Blast My Traps

[mr newbreed]

im just coming off a year out with a back injury and need some advice on maxin my traps and neck area
can anyone help

[Timm1704]

i have a neck sling that has a weight attachment, and train my neck once a week with shoulders/traps. 4 sets tends to do it, start out with 20 reps, and adding alittle more weight each set until im down to about 8 reps.

I tend to train traps with 8-9 sets, rotating between barbell shrugs, dumbbell shrugs, seated dumbbell shrugs, barbell shrugs behind-back, and narrow-grip upright rows.

I often use weights where I can crank out 10-15 really strict, slow reps, but sometimes I pile on more plates and shoot for lower (6-8) reps with slightly more erratic form (but not unsafe). More often that not I pyramid the weight each set.

Another trick I used to shock my traps about a year ago was on back day, when doing deadlifts, at the conclusion of each rep I would crank out 2 shrugs, so imagine a 6-rep set of deadlifts, there is 12 reps of shrugs with a heavier weight than I would normally use for that exercise. I would then go through my regular workout three days later with shoulders

[mr newbreed]

thats really helpfull,thanks very much for that,have you any addvice on shoulders as im really looking to shake my routine up

[Timm1704]

my delt routine is very simple, 3 exercises, 3-4 sets each: One for side delts, one for rear delts, and a pressing movement. The reps vary greatly, sometimes I go for 10-15 reps, really strict, slow and deliberate form, other times I may go heavier (6-8 reps) and like traps, use more erratic technique. Again I may incorporate pyramid sets, as I do with most exercises, as I feel they cover the whole range of muscle fibers, plus it helps as a gradual warm-up, and one thing I hate and fear are injuries that stop me training or wrestling at 100%.

Ofcourse I occasionally change my delt routine drastically, even if only for 3 weeks or so. When I was 16/17 I had a delt routine that was grossly overtraining, but, I kept it up for around a month, then went back to a more conventional, recovery-friendly routine. It did the trick, as the main aim was to make my shoulders wider, and get my side delts more developed. I believe the shock workouts helped to kickstart things.

I would perform 3 exercises for each head, 3 sets per exercise (thats 9 sets on each head). I used standing, seated and braced (against a bench) variations of side reaises, front raises and rear raises, then perform 4 sets of overhead barbell presses. That was middle-week, then at the end of the week I would perform 6 sets of side raises again after my leg workout.

Looking back that isnt something I would do again, as wear and tear is a real concern, but it did spur on new growth.

Going back to my current delt routine in paragraph one:

For side delts I rotate between these exercises-
standing side dumbbell raises
seated side dumbbell raises
standing one-arm side dumbbell raises
Side raises with cable
Very wide-grip upright rows

For rear delts:
Standing rear delt flyes with cables
Bent-over dumbbell/cable rear flyes
Very wide-grip barbell rows (taking bar to sternum)
One-arm rear cable flyes
Rear dumbbell flyes (whiulst lying face-down on an incline bench)

For front delts, I will usually do some form of presses overhead, although once in awhile I may do some isolation work such as:
Dumbbell front raises
Barbell plate front raises
Cable front raises (both arms on a long bar)
Barbell front raises

Sorry for the long read, got alittle carried away. Hope this helps

[mr newbreed]

cheers bro,its appreciated

[RANA]

This is what I do for Traps and Shoulders. I do them on seperate days. I hope this helps.

TRAPS
SHUGS (FRONT AND BACK) DBS, BAR, ROPE OR SINGLE ARM
REVERSE FLYS CABLE OR DBS
SUPERMAN’S DBS

SHOULDERS
OVER HEAD PRESS DBS OR HAMMER MACHINE
BIG CIRCLES OR SIDE LATERAL DBS
FRONT RAISES OR UP-RIGHT ROWS DBS, CABLE OR BAR

[mr newbreed]

This is what I do for Traps and Shoulders. I do them on seperate days. I hope this helps.

TRAPS
SHUGS (FRONT AND BACK) DBS, BAR, ROPE OR SINGLE ARM
REVERSE FLYS CABLE OR DBS
SUPERMAN’S DBS

SHOULDERS
OVER HEAD PRESS DBS OR HAMMER MACHINE
BIG CIRCLES OR SIDE LATERAL DBS
FRONT RAISES OR UP-RIGHT ROWS DBS, CABLE OR BAR

any and all helps,thanks dude

[Godson]

This is what I do for Traps and Shoulders. I do them on seperate days. I hope this helps.

TRAPS
SHUGS (FRONT AND BACK) DBS, BAR, ROPE OR SINGLE ARM
REVERSE FLYS CABLE OR DBS
SUPERMAN’S DBS

SHOULDERS
OVER HEAD PRESS DBS OR HAMMER MACHINE
BIG CIRCLES OR SIDE LATERAL DBS
FRONT RAISES OR UP-RIGHT ROWS DBS, CABLE OR BAR

what are superman Dbs ?

[RANA]

They are like front lat raises (shoulders) BUT you're slightly bend over (like Superman ((older version)) is about to fly) starting with arms down infront of your thighs (w/ DB, st8 bar &/or cable) arms st8 w/ your chin to your chest and raise your arms up, shoulders should pass your ears. I hope this makes sense, it's hard to explain. I also do these lying on an incline bench (Chest down and incline as low as it will go as long as it is not in the supine position)

[Papi93]

Dr. Fred Hatfield

"An alternative method is to shrug with heavy dumbbells while either seated or standing. The straight bar must be held out in front of you, while seated dumbbell shrugs allow the arms to hang naturally at your sides. This makes dumbbell shrugs a bit more comfortable and definitely easier on your low back. Holding a heavy bar in front of you requires strong contraction of your erector spinae muscles."

[duramaxedge]

For what its worth.. Everyone says not to roll your shoulders when doing shrugs.. But my partner showed me a way and my traps look damn good.. you can easily seem them un flexed under any shirt..

I use wrist straps.. standing with heavy dumbells.. start with the weights kinda of parallel to your body and shrug as high as you can and roll them perpindicular to your body to the sides.. then shrug again really high and do just the opposite to back in front of you. that is one rep. 10 reps of those.. then at the end I superset 10 standard shrugs.. 3 sets of those and your traps will be burnin... I usually then hop on a smith machine witht he bar at my ass and shrug .. Not super heavy.. concentrate on squeezing at the top..

Goodluck man!