Melissa Capp, a prominent fitness trainer, recently highlighted the importance of back exercises with weights on her Instagram. Demonstrating the I, Y, T exercises, Capp shared insights into how these target the often-overlooked regions of the trapezius muscle. By focusing on the complete engagement of the muscle from the head to the lower back, Capp emphasizes stabilization and proper joint function, underscoring the interconnectedness of muscle and joint health. Her approach goes beyond aesthetic fitness, stressing the significance of holistic strength and injury prevention. This philosophy reflects her deep understanding of biomechanics and her commitment to fostering well-rounded physical fitness routines that enhance body resilience and functionality.

As you can see from her Instagram post, Capp is seen doing ITYs to stay in shape. She explained why the exercise is so good in her caption. “Do you wanna know WHY this exercise is so humbling? The key is in the execution. Did you know your trap (trapezius) muscle goes all the way down 2/3 of your back? When most people think of the trap muscle they only think of the upper fibers. The muscle runs from the back of your head down your spine until your ribcage ends. It also has attachments on your scapula shoulder blade. What does this mean? Its major function is helping to stabilize the shoulder.”

Capp revealed in her Instagram post’s caption that she likes to train the whole joint at a time. “Most of the time we exercise we try to put our bodies in the most stable position possible. This is so we can safely push as much weight as possible to help build muscle. For this reason, a lot of programs online back and shoulders are often trained separately, with a goal of growing bigger delts. This is fine, BUT if you want to have a really well rounded program to be resilient to injury you want to train the joint as a whole. But from a biomechanical perspective it makes sense to train them together. I’ve talked about this a few times but your shoulder (glenohumeral) is not a particularly stable joint. It is heavily reliant on many small muscles to help keep it stable. 17 different muscles all work together to stabilize and strengthen the joint. It is also important how the shoulder blade rotates around the rib cage. The ribs directly attach to the spine; your spinal mobility will affect shoulder mobility. And vice versa. So if your shoulder routine only consists of various lateral raises and presses – you might want to consider expanding your horizons.”

Capp talked about the importance of training hip flexors in the caption of this Instagram video. “Did you know your hip flexors can actually feel ‘tight’ and be weak at the same time? It’s weird to think about strengthening a muscle that already feels tight. But it might be the solution to your problem. Generally speaking as a society we sit too much and we don’t strength train enough. This leads to hip flexors that are both tight and weak. Most people will opt to stretch out their hip flexors. This will often only provide temporary relief. Enter: this little test above ☝🏻I chose these exercises in particular because they ALSO require a large amount of core strength. If you know my training style you know I’m not the biggest fan of isolation exercises. Core strength is a major key for preventing back pain. This is because one hip flexor in particular (the iliopsoas) attaches to the lower back. This explains why people with low back pain commonly also have tight hip flexors. Our bodies were made to move, which is why it is important to stay active and avoid long periods of sitting. This isn’t to say that stretching has no benefits, but strengthening the hip flexors will provide longer term results and your overall body will thank you for it.”

Capp shared this video on Instagram of herself doing pullups. She captioned it, “Good things take time. If you don’t take the time to develop the prerequisite lat strength for pull ups – you’re going to compensate using smaller muscles. Overtime this can lead to neck pain, tension headaches and shoulder problems.”

Capp believes in making small adjustments to her workouts at a time. She talked about this in this post’s caption. “I love this game. The smallest adjustments can drastically change how difficult or easy an exercise is. We often want to do more because we think that’s helping us progress faster. More reps. More weight. More time. But we rarely stop to look at the quality of how we are executing. One of the most valuable tools you can use is video feedback. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done something only to watch it back and it look completely different than what I thought I was doing. If you can’t fill yourself have a friend or coach help you out to make sure you’re moving the way you want.”