Y-Raise

What the Y-raise actually trains

A Y-raise is a straight arm shoulder movement in which you raise both arms overhead into a Y shape, roughly forty five degrees out from your head, against a light load, usually lying face down on an incline bench.

The lower trapezius is the target. It runs from the mid thoracic spine to the shoulder blade and its job is to rotate the scapula upwards and pull it down towards the spine, which is what happens when the arm travels overhead in this line. The middle trapezius and posterior deltoid assist, and the serratus anterior contributes to the upward rotation.

The reason this exercise exists is that almost nothing else trains the lower trapezius directly. Rows train the middle trapezius and the rhomboids. Shrugs train the upper trapezius. Pulldowns involve the lower fibres, but as a supporting player under a load set by the lats. The Y-raise puts the lower trapezius in charge, which is unusual.

The angle is the whole exercise. Arms straight out to the sides makes it a T-raise, which is rear deltoid and rhomboid work. Arms together in front makes it a front raise. Forty five degrees is where the lower trapezius line of pull is best matched.

The load is the part people get wrong every time. Long lever, small muscle, poor leverage. Two or three kilos is a genuine working weight, and anything heavier gets lifted by the upper traps and the lower back instead.

Setting up and executing

Set an adjustable bench to roughly thirty degrees and lie face down with your chest on the pad and your feet braced.

Take a very light dumbbell in each hand and let the arms hang straight down, thumbs pointing forward.

Set the shoulders down away from your ears and brace the abs so your ribs stay in contact with the pad.

Raise both arms out and up in a wide Y, thumbs leading and elbows almost straight, until the arms are roughly in line with your torso.

Pause for a beat at the top and check that your shoulders have not travelled towards your ears.

Lower slowly over about three seconds and repeat without letting the dumbbells rest on the floor.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Using anything but very light weights is the fault that ruins this exercise for almost everyone. Pick up eight kilo dumbbells and your body will find a way to move them, which will involve arching, shrugging and swinging. Start with two kilos and be prepared for it to be hard.

Shrugging at the top means the upper trapezius has taken the job from the lower, which reverses the point. Kara and colleagues measured the ratio of upper to lower trapezius activation across scapular exercises and found that ratio is what distinguishes useful scapular work from unhelpful work.

Arms too wide turns this into a T-raise for the rear deltoid; too narrow and it becomes a front raise. Forty five degrees.

Arching the lower back lifts your chest off the pad and lets your spine do what your shoulder blades should be doing.

And rushing the reps lets momentum carry a load that is already small, which leaves nothing for the muscle. Slow it down and the two kilo dumbbells become plenty.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

Very light load, high reps, short rest. There is no version of this exercise that involves heavy weight.

For muscle gain, three sets of twelve to twenty with a minute. For strength, three sets of ten to fifteen with a minute, although lower trapezius strength is a means rather than an end. In a fat loss phase, three sets of fifteen to twenty five with forty five seconds.

Progress by adding reps, by pausing at the top, by slowing the lowering phase, and only occasionally by adding a kilo. Dumbbell increments are enormous relative to this movement.

Because fatigue cost is close to zero, frequency is easy. Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and the lower trapezius is a muscle where almost nobody does enough sets to find their ceiling.

Refalo and colleagues found training close to but short of failure produces comparable hypertrophy, which is a good fit here because the reps past technical failure are all shrugging. Stop when your shoulders start rising towards your ears.

Where it fits in your split

At the end of a pulling session, or as a warm-up before pressing.

On push, pull and legs it fits at the end of pull day, or early on push day as shoulder preparation. On a bro split it is an accessory on back or shoulder day. On an upper and lower split it can appear in both upper sessions. On a full body programme it is a quick addition. On a bodyweight programme it works with no weight at all, which is a genuine advantage.

The main argument for including it is coverage. Sakoma and colleagues described the deltoid as a set of functionally distinct segments, and the trapezius is the same: upper, middle and lower fibres do different jobs. Most programmes hit the upper and middle fibres through shrugs and rows and leave the lower fibres to fend for themselves.

The argument against overrating it is equally simple. Ludewig and Reynolds reviewed scapular kinematics and shoulder problems and found the relationship complicated, so the claim that Y-raises fix scapular dysfunction runs well ahead of the evidence. Do them because they cover a gap, not because they are medicine.

Two or three sets, two or three times a week.

Variations worth knowing

The prone incline Y-raise, face down on a bench, is the strictest version and the one worth defaulting to, since the bench removes almost all cheating.

The cable Y-raise, using two low pulleys crossed in front of you, gives constant tension through the whole range rather than the varying resistance of a dumbbell.

The band Y-raise, with a band under your feet or anchored low, is the portable option and scales easily by changing your grip position.

The prone T-raise takes the arms straight out to the sides instead, which shifts the work to the rear deltoid and rhomboids and is a useful companion rather than a replacement.

The wall slide is the unloaded version performed standing against a wall, and it is a good way to learn what upward rotation of the shoulder blade feels like before adding any weight.

And the overhead shrug, holding a light load locked out overhead and shrugging upwards, is another way to load the lower trapezius with a shorter range.

What the evidence says

Kara and colleagues measured trapezius activation and the ratio between upper and lower fibres during scapular exercises and found that ratio distinguishes useful scapular training from work that simply recruits the upper trapezius, which is the case for keeping the load light.

Ludewig and Reynolds reviewed the association between scapular kinematics and glenohumeral joint problems and found the relationship complex rather than a straightforward weakness model, the honest counter to claims that Y-raises correct shoulder dysfunction.

Sakoma and colleagues described the functional segments of the deltoid and showed that regions of a single muscle behave independently, a principle that applies to the three portions of the trapezius.

Coratella and colleagues analysed raise variations electromyographically and found arm angle substantially changes which muscles do the work, which is why the Y position is not interchangeable with a T.

Kolber and colleagues reviewed shoulder injuries attributed to resistance training and identified loaded overhead positions worth managing carefully, supporting light loads and controlled tempo.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, the argument for spreading a few sets across the week.

Refalo and colleagues found training short of failure produces comparable hypertrophy, and here the practical stopping point is the first rep where the shoulders shrug.

Common questions

Why does two kilos feel so heavy?

Because the lever is long and the lower trapezius is small and rarely trained. Holding a weight at arm's length overhead is one of the least advantageous positions in the gym. Light weight feeling hard is the exercise working, not a sign you are weak.

How is this different from a face pull?

A face pull is a horizontal pull with bent elbows that emphasises the posterior deltoid and middle trapezius. A Y-raise is a straight arm overhead movement that emphasises the lower trapezius and upward rotation of the shoulder blade. They cover neighbouring ground, not the same ground, and doing both is reasonable.

Should I do these lying down or standing?

Lying face down on an incline bench, if you have one. The pad removes the arching and swinging that standing versions invite, and the resistance profile is better. Standing works with cables or a band, where the resistance direction does not depend on gravity.

Will this fix my shoulder pain or posture?

Unlikely on its own. The evidence linking scapular movement to shoulder problems is far more tangled than the internet suggests. Y-raises are worth doing because they train a muscle your other exercises miss, which is a much better reason than treating them as a cure.

How much does this contribute to trap size?

Very little in visual terms. The upper trapezius is what people see, and that grows from heavy shrugging, rowing and carrying. The lower trapezius is thin and sits flat against the back. Do these for coverage and shoulder function rather than for appearance.