How Many Sets for Traps?

Training Bodybuilding
41

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]forlife wrote:
PX, if you don’t mind sharing how much are you lifting for your traps work?[/quote]

I used to go up to 6 plates a side on the hs shrug machine but the one I use now only goes up to 5…so I do my reps slower now and hold the peak contraction.
[/quote]

Is that the only thing you do for traps and if so how do you try to insure growth in your traps if you can’t go up in weight? I mean you can only go so slow/hold the peak for so long. Do you basically have it in there so they keep getting hit with enough volume while counting on increases in rows, shoulder work, etc… to make them grow?

42

[quote]pumped340 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]forlife wrote:
PX, if you don’t mind sharing how much are you lifting for your traps work?[/quote]

I used to go up to 6 plates a side on the hs shrug machine but the one I use now only goes up to 5…so I do my reps slower now and hold the peak contraction.
[/quote]

Is that the only thing you do for traps and if so how do you try to insure growth in your traps if you can’t go up in weight? I mean you can only go so slow/hold the peak for so long. Do you basically have it in there so they keep getting hit with enough volume while counting on increases in rows, shoulder work, etc… to make them grow?[/quote]

Yes, it is all I do for traps. Nothing else.

As far as your other question, go lift 5 plates on that machine. Then take that weight off and use only one plate a side trying to use great form with a brief hold at the peak of the movement.

The moment you can lift that 5 plates like you just did that one plate, your traps will be fucking huge…even if you did use the same weight on the last movement for years.

There are more ways to stimulate muscle growth than simply worrying about the exact weight. It is also what you do with that weight.

The guy who can curl a 75lbs dumbbell with loose form may be big…but the guy who can do it with form the same as someone curling a 20 will be a freak.

43

Professor,

Do you use the HS shrug machine that allows one to do the movement either seated or standing?

I’m not sure how many models they have out there, but I’ve seen that one pretty much collecting dust at my gym.

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Yes, that’s the one.

45

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

[quote]roguevampire wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I honestly think the weight used for traps is way more important than how many sets are actually done.

I have done just 3 sets for traps for about a decade…but I also use more weight than most people.[/quote]

I couldn’t disagree more. It has very little to do with the amount of weight you use. A perfect example, is this guy at another gym i once trained at, piled on the weight 6 45’s on each side, he’d bang out 4 or 5 reps and done. yet, his traps were nothing. me, I do maybe 4 plates per side on the smith machine, i bring them up high, hold them for a split second, then down. do that for a good 10-12 reps. and my traps are huge. form is everything with traps. The amount of weight used is only good for the ego. If you can do alot of weight with good from, then great. but heavy is different for everyone. [/quote]

I agree with twilight. I see people at the gym that stack a ton of weight on the bar and do these little bounce thingies with their shoulders and call them shrugs. Not saying ProfX does that obviously but a lot of people that are so concerned with shrugging a shit ton of weight over form do. It is such a small range of motion that just does not really justify cheating imo. 15-20 rep sets w/ 315 really strict will torch the hell out of my traps.
[/quote]

Hmmm, I see people all of the time in the gym for years who look exactly the same or worse. Clearly it is the gym that is the problem.[/quote]

To add to this, Josh86 did shrugs with like 685 or something retarded for those “twitch” reps or whatever. Find his picture of HIS back and tell me he doesn’t know what he’s doing. This also applies for Hungry4More also, with the ridiculous weights and “twitch” reps. I could be wrong about this, but I think Bug does them this way too, and his traps are retarded.

Wait, am I detecting another pattern…?

46

I used to do them that way. I only recently slowed the reps down and held the peak contraction because I can’t add more weight and really don’t think my traps need to be much bigger. Dress shirts are hell as it is.

47

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:

[quote]roguevampire wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I honestly think the weight used for traps is way more important than how many sets are actually done.

I have done just 3 sets for traps for about a decade…but I also use more weight than most people.[/quote]

I couldn’t disagree more. It has very little to do with the amount of weight you use. A perfect example, is this guy at another gym i once trained at, piled on the weight 6 45’s on each side, he’d bang out 4 or 5 reps and done. yet, his traps were nothing. me, I do maybe 4 plates per side on the smith machine, i bring them up high, hold them for a split second, then down. do that for a good 10-12 reps. and my traps are huge. form is everything with traps. The amount of weight used is only good for the ego. If you can do alot of weight with good from, then great. but heavy is different for everyone. [/quote]

I agree with twilight. I see people at the gym that stack a ton of weight on the bar and do these little bounce thingies with their shoulders and call them shrugs. Not saying ProfX does that obviously but a lot of people that are so concerned with shrugging a shit ton of weight over form do. It is such a small range of motion that just does not really justify cheating imo. 15-20 rep sets w/ 315 really strict will torch the hell out of my traps.
[/quote]

Hmmm, I see people all of the time in the gym for years who look exactly the same or worse. Clearly it is the gym that is the problem.[/quote]

To add to this, Josh86 did shrugs with like 685 or something retarded for those “twitch” reps or whatever. Find his picture of HIS back and tell me he doesn’t know what he’s doing. This also applies for Hungry4More also, with the ridiculous weights and “twitch” reps. I could be wrong about this, but I think Bug does them this way too, and his traps are retarded.

Wait, am I detecting another pattern…?[/quote]

Not sure what you mean by “twitch” reps. If it means fast explosive reps with a full ROM, that’s fine. But if it means limiting the already small 3inch ROM of shrugs to 1 inch bounces then I don’t see point. I cannot beleive 1 inch bounces will build bigger traps than full ROM. Not saying hold peak contraction all the time, every time, but atleast full ROM.

48

I guess there is something to be said for time-under-tension…is full ROM really necessary to stimulate a muscle?

49

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]forlife wrote:
PX, if you don’t mind sharing how much are you lifting for your traps work?[/quote]

I used to go up to 6 plates a side on the hs shrug machine but the one I use now only goes up to 5…so I do my reps slower now and hold the peak contraction.

If your want shoulders that look like basketballs and huge traps (not just ok like most lifters) then you will need to do more direct training.

That means overhead presses and high inclines (or frontraises) for anterior delts

side lateral raises for lateral delts

and either bent over raises, the reverse pec deck or even high rows for posterior delts.

Yeah, “cleans and deadlifts” seem to be the really cool answer. All I know is I see few really fucking huge traps that avoided shrugs…and most people here don’t have traps that big.

Other than that, it just takes time. I trained shoulders twice a week for a very long time and often still do. It hurt for them to get like that.[/quote]

Thanks man, good advice.

I miss the hs shrug machine in my old gym. I can do more weight with a neutral instead of pronated grip, but the dumbbells don’t go high enough in my current gym.

51

[quote]Hitkiller wrote:

[quote]minsarale wrote:
currently i am doing 6 sets of db shrugs and 3 sets of hang power cleans, on my delt/trap day, is this enough or do i need more?
Also would it be better to do 6 sets of hang power cleans and 3 sets of shrugs instead?.
My traps are not on par in development with my other bodyparts.[/quote]

You could try (after a few warm up sets) doing one all out working set to failure, immediatly followed by rest pause or drop sets either with machines, barbells or dumbells. Whatever you decide, as rouguevampire says, form is everything.[/quote]

Form isn’t everything.

I got that strong in the first place by doing reps that I am sure some of you wold claim were not full rom.

Guess what?

Who the fuck cares because I got bigger traps than the guys who would be so worried about my form.

I doubt very many people will ever get up to a weight like 12 45lbs plates total by thinking their form needs to be text book the whole way through from start to finish. Guys who think like that usually don’t even get that big…so why do so many of you still believe it?

52

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]Hitkiller wrote:

[quote]minsarale wrote:
currently i am doing 6 sets of db shrugs and 3 sets of hang power cleans, on my delt/trap day, is this enough or do i need more?
Also would it be better to do 6 sets of hang power cleans and 3 sets of shrugs instead?.
My traps are not on par in development with my other bodyparts.[/quote]

You could try (after a few warm up sets) doing one all out working set to failure, immediatly followed by rest pause or drop sets either with machines, barbells or dumbells. Whatever you decide, as rouguevampire says, form is everything.[/quote]

Form isn’t everything.

I got that strong in the first place by doing reps that I am sure some of you wold claim were not full rom.

Guess what?

Who the fuck cares because I got bigger traps than the guys who would be so worried about my form.

I doubt very many people will ever get up to a weight like 12 45lbs plates total by thinking their form needs to be text book the whole way through from start to finish. Guys who think like that usually don’t even get that big…so why do so many of you still believe it?
[/quote]

But, but, that’s what the internet swolediers say! And according to their stats and lack of pictures they have to be right!

/sarcasm.

53

Any of you ever do ramping (low-rep) sets of Powershrugs ?

54

Guys ,which exercise hits the mid delt best,muscle clean and press or bradford presses?

55

[quote]minsarale wrote:
Guys ,which exercise hits the mid delt best,muscle clean and press or bradford presses?[/quote]

Behind the back cable lateral raise.

57

Thx for the reply but which one of the is better at stimulating delt growth overall for the whole deltoid? muscle clean and press or bradford presses?

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[quote]minsarale wrote:
Thx for the reply but which one of the is better at stimulating delt growth overall for the whole deltoid? muscle clean and press or bradford presses?[/quote]

The thought process here is hilarious. You have people literally spelling out how to get huge shoulders…coming from guys who actually have big shoulders…yet you keep asking some question that NO ONE WITH HUGE SHOULDERS HAS RECOMMENDED.

Why is that?

I wouldn’t recommend either one of those for huge shoulders.

I don’t do “muscle cleans” or “bradford presses” and most of the really big guys I know don’t do those…so why keep asking?

If YOU want to do them in spite of what guys with huge shoulders just told you, fine.

But why ask us?

Most of the guys who will actually answer that question with a choice between the two likely won’t have huge shoulders either.

But my guess is, you won’t care about that.

You just want someone to tell you the way you are thinking right now is right.

That is also not saying there is something particularly wrong with “muscle cleans”…I just know most of the guys going on and on about how that is THE BEST WAY are way fucking smaller than the guys who understand what their shoulders need from direct training.

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Addition, if you want to do cleans for “full body coordination” or even all over development that is general, then fine. But the idea that “muscle cleans and bradford presses” is what someone should focus an entire routine around if their goal is full development is retarded.

Sorry.

60

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Addition, if you want to do cleans for “full body coordination” or even all over development that is general, then fine. But the idea that “muscle cleans and bradford presses” is what someone should focus an entire routine around if their goal is full development is retarded.

Sorry.[/quote]

Thx for the reply X, i think there is a misunderstanding, my whole workout doesn’t revolve around these two exercises.
Basically my workout looks like this atm:
Muscle clean and press or bradford presses,6 sets(this slot is open,trying to decide which exercise i should do for overall growth)
Lateral raises 6 sets
Shrugs 6 sets
rear delt swings on incline bench 3 sets

61

In that case, I would add overhead presses and leave it at that. Spend some years getting really strong on that and then you can do whatever the hell you want.

But if someone was to ask me what has built some of the biggest bastards on the planet in the least amount of time, the answer would be :
overhead presses (btn only to the ears if done that way)
lateral raises
reverse pec deck or bent over rows.
shrugs

Anything else is SECONDARY.

You want huge muscles, go to the guys who actually built some.

62

[quote]minsarale wrote:
currently i am doing 6 sets of db shrugs and 3 sets of hang power cleans, on my delt/trap day, is this enough or do i need more?
Also would it be better to do 6 sets of hang power cleans and 3 sets of shrugs instead?.
My traps are not on par in development with my other bodyparts.[/quote]

Are they growing or not? it might be enough for you but not enough for someone else for example