When I say "traps" I really mean the upper portion of the trapezius muscle – the tiny part you're primarily working when you shrug. In truth, he probably built those big traps with other exercises. Good on him for doing something with a seriously heavy weight, but you have to wonder how much work the traps are actually doing during these weighted seizures. On rare occasions, you might catch a genuine monster doing double-bodyweight shrugs with more movement at the knee than at the shoulder. Yet peek inside most gyms and you'll see skinny guys doing barbell shrugs and very skinny guys trying to figure out how to use the Hammer Strength shrug machine. Ending a workout with six sets each of two different shrug variations is unnecessary and inefficient.Īesthetic-focused bodybuilders like Steve Reeves and Frank Zane actually avoided too much direct trap training because overdeveloped traps de-emphasize shoulder width. And note that excessive is a key word here.įor most people with physique-based goals, there's generally no reason for direct trap work to be given more attention than, say, the forearms, in terms of training volume or frequency. Spending excessive amounts of time directly targeting the traps is like a beginner spending tons of time and energy targeting his soleus – it's just not necessary yet. Gym novices who are just learning how to operate a barbell will get a lot of trap stimulation from deadlift variations, rows and pulldowns, cleans, and overhead presses, assuming they do these exercises.Įven many smaller movements, like most dumbbell work for the shoulders or back, will activate the traps to some extent. Let's take a look at what the traps are really meant for and figure out a better way to train them. Yet the shrug remains popular, which is odd because it just doesn't work very well for complete trap development. Shrugs are pretty much even with crunches as a way to look like you're doing work in the gym without getting much accomplished. If you intentionally incorporate some "accidental" trap work in your training, then you won't need much direct trap work.Effective trap training is about respecting the way the muscle was built to function and training it accordingly.Spending excessive amounts of time and energy targeting the upper traps is like a beginner spending a lot of time on his soleus instead of squatting.
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