In bodybuilding, everything we do on our training days is about splits. We have to split up our muscle groups, as training every muscle in every session would result in some serious overtraining. Not to mention, we don’t all have 8 or 9 hours per day to spend in the gym. Time is of the essence. Once we’re in the gym, focused upon an individual body part, we have to split the muscle group into smaller sections. On chest day, for example, we must train upper, middle, lower and outer pectorals. Finally, we have to divide our sets between high, medium, and low repetition range exercises to ensure we are able to stimulate all possible sets of available muscle fibers. All in all, it’s a pretty tough job, with lots of division, but somebody’s gotta do it!

That being said, with all the splitting that is going on, the trapezius muscle is a group that often finds itself thrown to the wayside when all the day splitting is taking place. Sometimes it ends up on back day, and sometimes it ends up being trained with shoulders. Which place is best for you?

If you choose to place the trap training on back day, be aware that doing so may result in soreness being present from the back to the traps when shoulder day arrives 1 to 2 days later. After all, they are all tied together, and the shoulders do a great deal of the work on movements such as shrugs and lateral raises. Focus on completing all the heavy back movements such as rows and deadlifts and chins first. Then, finish off your day with some quick and brutal training for the traps.

Placing traps with shoulders might make better sense. Some exercises, such as upright barbell, EZ-cur l bar, and dumbbell rows stimulate both the deltoids and the trapezius. However, training shoulders before traps may result in an excessive pump and risk of injury to the rotator cuff area when you arrive at upright rows. You may be better served by keeping your trap training at the beginning of your workout. After 6 to 10 sets of shrugs, move on to barbell and dumbbell presses for your shoulders.

Finally, some folks will move their trapezius training to a day completely unrelated to either back or shoulders. They will find that combining traps and legs or traps and arms gives them fresh energy to hit the muscle group independently, when soreness from back or shoulder training cannot creep in.

The best placement for the traps muscle group is wherever they work best for you. If you’re satisfied keeping them on back day, and they don’t interfere with your shoulder training, then by all means keep doing what you’re doing! If you find adding them to shoulder day helps with overall pump and exercise combination, go for it. Above all, if your traps aren’t growing at their current position, move them and change up their training until you find a place that works!

If you like this article, click here to share: