What exercise is best?

[Andy]

What exercise is best for building this area in the pic?

i am working from home at the moment until i find a gym so free weight exercise examples would be great!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y103/andycorsa/ist2_426832_human_anatomy_male_musc.jpg

[kcsaxo]

do you mean the upper chest or the trapezius?

upper chest - incline bench / incline dumbbell press
traps - shrugs with dumbells / barbell

[Andy]

is shrugs where your holding the bells at the side of your body and just shrugging, oh and meant traps sorry!

[kcsaxo]

yeah shrugs:

- feet shoulder width apart
- slightly bent knees so pressure is off lower back
- back straight
- looking forwad
- dumbbells at side with arms extended
- shrug shoulders, paude then slowly lower

[Kelly]

Why do you want to build muscle there? Strength or looks?

[kcsaxo]

usually looks but i cant remember what purpose they serve on the body. think its to keep your shoulders in good posture.

[Kelly]

usually looks but i cant remember what purpose they serve on the body. think its to keep your shoulders in good posture.

Don't go too far with it because imo it looks gash lol

[kcsaxo]

typical for a girl to hate what guys like :)

[Leo]

id say shrugs are more of a upper back/lats exersise personally. for traps do upright rows:

http://www.myfit.ca/exercisedatabase/images/uprightrow.gif


kelly, you probley seen a few juice heads that look like they have no neck, normaly trained traps just look good and proportion the shoulders etc.

[bullit]

shrugs and upright rows combine ;)

[Leo]

could do both yeh. but shrugs (performed properly, shoulder blades back, x second pause at top) are for upper back/lats not traps

[Apz1]

Deadlifts

[makaveli144]

Shrugs and upright rows are the best ways to exercise the traps although big compound movements such as deadlifts or overhead presses will also work out the traps although not as much as shrugs and upright rows.

And shrugs are definately a trap exercise.

[Andy]

yeah im not going for big improvement in size just to tone a bit more as they are a weak point in my body

[Leo]

yeh try doiing upright rows along with the shrugs on back or shoulder day.

also to mix up the rows you can use the lower pulley on cable machine and do the rows, its pretty good

[kcsaxo]

another point is that the traps like your calves can take some punishment so dont be scared of going heavy to see improvements.

[Andy]

cheers for help guys, i need to join a gym asap!

[Ruddy]

Upright rows mate, but hold the bar more close together than that guy! lmao. about half a hands width apart in the middle. And keep your elbows pointing upwards.

[Apz1]

dont under estimate deadlifts for traps, your traps tense and stop your shoulders collapsing forward in deadlifts, when you get to heavy weights on deadlifts your traps will be developed.

its just like your Biceps, alot of people see more growth from compounds over curls, just because its not isolating the muscle dosnt mean it wont make them grow as much.

[Leo]

yeh thats true apz1. i dont ever do a "bicep workout" i dont even hit them and my arms are pretty big and have good peak. its all from rows and deads etc.

[Predator_R32]

definately shoulder shrugs are the best for it like

[bullit]

with shrugs though you need to pile on the weight. you prob need about 50kg each arm so you might wanna wack a belt on

[Andy]

what do u mean by compounds?

[gaz_2188]

Exercises that incorporate more than one muscle group when doing the lift and go through more than one joint. An example would be bench press.

[marcus2007]

deadlift is the best way to strengthen/condition your trapezious muscles