Traps have always been a problem for me. I am naturally built with little to no mass in my traps.
Anyone have a good routine for bulking in the traps?
Thanks
Oylimpic lifts are a great trap builder, high pulls too.
[video]234[/video] (Shrugs)
- [video]258[/video] (Erect Rows)
=[photo]2848[/photo] (Traps)
Isabelle
Same here. Mine are finally starting to come in some after something I read on here. Traps are predominantly fast twitch fiber. The article suggested instead of doing sets of 12 or 15 slow shrugs with a pause at the top like I’d been doing, to just load a lot of weight on a bar and bust out some sets of 5 or so ‘cheat shrugs’. I’ve only done this for three weeks but I have already noticed a difference. Fast and heavy definitely seems to be the key to bigger traps, at least for me. Also noticed it’s helped improve my posture quite a bit too.
Kubo
[quote]bigdude wrote:
Traps have always been a problem for me. I am naturally built with little to no mass in my traps.
Anyone have a good routine for bulking in the traps?
Thanks[/quote]
Heavy shrugs. Period.
Yes, it is that simple even though people will log on telling you several other exercises as if it isn’t.
The rest of it is simply gaining size all over. I don’t see many guys under 200lbs with truly impressive trap muscles.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
bigdude wrote:
Traps have always been a problem for me. I am naturally built with little to no mass in my traps.
Anyone have a good routine for bulking in the traps?
Thanks
Heavy shrugs. Period.
Yes, it is that simple even though people will log on telling you several other exercises as if it isn’t.
The rest of it is simply gaining size all over. I don’t see many guys under 200lbs with truly impressive trap muscles. [/quote]
Heavy shrugs for traps… what a wild idea!
Don’t forget to buy some straps, because it’s nearly impossible to build up your grip strength to be on par with your shrug strength.
Heavy Shrugs and Cleans all the way
[quote]disciplined wrote:
Professor X wrote:
bigdude wrote:
Heavy shrugs. Period.
Heavy shrugs for traps… what a wild idea!
Don’t forget to buy some straps, because it’s nearly impossible to build up your grip strength to be on par with your shrug strength.
[/quote]
I don’t use straps, but on my heaviest sets, I use a deadlift (mixed) grip. Doing my warm-up sets with a normal grip also builds grip strength
Whenever I think I have bad form on an exercise, I see a video on the intraweb. Then I realize my form is pretty damn good, even when I think its bad.
[quote]deanosumo wrote:
disciplined wrote:
Professor X wrote:
bigdude wrote:
Heavy shrugs. Period.
Heavy shrugs for traps… what a wild idea!
Don’t forget to buy some straps, because it’s nearly impossible to build up your grip strength to be on par with your shrug strength.
I don’t use straps, but on my heaviest sets, I use a deadlift (mixed) grip. Doing my warm-up sets with a normal grip also builds grip strength
[/quote]
If you want to have even development, you need to grip the bar the same with both hands. I’ve seen guys do the mixed grip when doing shrugs, but they only do this because they are either: A. too cheap to buy straps, or B. too ideological and anti-strap to realize that it’s in their best interests to use straps when doing heavy shrugs.
Sure, you can rotate your grip, but even with a mixed grip you’ll always be limiting the amount of weight you can shrug. If you can honestly tell me that straps make NO difference in the amount of weight you can handle when performing barbell shrugs when comparing to your usual style, I’ll give you ten bucks.
At the end of the day, it’s virtually ipossible for someone’s forearms to be on par with the traps in regards to strength and endurance when performing shrugs.
Cool videos, imbiggert. You’re definitely going for the burn, there. There’s nothing complicated about trap work. Just hit it hard and focus on progression. You’ve definitely developed your traps, as well.
Personally, I don’t like that ‘pumping’ style of lifting, I usually like full stops at at least one end-point of an exercise (whether it be the bottom or top of a movement), but I also know that this is difficult to perform with shrugs.
Also, exercises like the inverted row, although fun to do, irritate my shoulders unless i do them explosively, like a clean starting from the hang positon.
Ive actually had the opposite, Ive got pretty big traps, theyre probably one of my most developed muscles. Just shrug. do 4 or 5 sets with lots of weight, and straps, and just do your best.
As previously stated, heavy Shrugs and Deadlifts. I would stay away from Upright/ “Erect” rows at all costs, though.
Definitely deadlifting and shrugs will do the trick. And you can just kick the shit out of your traps and they will respond pretty well, but I would work with heavy weight and pretty heavy volume…
i’ve got the same problem as you and i’ve found that drop sets (triple all the way to extreme) work well. Alongside that i picked up a trap workout from Stan McQuay thats awesome. do 7 behind the back shrugs, 7 side, and then seven front - you’ll really feel the burn.
All your OL’s will make your traps bigger, as will the shrugs as has been stated. I started doing overhead shrugs recently, but I haven’t gotten very heavy with them yet. I also like jumpshrugs, and rackclean.
My traps grow too much. I need to chill them out as they grow disproportionately. I recommend isometric holds under full tension at the top and bottom of a shrug arc.
i think that maybe you’re focusing too much on shrugs and not heavy work. the following should pack on serious trap mass as well as over all back mass. the increased back strength will translate to greater over all lifts (squats, over-head presses, even curls)
try:
rack-pulls with a wide/snatch grip
4x4,6
rack-pulls shoulder width grip
4x6,8
dumbbell deadlifts
3x6,8
lower trap raises
3x12,15
remember to come up on those toes and shrug your shoulders as high as possible when doing the rack-pulls. also when doing the db deads the form should be similar to barbell deads, do not let the dumbbells hang at your sides, if you do you’re doing dumbbell hack squats not deads. give it a try for four weeks and let me know how sore your traps are, and you should see some growth by then too.
CT’s The Power Look
heavy ass power shrugs
farmer walks
rack pulls
sit on an incline bench, hold dumbbells to your side and do shrugs (use straps, go heavy).
I want to second whoever it was discussing that a lot of people are “antistrap”. It can have its uses. Though I’d limit that to pretty much just shrugs. Mixed grip irritates my elbows with shrugs
…if you work your hook grip enough though you really can stay away from the straps.