Build a ripped, thick athletic back by training like an athlete http://athleanx.com/x/build-an-athletic-muscular-back In order to get a bigger upper back and thicker traps there is no doubt that you have to get used to lifting heavy weights. Two great exercises for doing this are heavy deadlifts and the farmers carry. That said, these aren’t your only two upper back and trap exercises that should be in your arsenal. IN this video, I give you two direct back exercises that you can do to thicken up the muscles of your upper back and traps. The first exercise is the face pull. The face pull can be done at a gym using a rope attachment and cable machine. The key to performing this back exercise correctly is to pull all the way to the face. This allows you to get maximum contraction on the rear delts, traps and rhomboids. By keeping your hands above your elbows you can externally rotate the shoulders as well, to provide additional stability to the rotator cuff muscles. The second exercise shown is the trap raise. The traps raise is similar to the dumbbell front shoulder raise with the exception being that the range of motion is limited to just the top one third of the range. In fact, a properly executed front raise would stop when the arms are parallel to the floor. For this exercise to become effective, you have to start with your arms parallel to the floor and continue raising until the arms are perpendicular. You want to be sure that you are squeezing the traps hard at the top of the motion and keeping your shoulder blades depressed to ensure that you are also activating the lower trap muscles as well. While getting a thicker upper back and traps is a primary focus of a lot of lifters, you still want to be sure that the muscles stay in functional balance with the rest of the muscles that control the movement of your shoulder blades. If you incorporate these two direct upper back exercises along with your focus on lifting heavier weights when possible (through farmer carries and deadlifts), you will notice much faster size gains and growth in these muscles. If you want to train your entire back and build a ripped, athletic physique from any angle, be sure to head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. Athletes from every professional sport are using these same workouts to build ripped athletic muscle and dominate their sports. For more videos on how to get a big back, complete back workouts and other back exercises be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at http://youtube.com/user/jdcav24