👍Adding an external hand position (Finger facing away from the body with thumbs facing forward, not in) for the first two exercises would be a good addition. Our internal shoulder rotators tend to be overactive too. An externally rotated hand position would help avoid shoulder conditions like rotator cuff issues.
First off, Amazing video Josh! This one really helped me. Secondly, great comment, @bodyfixercises. With the fingers facing out and thumb forward you can get a better contraction in the serratus. It also helps take the tension out of the traps. If you have tight pecs (which definitely contribute to overactive traps imo, or at least make them more achy) this helps to ensure that your pecs aren't pulling your shoulder down and forward. 1 more thing I will add for people experiencing OVERACTIVE TRAPS, check your pecs! If they seem really tight then this will hinder your progress here. The tight pec will basically pull your shoulder forward making it really hard to feel the right muscles working in exercises like these. One thing that's helped me is doing a manual massage on your pec major and minor. I find it best to do this laying down on your back. Take the arm of the side you are massaging and stick it out straight, perpendicular to your body. Then bend your elbow at a right angle and keep your fore arm pointing up to the sky. Massage the tight trigger points with the opposite arm of the pec your are focusing on. Get close to the collar bone and also into where the pec connects to the shoulder. Play with different arm positions. Do this before you try stretching your chest and it will help a lot. Now that your chest isn't super tight, you can perform these exercises with more efficiency and hopefully better connection of the right muscles.
I have been suffering from an overactive trap for over a year now that has cost me a ton of gains since i wasn’t able to train properly due to trap and shoulder tightness. Also. Lots of time and money with physical therapists to help me give me a proper diagnosis (they thought it was a shoulder tear). Just from the two exercises alone, my trap is already feeling infinitely better. Im going to start doing these everyday and see how my trap is in a month. Feeling very confident. You are a liffesaver!!
I was so suprised! I've had huge traps for at least 2 years by now, and they always left me in pain. (I'm in college and have to carry a huge backpack everywhere) But thanks to this after one day they smoothed dramatically down. I can't thank you enough for this video!
ive watched SO many videos on how to relax my upper traps, I was about to give up because nothing was working for me then I found this and it's perfect, for once I can feel them relaxing. thank you so much!
This is an excellent video. I was suffering from some shoulder impingement on my right side and dysfunctional biomechanics in several of my upper body lifts. The culprit? Tense upper traps. The exercises you suggest are very effective, though I prefer doing the second one standing and pushing my hand against the edge of a table. In any case, thanks very much. My shoulder is beginning to feel much better. Staying away from heavy shrugs for a while...
Thank you for this video ! I started lifting weights about a year ago and as a person who is very high stress my upper body is always so tense and it’s caused my traps to grow like crazy , I’m going to try doing this short excercise everyday to see if it helps with that
I've watched your videos & they have been THE BEST to help me fix my posture, compared to all the other people on youtube. I definitely being feeling a difference in my posture. Your methods are simple & make so much sense. THANK YOU STRENGTH SIDE!
I think you just literally changed my life. I’ve had insane trap pain on and off for years. I don’t know who taught me this, but for YEARSSSSSS I’ve been practicing sucking my belly IN even on the in breath!! The reasoning was so that you don’t build your abs out. Wth! A trainer told me that I don’t breathe while I work out a couple of years ago and I was confused because i thought I was. I really can’t thank you enough. I feel like from here on out im going to see a big improvement in pain.
Hey how's your pain now? I've been having bad trap and neck pain for a while also and realized I've been shrugging my traps before pretty much every movement without realizing
For more than a year I have been doing every exercise to release my back pain, rarely something helped -especially in the long run. Doing the breathing exercise and breathing properly into my stomach have released my pain within a half day. I suddenly feel completely different and much more relaxed I am gonna practice the breathing every day now.
This is witchcraft 😲 I've had a ton of trouble with my shoulders shrugging up on bench press and doing these exercises every day has (a) relaxed my tight traps, and (b) allowed my scapula to depress while benching. Thanks!
Dude this is the video that got me started with your channel (on my other account) and I think you had maybe like 20k subs….you’re almost at 1 million….CONGRATS!!!
If one more PT tells me pull shoulders down and back and I tell them I feel worse I’m gonna scream lol thank you for sharing this video I’ve done these and I already feel better after one day. It’s not a complete fix but it’s better than getting worse
Your videos are more informative than any Arnold Schwarzenegger video or even those of Bruce Lee because it describes human anatomy so much more and tells the relationship between the scalenes and the diaphragm.
I’m gonna try these, I’ve already had dry needling in my upper traps & it helped tremendously, however, everytime I’m back in the gym my upper traps take over no matter how much mind/muscle connection I try doing. It’s causing me so much neck pain & problems 🙄
Brandi I have the same problem. Josh's videos are so helpful. I did dry needling as well and it helped until I worked out again. I also overuse my lats.
I no it sounds, no pun intemded, too simple but for me a better mic would keep me engaged tho i do like the info and use it as reference for my massage clients. Good stuff imo
Could my neck pain be coming from this? I always get tense neck and traps after workouts and i feel i activate those same muscles on exercises like push ups ... Great channel btw, congratulations!
GUYS TRY IT! I have scoliosis that has lad to a ton of tightness in the traps they're almost constantly firing but with this exercise I finally understood how to turn them off
Any reason why my spine pops like crazy? My spine usually cracks a lot from thoracic extention, but even after a good "cracking session" th second exercise makes my back pop a lot. What does it suggest? Am I too tight in the lower traps too?
what muscles need to be strengthened to stop over activation of the traps? I have numbing down my right arm that starts in my trap and goes to my shoulder blade and down my outer arm.
I usually think about like my sternum or wind pipe when breathing through my nose, because I tend to think of how it has to go down past my chest, usually reaching down to my stomach and coming up. Kind of cool to learn the context for what effect, mouth breathing has on the posture though. Some people are highly dependent on mouth breathing, in general. Learned from another video that mouth breathing was this highly problematic isssue for anybody that did it. I've always been less conscious about mouth breathing myself, as I was always better about breathing through my nose than I think most people, who tend to have a harder time remembering to breathe through their's.
I am going to give this a try. I must have overdone the upper body strength crap at some point because now I suffer from these horribly masculine, rounded over developed/over active traps that have discouraged me from continuing to do ANY upper body workout because I can't seem to work any other muscles now other than these :( Nothing feminine or sexy about that.
why u hate that much the upper traps? Rid of that stupid advices from physio and trainers about back and down because it's stupid cue and hurting many people. If no massage and stretching helping you, think about strenghten this muscle because most of the time it's tight not because it's overdeveloped but because it's too weak and cannot hold that load. uppe traps is very important muscle which stabizlie your shoulders, neck and provide good upward rotation working together with serratus.
@@vanillaloves1640 Don't hate the muscle only because u look more muscular especially uper trapezius, like I said this is very important muscle for your shoulders and neck health
vanilla loves rock it, muscle on anyone looks good. On the other hand if they are tight and stiff and hurt to massage, you need to relax them because they can bunch up and look bigger than they actually are (plus give you neck pain). Activating and developing the lower traps usually cures that
He sounds like someone who smoked a little bit to much joint a liiittle bit to long and then made a life changeing descion to do something with his life so he cut down on the weed and studied and learned everything about biomechanics and stuff. love it!
When pushin the ground you should be seated on the opposite but cheek. Due to the muscles insertions at the mid back .... getting that fascia crossed activated...
I was literally just doing push-ups and thinking my shoulder popping comes from my traps being too active and pulling the shoulder girdle up....and then I open youtube and they’ve recommended this video. Has RU-vid installed secret camera to watch us????
Hey! I work at a desk all day. When I tried the first exercise, only putting my hand by my side felt weird on my wrists and up my arm. Anybody have any idea what that might be?
@@Shady-79 try go against rhe wall put the hands and slide up while pushing forward wirh your elbows you should feel your serratus working under your armpits
My upper traps and neck are so tight that if try to do first one can’t depress shoulders and head gets pulled back and down and shoulders can’t depress because something stuck at waist level on left side? Second one - everything clunks and grates as move. Stuck rigid in upper back. Have T2/3 that has fused but it has briefly let go in past so know it can. Any ideas?
Dude I don’t need to calm down my traps, it’s more like spank them and put them on time out forever! 😂 The other day a guy at the gym asked me if I was stressed out and mentioned I seriously needed a massage because my traps looked flared up. 😩 I’m like so so embarrassed to go out in public again!!!!
I have the same problem too. But I realize this is an illusion. Our arms are actually moved upward because the upper traps is pulling the shoulders up. Try to support your hands with two thick books or yoga blocks. Then you should be able to lift your butt up.
So it’s only my right trap. I am able to move my whole shoulder blade on that side independently up and down but not my left side. It is also tight and sore. I’m guessing it’s because it is hyper active. I don’t know why and it’s weird it’s only the one side!
My left trap always seems to be elevated/engaged and I have to mindfully relax it for whatever reason... But gets jacked up again after a few minutes -_-
If you've never deliberately exhaled "all the way out", you've got some very funky gas at the bottom of your lungs. It's so bad, that you don't want to inhale again, because the worst of it is still in your mouth and throat. But do it a few times, and you'll start to get that foul air changed. This is one of many yoga detoxification exercises, and happens automatically with certain abdominal exercises (like nauli).
Aren’t traps supposed to be active in your posture? I haven’t heard what it is the problem you are talking about that they are causing? What you showed is forward shoulders and anteriorly tilted shoulderblades - nothing to do with traps fault. Shoulderblades in posture have to be held by traps and posteriorly tilted slightly. What you provoke with soft inactive traps is shoulder impingement, and all kinds of nerve problems with narrowing down costoclavicular space. As far as neck pain from shoulders being up, it is probably forward head and shoulder posture and if anything weak traps.
If your body has been tense for 10 years how do you expect the problem to be solved fast? I can guarantee if you stay persistent and dedicated to living pain free you will find relief… trust the process
