Wanting to build an attractive and harmoniously developed body, one should not forget about the accented study of small muscle groups. These include the muscles of the neck, calves, forearms, and trapezius muscles – these are most often “forgotten” by not only beginners who do not have time to really understand the anatomy of the human body, but also by experienced athletes who believe that they will be enough of the load from other exercises.
These muscle groups really take on a significant part of the load when performing many exercises, but it is not enough for full development. As a result, these parts of the body begin to “lag behind” the rest, which leads to the appearance of imbalance. Now we will consider in detail how to pump up the trapezoid to harmoniously develop muscles.
How to pump up a trapeze
A bit of anatomy
The trapezoid got its name for its characteristic appearance resembling a geometric figure. The muscle group, as mentioned above, is small, and conditionally in bodybuilding, it is divided into 3 parts:
- upper – is responsible for raising the shoulder blades and shoulders;
- medium – is involved in the reduction of the shoulder blades to the spinal column;
- lower – responsible for lowering the shoulder blades and shoulders.
- The muscle is flat, wide, and has a superficial location between the upper back and neck.
Participation in exercises
As already mentioned, trapeziums include work in many exercises. First of all, we are talking about movements in the shoulder joint and exercises on the back.
Let’s make a complete list of exercises in which the load on the trapezius muscles is more or less created:
- Deadlift and all its variations.
- Bent draft – with dumbbells, barbell, T-barbell.
- Draft in a horizontal block simulator.
- Draft in a vertical block simulator.
- The pull of the bar to the chin (the often used colloquial name is “broach”).
- Breeding dumbbells while standing and leaning.
In the exercises listed in this list, the trapezoid begins to receive a significant load if you will be able to reduce the shoulder blades to each other as much as possible. However, their implementation more or less fully involves only the middle and lower section – the upper practically does not do useful work.
Shrags
The only true exercise that allows you to unequivocally answer the question – how to pump up the trapezoid – are shrags. Being a fairly simple movement that looks like a usual shrug, the exercise allows you to qualitatively load all sections of the trapezoid. The most important thing is that the upper section is fully involved, which is responsible for the visual increase in volume.
Exercise can be performed in several variations:
- with the barbell in front;
- with a barbell behind his back;
- with dumbbells;
- with kettlebells;
- with pancakes from the bar.
The essence of the exercise and the load on the trapeze are practically unchanged – the difference is only in the convenience of execution. For example, it is not very convenient to carry out the movement with the bar (both ways), so the third option is much more common.
Important nuances and tips
Working weight. The question of how much weight to perform shrags is quite controversial. Some athletes prefer to work out a trapezoid with maximum weights (so that you can do 5-10 repetitions), others with minimal ones, but perform a large number of repetitions (most of them). Choose the appropriate option yourself, focusing on your own feelings.
Training day. Naturally, the trapeze is worked out on the day of the back training, at the end of the complex.
In principle, to make the trapezoid grow, it will be enough just to include shrags in the training program (moreover, it will be enough 1 time a week) – this will be enough for the upper part to develop, and the middle and lower ones are already loaded in other exercises.
