This post was inspired by a big strong man I know who spends too much time doing shrugs! Everyone wants huge, mountainous, imposing traps. Having large and developed trap muscle can give your body an overall larger appearance, and lets not kid ourselves, it's beach season. Who doesn't want to look bigger?
What most people fail to realize though, is that the shrugs they have grown up watching every other guy in the gym do to build their traps are not the most effective way to build that no neck look. Muscles aren't designed to be isolated and worked by themselves, they're designed to function as part of a unit. That's why isolation movements like shrugs don't effectively build traps the way other exercises can.
First, squeeze your shoulder blades together and reach your arm back and feel just to the side of your neck while your shoulder blades are squeezed. You should feel a lump of a muscle on each side of your neck. This is your trap muscle, and though it looks like the traps are small muscles that just sit on your shoulders, they actually run down the back toward the spine. Follow the muscle from your neck down your back and you'll realize it's far more than a small muscle on the shoulders used to shrug.
So, now that we have established that the traps connect to and are part of the upper back musculature, what do the muscles of the upper back serve to do? First, they serve to help the body in pulling movements. Pulling things into the body is a responsibility of the muscles that retract the shoulders, which are the upper back muscles. Secondly, they provide stabilization. When the body is tasked with picking up or carrying heavy objects, the upper back muscles contract and stabilize the upper body so that proper posture can be maintained.
With these facts in mind, here are a list of my five best exercises for building HUGE traps.
1. Pulls From the Ground
Exercises like deadlifts, olympic lifts (snatch/clean and jerk), and clean and snatch pulls from the ground are the best ways to build the traps. Heavy deadlifts, olympic lifts, and pulls from the ground allow you to use heavy weight while forcing you to stabilize the upper body by contracting the upper back. The best way to build muscle is to overload the body with heavy ass weight and these three lifts from the ground allow you to use some of the heaviest weights of any.
2. Olympic Lifts/Pulls From the Hang
When lifting from the hang, you won't be able to use as much weight, but you get an added benefit. Cleans, snatches, clean pulls, and snatch pulls from the hang are more difficult because they force you to deadlift the bar from the ground, then hold the bar while performing the lifts with no momentum. However, while the weight you use will be less, you will be forced to hold the bar in the your hands for a greater period of time, which also forcers you to stabilize yourself longer. This time under tension makes lifts from the hang a phenomenal way to build up bigger traps.
3. Carries
The simplest way to build huge traps is to carry heavy shit. It doesn't matter what it is. I've done carries with kettlebells, dumbbells, barbells, stones, boxes, trap bars, etc. I've done carries overhead, suitcase style, goblet style, in the rack position, etc. It doesn't matter. Mix it up and find what works for you. But if you want to build impressive traps, start adding carries two to three times a week at the end of your workouts.
4. Overhead Work
Military presses, push presses, Klokov presses (behind neck snatch-grip press), jerks, and muscle snatches are some of the most effective ways to build not only traps, but a huge upper back and shoulder structure to match.
5. Heavy Rows
All of the movements I've described so far have involved the upper back as a stabilizer during the movement. Barbell, kettlebell, and dumbbell rows for the upper back to contract to retract the shoulders and pull the weight into the body. Heavy rows are one of the most effective ways to build a huge back and are often forgotten as a way to build huge traps as well.
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