Military Muscle: 3 lifts and a stretch for the upper back

The uppermost major muscles on your body are the trapezius and rhomboids. The trapezius or “traps” extend along the back of the neck to about mid-back. The rhomboids lie underneath the traps from the bottom of the neck to just below your scapula (shoulder blades). You felt these muscles work together the very first time someone called “attention” and “let’s square those shoulders.” Shrugging your shoulders and pulling the shoulder blades down are all outcomes of the traps. The rhomboids play a very minor if any role in these last two.
Lift 1: Lateral raise
This is a primary tool to keep the traps and rhomboids strong. You will want to go light weight on these since you should lift in a smooth motion from your sides to even with your shoulder line and be able to return the dumbbells to your sides again in a smooth motion. Do not rotate your upper arm or shoulder inward at the top of the lift, which can lead to shoulder impingement.
Lift 2: Cable row to neck with external rotation
Lift 3: Dumbbell shrug
This lift places less stress on shoulder joints than the barbell shrug since you don’t rotate your shoulders, keeping them more stable. You can go heavy on this one.
Best stretch
You only need to do two reps of this upper-back stretch.
Bob Thomas is director of the Navy Wellness Center in Pensacola, Florida. Email him at [email protected].