Y raise: the face-down raise for the lower traps, and the cue that changed it

A Y raise is done lying face down: your arms reach overhead and out at an angle, so your body and arms make the letter Y, and you lift them off the floor or the bench and lower them again. It's an exercise for the trapezius, the muscle across the upper back: in one study it produced the most activity in the lower part of the trapezius of ten exercises tested.¹

This page covers the form, what the studies measured in each part of the traps, the cue that shifted the work, the faults and the sets. The traps as a whole, with shrugs and rows, are on the trap workout.

How to do a Y raise

1. Lie face down on the floor, a flat bench or an incline bench, forehead resting or chin tucked.
2. Reach your arms overhead and out at an angle, in line with the lower traps, so your body makes a Y. One study describes the exercise as the overhead arm raise in that line, in the face-down position.¹
3. Turn your thumbs up toward the ceiling.
4. Lift your arms a few inches, keeping your elbows straight, and hold for a moment.
5. Lower them slowly. Start with no weight; add light dumbbells once a set of 15 is easy.

The bench and head position in step 1, and steps 3 to 5, are practical cues, not findings: the studies on this page don't publish them in their abstracts.

What the Y raise works

In 30 healthy people doing ten exercises for the trapezius and the serratus anterior (the muscle along the side of the ribs), the face-down overhead arm raise produced the most activity in the lower traps of all ten. It was also one of the two exercises that produced the most middle-trap activity, with a reverse fly with the arm turned out (the study's shoulder horizontal extension with external rotation).¹ The upper traps were worked hardest by a one-arm shrug, not by the raise.¹

How you do the Y changes the split. In 15 healthy men doing three versions of the Y raise, lower-trap activity readings ranged from about 46% to 58%, and upper-trap readings from about 23% to 47%. The version with the least upper-trap work had about two and a half times as much lower-trap activity as upper; the version with the most had about the same of each.² The study's abstract doesn't describe the three versions, so this page doesn't name them.

These were muscle-activity measurements (EMG, sensors on the skin) on a test day, not training studies, so they say nothing about what weeks of Y raises build.

The cue that shifted the work

In 15 healthy men, a study compared a plain Y raise with two cued versions:³

• Tilt the shoulder blades back (the study's "posterior tilt"): the most lower-trap activity of the three, and a larger measured tilt of the shoulder blade.
• Tilt them back and also pull them together and down: the most upper-trap activity of the three.
• The middle traps didn't differ significantly between the three.

So if the lower traps are what you want, the single tilt cue did more than the longer one. In practice, think of tipping the top of your shoulder blades back before the arms lift.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Shrugging toward your ears. That's the upper traps taking over. Keep the shoulders away from the ears, and go back to no weight if you can't.
• Arching the lower back to lift higher. The arms only need to clear the floor or the bench.
• Bending the elbows. A bent arm turns it into a different exercise; keep them straight.
• Too much weight. Most people need little or none to start.
• Raising through pain. If you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, stop and ask a doctor or a physical therapist.

Sets, reps and where it goes

• As a practical start: 2 sets of 10 to 15, light, at the end of an upper-body or back day, as on the trap workout. This is practical advice, not a finding; the studies here were test-day measurements.
• Pair it with rows. The trap workout shows how rows and the Y raise share the middle and lower traps; face pulls and a reverse fly are other light upper-back exercises, and the back workout has the rows.

Common questions

Floor, flat bench or incline bench?

All three are a face-down Y. No study comparing them was found for this page. The floor needs no equipment; a bench lets you add light dumbbells.

Y raise vs T raise?

In a T the arms go straight out to the sides instead of overhead. In the 30-person study, the reverse fly with the arm turned out and the overhead raise in a Y were the two highest for the middle traps, and the Y was highest for the lower traps.¹

Can you do it standing with a cable or a band?

People do, but the studies here that describe their position were done face down, so this page doesn't describe a standing version.

If you'd rather not plan it alone

The Y raise takes two minutes at the end of a session; deciding how much upper-back work your week needs on top of your rows is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and here's how to apply. Otherwise: add two light sets of Y raises after your rows this week.