Best Dumbbell Trap Workout For Mass and Strength

The trapezius muscles, also known as trap muscles, are a large muscle group in the upper back. Dumbbell trap workout are strength-training exercises that target the trap muscles. Dumbbell trap workout can help you build bigger traps, improve your posture, and provide strength for Olympic weightlifting moves, such as deadlifts.

The trapezius works to stabilize your shoulders and upper back. To maintain good posture and avoid back pain, it’s important to keep the trapezius strong.

The weak trap can increase the risk of injury during other exercises, such as a chest press, overhead press. So, let’s take a closer look at how to strengthen and develop your traps.

In this article, we will look the trap muscle, the best dumbbell trap exercises, how to do them.

Trapezius Muscle anatomy and its Function

The trapezius aka trap muscle is a large muscle in your back. Providers call it the trapezius because of its shape. It looks like a trapezoid (a shape with four sides, two that are parallel).

Healthcare providers divide the trapezius into three areas. Each area helps you with a specific kind of movement. Together, the three parts of the trapezius help you move your head, stand up straight, bend or twist your torso and raise your arms.

Dumbbell Trap Exercises Benefits

Here are the benefits of a dumbbell trap exercises :

• Muscle strength & growth: Practicing dumbbell trap workouts is one of the most effective ways to increase hypertrophy in the back and shoulders.
• Stability & conditioning: Dumbbell trap workout activates all major areas of the shoulders, making it excellent for upper body stability and conditioning. By doing frequent shrug and upright rows, you will improve your position while protecting yourself from injury.
• Builds Traps: Traps are tricky to build. There are only a handful of exercises that mainly target your traps. A dumbbell trap exercises utilizes your traps just as much as it works your shoulders.
• Improve your posture. When practiced with proper form, dumbbell trap workout help build strength in your upper body stabilizer muscle groups, helping you stand up tall and keep your back straight.
• Stronger traps can help reduce neck pain. Strengthening your traps increases the activation of your shoulder muscles, helping provide better support to your head and neck.

7 Best Dumbbell Trap Exercises

Some of the best dumbbell trap exercises to add to your workout routine include:

1. Dumbbell Shrug

The dumbbell shrug is a variation and one of the best exercises to build bigger and stronger trapezius muscles. This exercise can be done extremely heavily to thicken the traps, which really helps you in doing back poses. This is one of the best trap isolation exercises for trapezius muscle.

Being a stubborn muscle group for many, traps can be trained with a fairly high frequency during the week.

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Muscles Involved

Primary: Trapezius, Lateral deltoid.

Secondary: Anterior deltoid, supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, teres minor.

Execution Technique

1. Stand upright, keeping arms at sides and with a heavy dumbbell in each hand.
2. Raise your shoulders as high as you can, as if trying to touch them to your ears.
3. Hold at the top for a moment, then release and return to the starting position.

Tips

• Try not to move anything but your shoulders.
• Inhale when you lower the weight and exhale when you lift.
• Adding a pause at the top of the movement can help to enhance the mind-muscle connection.
• Limit momentum and excessive jerking or bouncing of the weight.

2. Dumbbell Upright Row

The heavy Upright Row is one of the best dumbbell trap exercises to build huge Trapezius muscles and create that deltopectoral separation. Heavy Upright Rows along with shrugs can build massive traps.

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Upright Rows can be done with both narrow grips and wider ones. The narrow grip focuses on Trapezius and the wider focuses on the entire shoulder girdle. Also, the wider grip allows some cheating movement, thereby allowing you to lift more weight.

Muscles Involved

Primary: Lateral deltoid, trapezius.

Secondary: Anterior deltoid, supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, teres minor.

Execution Technique

1. Hold a dumbbell with a narrow overhand grip and let it hang in front of you.
2. Lift the dumbbell, get it as close as possible to the chin using your arms, and elevate your shoulders to squeeze your trapezius muscles.
3. Now, lower the dumbbell under controlled motion until it comes back to its starting position.

Tips

• Remember to exhale while you exert.
• Keep a controlled motion and avoid jerky movements.
• Keep your back straight.

3. Incline Dumbbell Shrug

Incline Dumbbell Shrug is a variation of trap dumbbell shrug exercises that strengthens the upper part of the trapezius and neck region and also helps to improve posture.

Muscles Involved

Primary: Trapezius, Lateral deltoid.

Secondary: Anterior deltoid, supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, teres minor.

Execution Technique

1. Grab a pair of dumbbells and straddle an adjustable-incline bench with your feet flat on the floor or position them on the bench frame to support your body.
2. Hold the dumbbells with a neutral grip at your sides and lie chest-down on an incline bench.
3. Slowly shrug your shoulders up toward your ears. At the top, pause for a moment and contract hard through your traps and rhomboids.
4. Slowly lower the weights back to the starting position.

Tips

• Keep your arms straight throughout the entire movement.
• Avoid using extremely heavy weights.
• Move the dumbbells in a smooth and even manner, without jerking them at all.

4. Dumbbell Farmers Walk

The farmer’s walk exercise also called the farmer’s carry, is a strength and conditioning exercise in which you hold a heavy load in each hand while walking for a designated distance.

Farmer’s Walk with Dumbbells might be one of the classic exercises and a move that men’s been doing since the beginning of time.

The Farmer’s Walk allows you to accomplish a tremendous amount in a single exercise.   

Bobby Jansson

Having completed my education in English, I’ve cultivated a successful career as a content writer. My tenure includes valued collaborations with distinguished professional organizations, reflecting my commitment to producing high-quality content.
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