Instant Mid & Lower Traps Activator! Increase Back Thickness!

Today I’m going to explain to you how to activate your mid and lower traps, so that when you perform your workouts you’re able to target these areas a bit easier, improve your mind-muscle connection, and start to see more GROWTH in your workouts.

What About The Upper Traps?

Obviously there are upper traps as well, but the reason I’m not going to focus on targeting or trying to warm-up the upper traps is because if anything, the upper traps get OVERWORKED. That’s why people have rounded shoulders or elevated shoulders. Also, as you probably know by now, the best way to hit your upper traps is by doing super heavy above the knee rack pulls, which I have talked about a lot in the past!

When it comes to the mid and lower traps, they are a bit harder to target, which is why the majority of people have a hard time building them, regardless of doing exercises that target that specific area. What you want to do is spend a bit of time working with some bands in order to activate that area and to create a stronger mind-muscle connection, before you get into exercises that you can utilise to overload to build muscle. There’s no point in going into the exercises that overload the area if you don’t know how to properly activate it first.

Scapula Retraction & Depression

What you’re going to do is attach a band to a high structure, but you can probably do this with a cable machine if you don’t have access to bands. However, one of the good things about bands is the resistance increases as you create more tension, so if you have access to a band, I would rather you used that. You’re going to take a few steps back from the structure so that you can create some resistance in the band, because you don’t want to be so close that there is slack. You’re also going to do this movement one arm at a time. Once you’ve taken a few steps back and you’re holding the band with one arm, you’re going to let your arm hang forward as much as possible, before you retract, and then depress your scapula. You’re going to hold that for a second, then return to the starting position and repeat.

The reason why you’re retracting and then depressing the scapula is because the mid traps are going to be mostly involved in the retraction, and the lower traps are going to be mostly involved in the depression. By doing both of these movements, you’re activating the entire area. Obviously once you have done all 10 reps on one side, make sure you go to the other side. You only NEED to do 1 set per side, but if you want to do it a few times, that’s fine. Also, keep in mind you DO NOT want to use the heaviest band you can find. The purpose of this is activation, not muscle growth. You’re just trying to target the area, wake up the muscle fibers, and get that mind-muscle connection improved.

Exercise: Seated Dumbbell High Pull (3 – 4 Sets: 8 – 10 Reps)

This exercise looks similar to a bent-over row, but the mechanics are a bit different. You’re going to sit with your feet together, and your butt right on the edge of the bench. You’ll then grab a dumbbell in each hand, and try to sit up (while keeping your core tight) so that your upper body is at a 45 degree angle. The goal here is not to shrug the weight, instead you are trying to pull it back, and while doing this you want to really flex and squeeze your lower and middle traps to really hit them hard.

When you do this movement, it’s not going to feel like there is much range of motion happening, and that’s because there really isn’t, so it’s OK to feel that way. You can overload with this by using my Cheat & Recover technique, which would result in having to use a bit of momentum and then fighting the negative. For those of you already doing my Cheat & Recover Program, you can do it on back day. All you have to do is let the dumbbells hang really low, and then use momentum to thrust your back up, before fighting the negative on the way down and repeating for reps. As soon as you’ve done your 8 cheat reps, you’re going to go into your 8 recover reps, which is proper form.

Conclusion

If you’re having a hard time hitting those low and middle traps, utilizing the band will definitely help activate the area, and then doing a seated DB high pull will definitely help target that area for some muscle growth!