 Hey everybody, Lance Quakey here. Today I want to discuss the lower trapezius muscle, one of everybody's, every trainer's favorite, favorite muscle. Every blogger is definitely a favorite muscle because it's easy to talk about because it's like always good, pretty much. And we're going to talk about it during the pull-up or the chin-up. Okay, so it's kind of the same. So in the pull-up and the chin-up variation, so we're going to bulk them together. Now, when I do this vertical row, we've talked about previously the rhomboids in the vertical row and I need this downward rotation. And if you're aware of your upper back muscles, the two major ones are the rhomboids and the trapezius. Now there's different fibers of the trapezius, but if we're talking about the lower fibers, the lower fibers upwardly rotate the scapula and the rhomboids and downwardly rotate the scapula. So what gives? Why would I want both of them? And we do indeed want both of them. So I want the rhomboids to help me get that downward rotation at the end of my pull. But I want the lower trapezius to help keep the shoulder set down and that maximizes my mobility. That makes it so that when I get my pull at the top, I can get my chest all the way up to the bar that I'm pulling myself up to. So the lower traps in the vertical rowing exercises, it's more about this downward shift and it's less about that upward rotation, right? It's easy to talk about the upward rotation because it gives my shoulder joint some motion. But if I'm trying to pull my elbows in, I don't want that up there. I want it more in the bottom, right? So you got to think about it, right? The lower traps aren't just an upward rotating muscle. They are a depressing muscle, a scapular depressing muscle. So let's think about it that way as well. And that's one of the reasons that when I'm coaching a chin up or coaching a pull-up, I'm trying to get you to get your chest all the way up to the bar. Not by sticking your chest out even further and meeting it up there, but by getting that full pull all the way down because then I can be sure that you're actually hitting those lower trap muscles, which will help keep your shoulders happy for much, much longer.