Trap Work | www.bb-forums.com

I get new trainees that frequently ask if we can add in some direct trap work. Now if the trainee has a big deadlift and still has issues with his traps I will oblige him, but when I got a guy that is deadlifting 275-350 the last thing he needs is extra work to make his traps grow, if anything, he likely needs some extra posterior chain work to help his deadlift go up.

I used to have shitty traps. So….every week after deadlifting I did shrugs. I did dumbbell shrugs, I did barbell shrugs, I did trap-bar shrugs. I shrugged my little ass off. And you know what? My traps still didn’t grow. Finally I kind of gave up and just focused on my deadlifts. When I was deadlifting 405 for 10 damned if I didn’t have a nice set of traps. When I pulled my first 500 lb dead, WOW, they were lots bigger, and since then going to a 600 lb pull damned if they didn’t grow more without doing a single damn shrug.

My experience is exactly what I see with training clients and in exchanging info with lifters all over the country. Until you are doing your deads with about 4 bills on the bar your sole trap concern should be making that dead go up and you will likely find traps take care of themselves. If they don’t? Add a few sets of shrugs. It ain’t rocket science—lol.

Iron Addict

I couldn't agree more. Deadlifting is an awesome exercise.

i agree. it is much easier to obtain bigger traps from doing deadlifts than the other way around...shrugs first.

but yeah....i must admit after doing deadlifts, i did enjoy a few extra set of traps and i felt a direct effect...but notice i said i FELT, it doesn't necessarily mean it was taking 100 effect. just to show you how the human body can fool itself into thinking that something might be working; while in reality may not be.

for example doing 15-20 reps on a compound exerice may FEEL like a huge pump. but in actually, compared to doing 6-8 or even 10-12, the 15-20 reps are not that affect for sheer size/strength.

and i must admit everyone has different muscle fiber ratio types, but this reference is only referred to people who are TRULLY DIFFERENT and for them they have to adapt differently in the life of weights.

doing compound exercises will not only affect the main muscle groups, but also will do wonders for the secondary muscle groups.

deadlifts are my favorite exercise

I have pretty good traps and I built them by doing barbell shrugs CORRECTLY along w/ deads. I think good form and having a weight on the bar that people can actually shrug is key. I've seen sooo many guys in the gym throw on every 45 they can find within 50 feet and do this thing that looks like their shoulders are just spasming or twitching, and they'll do this about 10-15x. You have to have a weight on the bar that can actually be raised up several inches and shrugged as opposed to the shoulders just twitching.

i have been doing shrugs after deadlifts and i can see improvements. i can only DL 260. shrugs with dumbells i can do a set of 6 with 130lb in each hand with correct form. i think imma move to the hammer strength shrug machine bc 130s are the max dumbells.