Do you work Traps with Back or Shoulders?

Do you work Traps with Back or Shoulders?

  • Back

    Votes: 164 40.8%

  • Shoulders

    Votes: 238 59.2%
  • Total voters
    402
handzilla said:
Do you work Traps with, Back or Shoulders and why?
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The main exercise I do for traps is wide grip upright row, and thats more for delts than traps. My traps grow very easy, so its not really an issue for me.
 
I find that deads work them well, but I work them with shoulders. Many shoulder movements like shoulder press, upright row, and lateral raise work them to a degree so i just throw in a set or two of shrugs to really get them.
 
I am undecided at this point. I too find that the best trapwork seems to come from deads. I'll probably end up working traps both on OH Pressing day and on deadlifting day.
 
Actually I train them on hip dominant day or second leg day. Most times they are not trained directly.
 
I train traps on deadlift day, which is separate from back day and shoulder day. Usually deads, abs, traps in one day.
 
I dont train traps at all, either i have great genetics for them or i get them really good through secondary effects of other exercises. I get complemented all the time on them, now if only my bic and calves were that way.
 
i train traps on my shoulder days (3 or 4 sets of heavy barbell shrugs). i do this so they get hit twice a week when i do deadlifts on my back days.
 
I usually train them on shoulder day just because back day is already so busy. I usually do shrugs, however I have had to quite doing them recently. After doing them my neck is stiff for a week :(
 
I haven't done a shrug in over a year, my traps seem to grow with just doing deadlifts, which i just started doing again after a few months off, and my traps didnt seem to lose any noticeable size.
 
the trapezius is a broad diamond shaped musclethat lies across your back. only 15% lies above your shoulder.soooooo since traps are a back muscle.........
 
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i do my traps with my shoulders. since i like to do heavy shrugs, and trying to do that after deads doesnt work well.
 
I've had my best trap development doing power cleans, I did do deads at the time, but since when I stopped doing power cleans, some people told me my traps didn't "stick out like they used to". The exercise is very exhausting but it did the job for me.
 
When I do shrugs I do them on back day with deads.When I do upright rows i do them on shoulder day this seems to give it a good balance
 
I work the traps on shoulder days with a few heavy shrugs. Doing deadlifts/back with traps is too much and leads to overtraining for me.
 
Back, mostly.

I don't do upright rows due to the massively increased injury risk (versus other delt movements), so it's pressing and various lateral on delt day. And then on back they, they fit well since I often do deads, usually some form of shrugs or rack pulls (if If don't do deads).
 
I dont work upper traps, cleans and deads are plenty for me.

if your talking lower traps/rhoboids, then either with back or with chest.
 
i work my traps on all training days (3x per week)...your traps can never get too much work, just ask Bill Starr. I use Power Shrugs, and then a back down set with a snatch grip, and then a further back down set of normal shrugs...also use Partial Deadliftsand high rep Hise Shrugs..my traps also get a good working from deadlifts....and it's all working a treat :)
 
Primarly with shoulders, i.e upright rows. Another good one, alot of folks forgot are bb behind-the-back shrugs. Lee Haney made them famous during his Olympia reign. Vic Martinez also does them too, I read in "Muscular Development".
 
Both, but primarily shoulders.

I find that traps need little (# of sets) work on themselves as they are well-worked by other compound movements. At least, this works for me and my goals.
 
I don't deadlift much, saving my spine for old age ya know (plus my dead goes up plenty by doing other stuff) maybe once a month. I need to do more trap work if I'm gonna go from "Damn you're big" to "OMFG FREAK", my entire shoulder girdle and arms are lagging (with the exception of my pecs, heh). I'd do maybe two sets twice a week as a supplement to regular work, heavy and perhaps to failure.
 
can we add a neither vote up there...as shootmeagain said they get a good workout w/ other lifts.

I get a good workout from them w/ do DL and SLDL. If i want to work them directly I'll do a set or two of high rep (12-15) immediately after SLDL or DL
 
I do traps on back and shoulder day and I do rear delts on back and shoulder day!week goes like this !
back and bi's
chest, tri's and abbs
shoulders, tri's
thighs and bi's
one day off and start over hitting each body part every 5 days...except tris' bi's traps and rear delts 2x in the 4 days on one off !
 
I do traps on Back day and I do traps on Shoulder day. Of course, I am in the minority here since I do them both on the same day. I get great results combining them. I really like to finish up with a homemade contraption our lead trainer made called The Shrugger. Its a metal C shaped frame when seen from above, with handles on the top left and right and rectangular bars sticking out each side. Seen from the side it looks like a large I shape. Advantage is ease of control and the ability to pile on the plates on each side.
 
bronx220 said:
the trapezius is a broad diamond shaped musclethat lies across your back. only 15% lies above your shoulder.soooooo since traps are a back muscle.........
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Thank you...my sentiments also. I work with back becuase they are really part of the muscles that make up the back. Not to mention there is quite a bit of synergy when working lats/upper back and traps.
 
i work traps on back and shoulder days.....they are kinda lacking from the rest of my upper body so i am tryin to bring them up.
 
I like to mix it up, i used to always work traps with delts but over the past few months I have been working them on back day and its a nice change.
 
Work them on shoulder days, do all your shoulder routine then work the hell out of the traps. Tends to workout nicely.
 
sourinthemind said:
Thank you...my sentiments also. I work with back becuase they are really part of the muscles that make up the back. Not to mention there is quite a bit of synergy when working lats/upper back and traps.
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I feel traps should be worked on back day or else you might just overtrain them. You could work them up to three times a week by using them on legs day through deadlifts, back day through any rowing movement, and again on shoulders day if you do them then. I would suggest doing them on back day and working them from top to bottom. The muscle does run from your first cirvical vertibrae all the way down to the 12th thoracic vertebrae. If you are training them right you wont just have the upper part but a solid mass of muscle running down the center of your back with a nice deep grove over your spine. The only other day to logically work them is on legs day just because you use them so much to do deadlifts. Also if you work them on back day you will effectly train the romboids major and minor, as well as the levator scapulae which all contribute to a full muscular looking back. The only reason i could think of for training them on shoulders day is that shoulder pressing elevates the scapula to allow more range of motion. The elevation of the scapula during shoulder press is somewhat similar to scapular elevation during upper trapezius flexion, but much shorter. I feel traps on back day are the way to go.
 
When I train my shoulders effectively I need to concentrate on NOT using my traps. SO I dont train them together. I train my traps with back and superset them at the end of my work out.
 
I do medium heavy barbell shrugs....my traps blow up with just that on shoulder day...one of the few good genetics i have.
 
I usually do them to finish off a back day, uprights and shrugs. But if my back day takes me to the 1.5 hr limit in the gym or im dead tired, I will do them on a day on its own with abs or cardio or shoulders. I rarely work shoulders separately now I feel I can hit them on chest and back days. Im actually considering doing shrugs 2x a week as they are lagging a lil. Finally, I get a better pump when i hit them at the end of a back workout.

I like what bronx220 said earlier:"the trapezius is a broad diamond shaped musclethat lies across your back. only 15% lies above your shoulder.soooooo since traps are a back muscle........."
 
I train em rest pause style now hitting failure 3 times, and then a do a static rep for 30 seconds, we'll see how this works out, my traps need to come up, well my upper traps anyway, my back always grows thick n dense fast.
 
CHAPS said:
I train em rest pause style now hitting failure 3 times, and then a do a static rep for 30 seconds, we'll see how this works out, my traps need to come up, well my upper traps anyway, my back always grows thick n dense fast.
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same here as far as trap development. I need to bring up the upper traps, one of my friends were messing with me the other day and told me i need to work on my traps(upper) cause he said i dont want it to be a shelf do i? needless to say this motivates me.
 
Behind the back barbell shrugs are my favourite, i don't like them to the front, and dumbbell shrugs but pulling them up and back at the same time so kinda on an angle.
 
CHAPS said:
Behind the back barbell shrugs are my favourite, i don't like them to the front, and dumbbell shrugs but pulling them up and back at the same time so kinda on an angle.
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yah those are good and i feel it takes the arms out of it even more when you have the barbel in the rear:jaw: dumbells the angle thing is what i shoot for too, i have yet to lay on a incline bench reverse and trying db shrugs that way, i heard it works great. Nothing like some heavy ass shrugs....its how i hit my forearms/grip too, just holding the bar tight is a workout for them.
 
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