good trap routines

reppin808

reppin808

New member
traps are one of my favorite muscle groups.
all i do for now is barbell shrugs on the smith machine and dumbbell shrugs.
anyone else got any other exercises for this? and if i add more exercises is it gonna be too much and am i gonna be overtraining?
advice please
 
hang cleans and super set with shrugs. I garun-freakin-tee that you will be sore as hell.

if you cant handle the superset that is fine just do them seperately
 
boggs67ss said:
I get a good burn with upright rows, but you got to concentrate on your traps rather than your delts.
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close grip upright rows target traps pretty well. there's shrugs, behind the back shrugs, t-bar shrugs, and good old deadlifts to start it off.
 
Go to the elitefts website and go to the article section and do a search for "the yoke". It will tell you the essentials for a big neck and traps.
 
heavy deads, and BB shrugs hit mine perfect. But dont go too heavy on bb shrugs, control the weight, pause at top. Too many people slap on 400 lbs and bounce the weight up and down using body momentum and legs, that does nothing.
 
boggs67ss said:
I get a good burn with upright rows, but you got to concentrate on your traps rather than your delts.
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Yea I do something like this. I start with upright rows, superset that with side laterals which hit the traps at the top of the movment, and finish off with shrugs. Oh it burns...
 
dynomite said:
hang cleans and super set with shrugs. I garun-freakin-tee that you will be sore as hell.

if you cant handle the superset that is fine just do them seperately
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x2 on the cleans! Everytime I oly lift my traps are super sore!
 
4 sets upright rows
5 sets shrugs as follows
1-25 reps light weight
2-10 reps heavy
3-10 reps moderate hold for 3 seconds at top
4-10 reps heavy
5- 25 reps light
 
hise shrugs are the new favorite for me
 
good ole' DEADS. I hardly ever work my traps directly and they look better than ever. Just go heavy as **** on the deads and you will be fine...trust me
 
msucurt said:
good ole' DEADS. I hardly ever work my traps directly and they look better than ever. Just go heavy as **** on the deads and you will be fine...trust me
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I have to agree, when you pull 500lb you should have a nice set of traps on you.
 
I really like doing a move that is almost like the pull of the hang clean. Stand with barbell in hand arms straight and knees slightly bent.

Stick your butt out slightly keeping your back flat, elbows extended, and knees slightly flexed. When the bar reaches the top of your knee, extend at the angles, knees, and hips and shrug the bar upward. Do not bring the bar to chest level to make the catch. Keep your elbows extended the whole time allowing your body to do a shrug. I

ts more of a full body movement but you will be able to shrug heavier weight and its a good change of pace.

They have similar exercises to this one over at vastmuslce.com. Mainly in the sport specific training section but they have sections for just avg joe workouts. Its awesome.
 
Just ideas you can YouTube later:

▪️Farmer Carries/Upright Rows
▪️Facepulls/ 6-ways (5lb Dbs)
▪️Scapular Dips/Incline Shrugs
▪️OH carry/Db Shrug

Bb Shrugs, Olympic Lifts, OH Press are usually separate for me. I like to Focus on these movements 100% and challenge the muscle appropriately. Variety is the spice of life but sometimes just being specific and consistent lends to something amazing.
 
Am I the only one who never shrugs? I know we all develop differently but my traps are well proportioned to my body by just doing deadlifts, t bar rows and the other basic back movements.
 
I used to try to isolate my traps and do many different shrug routines, butthe most development I've seen has come from rack pulls and dead lifts
 
R1balla said:
Am I the only one who never shrugs? I know we all develop differently but my traps are well proportioned to my body by just doing deadlifts, t bar rows and the other basic back movements.
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I feel exactly the same. Since running DC and fortitude where they don't have direct trap training, my traps are still growing none the less
 
In my opinion, I wouldn't waste time doing db shrugs, Smith machine shrugs, upright rows etc. If you want seriously thick traps, do heavy ass farmers walks and deadlifts. It's that simple.
 
High rack pulls, (above the knee) heavy weight and hold the stretch, seriously that alone has transformed my traps (and entire upper back) ...It looks like an ego lift as the range of motion is minimal but it's what works, very well!
 
dynomite said:
hang cleans and super set with shrugs. I garun-freakin-tee that you will be sore as hell.

if you cant handle the superset that is fine just do them seperately
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I'm in favor of hang cleans for traps too assuming you know how to do them correctly. if they look like a reverse curl then you're going to miss the trap benefit. but heavy hang cleans for reps will blow your stuff up in a good way.
 
For me all i have done is 3xfail body weight shrugs the last 2 years and my traps have grown.....i started with 315# shrugs (BW) and all i got was 7-9 reps most sets....now im getting 20-25 reps.....my wife has really noticed the no neck look ive got going on.

This is also a good read. Invalid Link Removed
 
I've been doing one arm BB shrugs. Less contact with body and trying to counteract the swaying of the bar kills the forearms too
 
I really like rack pulls or BB shrugs. Burst the shrugs in groups of 3 reps then hold for 3sec, do this for about 5 sets of 3 bursts. The static hold really gets ya!
 
Dustin07 said:
I'm in favor of hang cleans for traps too assuming you know how to do them correctly. if they look like a reverse curl then you're going to miss the trap benefit. but heavy hang cleans for reps will blow your stuff up in a good way.
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Hang cleans for sure, and a lift we did when learning to clean in HS, we called them power shrugs (IDK if that's what they're actually called) but it's the initial explosive part of a hang clean, it allows you to use a little more weight than actually getting the bar to your shoulders
 
Rack pulls above the knee overloads your back and traps like nothing else also do bb shrugs and farmers walks your traps will blow up
 
^liked for Farmers walks
 
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