Prone Y and T raises look too easy to count as strength work. With thumbs up and shoulders away from the ears, they are among the best studied ways to reach the lower and middle trapezius, muscles that often go quiet in people with shoulder or neck pain.
What the lower and middle trapezius do
The upper trapezius lifts the shoulder blade, the middle fibres pull it toward the spine, and the lower fibres draw it down and tip it backward. With the serratus anterior, the lower trapezius rotates the blade upward as the arm rises, preserving the space under the point of the shoulder. When it is weak, the upper fibres take over and the blade hitches up instead.
What EMG studies say about the Y and the T
In a 2003 study in the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Ekstrom and colleagues recorded surface EMG in 30 healthy adults during 10 exercises. The prone overhead raise in line with the lower trapezius fibres (the Y) produced the highest lower trapezius activity, and tied with prone horizontal extension with external rotation (the T, thumbs up) for the middle trapezius. A 2021 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health measured the raise at 125 degrees in 18 men: lower trapezius activity reached 66 to 76 percent of maximal while the upper trapezius stayed near 29 percent.
How to set up on a bench or the floor
- Lie face down on a bench, or on the floor with a folded towel under your forehead so the neck stays long.
- For the Y, reach the arms diagonally overhead, roughly 120 to 135 degrees from your sides, thumbs to the ceiling. Lift until level with your body, pause, and lower slowly.
- For the T, take the arms straight out to the sides at shoulder height, thumbs up, and lift the same way, drawing the shoulder blades toward the spine.
- Start with no weight. A 0.5 to 1 kg dumbbell or a water bottle is plenty; the lever is long.
The mistake that undoes the exercise
The common fault is shrugging, so the upper trapezius does the work and the shoulder blades ride up toward the ears. You feel it as tightness at the base of the neck rather than fatigue between the shoulder blades. Before each repetition, let the shoulders drop, then lift from the back.
Reps, weight, and how to progress
Many programmes begin with 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 slow repetitions, or 5 to 10 second holds, every day or every other day. Progress by adding a pause, then a slower lowering phase, then small amounts of weight while every repetition stays shrug-free. A 2020 randomised trial in Medical Science Monitor added four weeks of lower trapezius strengthening, three sessions a week, to a scapular programme in 40 people with neck pain; that group improved more on the Neck Disability Index. Your therapist sets the dose.
If desk posture is the bigger problem, see our exercises for rounded shoulders
Doing these raises in a guided session
Shrugging is hard to spot from the inside. In a KineTrue camera-guided session, the raises your therapist prescribed appear with their rep counts and hold times, and the recorded results show the therapist what you completed before they adjust the load.
Stop and check with your clinician if you feel sharp shoulder pain, pins and needles in the arm, or a headache that starts during the lift. Fatigue between the shoulder blades is expected; pain at the front of the shoulder or down the arm is not.