and function of the trapezius previously).

When doing Face Pulls, the angle at which you hold your arms out to the side affects how much your traps are worked. For the most effective targeting of the upper and middle parts of your trapezius, hold your elbows out horizontally in a 90-degree angle. In practice, this means you pull the row toward your neck/chin region instead of more toward your face.

Bent-Over Rows

With Bent-over Rows, you literally need to bend over and pull a weight toward your torso. Bent-over rows can be done with a barbell, dumbbells, or Kettlebells, and they're great for working your middle traps and rhomboids primarily, although they also work your lats to some extent.

Just make sure to tighten your back and posture, meaning:

• Keep your back straight with its natural S-curve maintained.
• Retract your shoulder blades.
• Don't use upper body momentum to 'jerk' up the weights.
• Refrain from using your biceps to pull the weight towards your torso.
• Instead, the pulling force should come from your back.

There are several other details to keep in mind if you want to do Bent-over Rows (or any other type of rowing, such as T-bar rows discussed below) correctly, but I'll leave those details and a comprehensive 'how to' for another article in the future.

T-Bar Rows

T-bar rows are similar to Bent-over Rows with free weights (i.e., barbell, dumbbells, or Kettlebells), but they're done using a T-bar row machine or a T-bar attachment on one end of a barbell while the other end is pivoted to the ground in a landmine attachment. As with the free weights Bent-over Rows, T-bar Rows particularly target your middle trapezius and rhomboids.

The same tips about posture as discussed above under 'Bent-over Rows' apply to T-bar Rows.

Lower traps exercises

Prone Y-Raises

Prone Y-raises is an exercise you barely see people doing at the gym, but nonetheless, it's one of the best isolation exercises for your lower traps.

To do this exercise, you need to lay face down on a bench with your arms 'hanging' down, which is your starting position. From the starting position and with dumbbells in each hand, you then raise your arms in front of you to make a "Y" shape (as if you are doing the 'YMCA').

Lying dumbbell rows

I mentioned Bent-over Rows and T-bar Rows under exercises for the middle traps, but luckily rowing in general also works out your lower traps to a great extent. And that's because, with your back muscles (which includes your trapezius!), it's difficult to isolate one specific area of a muscle. So, if you want strong and bigger lower traps, include lots of rowing in your exercise.

A great exercise to really target your middle back, including your rhomboids, your middle trapezius, and to a great extent your lower trapezius, is Lying Dumbbell Rows.

To do Lying Dumbbell Rows:

1. Lay face down on a bench and hold dumbbells in each hand.
2. From the starting position (your arms extended down and your shoulder blades retracted), pull the dumbbells to your sides and squeeze your back muscles at the 'top'.
3. Keep your elbows close to your body (don't flare them out!), and your shoulder blades retracted during the whole movement.
4. Lower the dumbbells slowly back to the starting position.

Conclusion

So, to summarize, if you want to grow and strengthen your trapezius, you shouldn't do only overhead pressing exercises.

This doesn't mean you should skip overhead pressing.

Definitely not!

In fact, the Barbell Overhead Press is a fundamental exercise to strengthen and grow your shoulders. However, it mainly targets your deltoids and activates your traps to a much lesser degree than the aforementioned exercises, as it requires stabilization of your scapulae, and that's precisely what the traps are for. Still, the real work for moving the weights up during an overhead press comes from your deltoids, not your trapezius.

Well, that's a wrap-up. I hope you found this article helpful. Which exercise do you find the best for your traps? Let me know!