The trapezius (‘traps’ for short) is a diamond-shaped muscle on the middle of your back. The middle and lower part of that muscle makes an important contribution to the thickness of your back. If you lack that thickness, do targeted exercises for your middle and lower traps, for example: prone reverse flyes and prone Y’s. Two super simple yet effective exercises that require hardly any weight.

PRONE REVERSE FLIES

With prone reverse flyes you specifically train the middle part of your traps. More specifically, they are prone reverse flyes with external rotation, meaning your thumbs are pointing upwards. This exercise not only strengthens and enlarges your mid traps, it also contributes to a better posture and the prevention of (shoulder) injuries.

You do the exercise on a flat or slightly inclined bench. Keep your shoulders down as much as possible (so don’t shrug) to avoid any interference from your upper traps.

Start without weight in order to achieve the correct mind-muscle connection first. Later, you can add some weight by gripping weight discs, keeping your thumbs pointing up.

PRONE Y’S

In order to feel your lower kicks, you will have to make movements that follow the line of the muscle fibers, in this case obliquely towards the middle of your back. Hence the prone Y (or variants like the Y press), where you hold your arms at an angle upwards, so that you form the letter Y. An exercise that also contributes to your posture and the prevention of (shoulder) injuries.

Start without weight, add weight discs later and opt for the variant with cable machine later on.