T Nation

Lower Trap Exercises

#1

So my left shoulder kills when I do any pressing movements and I have been seeing a Chiropractor. He tells me along with treatment (ART) I need to rehab my shoulder by doing rotator cuff work and trap 3 exercises. I do know how to strengthen my rotator cuff but do not know what exercises work the trap 3 (I figured I could look it up on the internet). Unfortunately I'm having a little trouble finding which exercises I should perform to strengthen this area. I found this one:

But my injured shoulder is too weak to perform this exercise even at the lowest weight. I've seen lower trap exercises on this website but not sure if they're the same thing, was hoping someone could throw me some suggestions.

#2

Face Pulls! Fires my traps and rear deltoids. I would for sure focus on form and contraction.

#3

or an exercise i did from some article i couldn’t find. Lie chest down on a bench, bend your arms, and then raise them out to the side, try to get them parallel to the ground. squeeze your back together at the top. Doing just 15 reps gets my middle back sore as hell after 3 sets.

#4

There was an article on working traps not too long ago. I don’t remember all the exercises the author outlines, but I believe one of them involved getting on a dip machine and lowering yourself from your shoulders without bending your elbows then pushing back up to work the lower traps. Now that I’m talking about it, I think CT wrote it. He outlined a couple other back exercises you can do with pulleys, I had never seen them before and don’t remember what they were called. Search for it, I’m sure it’s not hard to find.

#5

overhead shrugs

#6

Mate I am going through the same thing, must take care of your shoulders.

Here’s useful links:

Look up Eric Cressey’s ‘It looked good on paper’ (the section about throwing athletes), that might help (if you are tighter in one shoulder than the other.

Keep at it, don’t use too much weight too soon (feel the muscle working) and GOOD LUCK