While keeping your elbows locked, raise your arms up and out so that they form a Y shape with your torso. Raise your arms as high as possible and hold before returning to the start- ing position.


MISTAKE #5


CONFUSION OF TRAPS AND NECK EXPLANATION Your traps are the surface muscle in the middle of the back of your neck, and they beef up the space between your neck and delts, but they do little to increase the circumference of your neck itself. To fit into shirts with a bigger collar size, you’ll need to do isolation exercises for your neck in addition to your traps routine. SOLUTIONS n The best way to work your neck is with a four-way neck machine. This allows you to do neck extensions forwards, backwards, and to the left and right. Do 10 to 20 reps in each of the four directions for two to four cycles. n If your gym doesn’t have a neck machine, use either a neck harness and weight, or hold a folded towel and a weight plate to your head, and again work your neck in all four directions. n Just after your traps routine is an ideal time for heavy necking. M&F


LESSONS LEARNT


n Do your traps routine after your back or shoulder routine, and avoid working back and shoulders on consecutive days.


few bodybuilders know how to target their middle and lower traps—that crucial slab of meat in the middle of the upper back. This area will assist on most back exercises, but as with the upper area, you should do some exercises that target middle and lower traps, especially if upper-back thick- ness is a weakness. SOLUTIONS n Do at least one shrugging exercise with your arms at a 45-degree angle to your front torso, thus working both your


150 MUSCLE&FITNESS


upper and middle traps. The aforemen- tioned 45-degree cable shrugs do this. Another exercise is a 45-degree bench shrug. Lie face-down on an incline bench set at 45 degrees. Hold two dumbbells with your arms perpendicular to the floor and shrug up, maximising the contraction in your traps and rhomboids at the top. n The Y raise is a unique way to isolate the lower traps. Lie on a high, flat bench and hold two dumbbells with your arms down and perpendicular to the floor.


n Segment two to three trapezius exercises into a traps routine, and if your traps are a weakness, include intensifiers.


n Break out of the grind of always doing barbell and dumbbell shrugs.


n Work your middle and lower traps with exercises that target these areas.


n Don’t rely on shrugs to grow your neck; do targeted neck exercises.


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