HOW TO BUILD BIG TRAPS: 3 MUST DO EXERCISES

What’s up guys. Damien here today. I want to tackle what you guys, how to develop monster traps. So somebody actually asked me and here we are, I’m going to show you my three favorite exercises for developing full ridiculous looking traps. First exercise we’re going to do is a shoulder shrug, which I’m sure you’ve all done before. The way I do it, I’m going to show you how to do it a little bit different. Make sure you’re doing it correctly, proper form, and really target those traps. You can either use a dumbbell, a pair of dumbbells, or what I like to use is 45 pound plates. Obviously if you can’t do 45 pound plates, you can go a little lighter or you can just start off with dumbbells. If you notice these are 45 pound plates, they’re not really heavy. I don’t use heavyweight for this particular exercise, so what I’m going to do is four sets, 15 reps.

The first five reps, one I’m going to do is a three second pause and a three second negative, and then I’m going to do 10 full complete range of motion Reps. So let me show you what I’m talking about here. So first one, chest out, shoulder blades, back up tall, making sure that I’m not slouching, my neck down. A lot of guys, when they do traps, they slouch at their neck and not getting the full range of motion. So up tall, shoulder blades back and I’m going up. One, two, three and then down. One, two, three, counting in my head, up. One, two, three and down. One, two, three, hit again down. Good and hit it again. One, two, three, one, two, three. At this point you’re already starting to get a little fatigue up. Hit it again. One, two, three, one, two, three. Then I’m going to go for 10 reps.

If you notice shoulder blades all the way back, I’m at the lowest point with my shoulders and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Boom. Done. So like I said, 45 pounds is plenty of weight from me. I don’t usually go any heavier than that. I’m going to do four sets like that. If you starting off first time doing this, I want, I would recommend going much lighter, but make sure you can get all 15 reps. So again, five slow, three second pause, three second negative and then 10 quick reps total of Ford total of 15 four sets. All right, and that’s the first one. All right, so I just finished showing you guys how to do the shoulder shrugs properly. The next exercise is upright rows. Again, when you’re doing working on your traps, you need to remember it’s not about how much weight you do.

I see a lot of guys are doing a ton of weight and they have no trapping. Velma whatsoever, six plates doing trucks, no traffic. Feldman, you need full range of motion. You need to keep your shoulder blades back and you need to tromp your shoulders to the lowest point possible. So if you’re doing a shoulder shrug hair, you’re not working your traps, you’re not even working anything, you’re just putting strain on your neck. So pick the right weight. It’s what I’m trying to say. Next thing we’re going to do with upright rows. One thing about upright roles is if you have any type of shoulder impingement, don’t do them period. So if you have rotator tendinitis, which is actually something I’m healing from, I wouldn’t recommend doing them. If you do have some kind of shoulder injury and you wanted to still want to try it, try keeping it right below the chest level, any higher than that and you’re going to have some issues there.

So I’ll probably roast what I’m going to do. Again, it’s four sets, but I’m going to do a super set. So I’m going to pick two weights that I can do and I’m using the easy bar here as you can see, close grip and I’m up tall again, shoulder blades back, chest out. And I’m going to come up for eight to 10 reps pulling right up past the chest level, elbows past the shoulders and still keeping that posture. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and a pause. And then dealt with my eight on my heavy one. I’m going to grab that light one there and I’m going to follow up with a quick eight again, one, two, three. All the way up to eight and [inaudible] and down we go and that’s it. Super easy. Even do upright rows on the cable machine. You can do it on the straight bar and you can also do an uneasy bar. One thing though to remember is if you’re doing upright rows, if you go with a wide grip, that’s a wide grip.

That’s going to be more rear deltoids, close grip. The closer the grip is, the more trashed you’re working, so stick with the closed grip. All right. Again, that’s four sets, eight and eight or 10 and 10 super set, heavy light, boom, done. Moving onto the next one. All right guys, so I already showed you two of my favorite exercises to do for developing monster traps. Last one we’re going to do is just another variation of the shrug. We’re going to use an Olympic bar if I’m going to go a little bit heavy. This is where I go heavy, but again, tips for making sure that you get full development of the traps, full range of motion. So you need to handle the weight, you need to use weight that you can handle and proper form. So even though I’m going, this is my heavy set, I’m going to, you still make sure I can handle that weight.

So I’m going to use the out Olympic bar. Usually you want to make sure you want to do this when it’s in the squat rack, but today we can’t do it in the squat rack as it’s taken. So we’re going to do it right here. All right, I’m going to make sure my grip is about shoulder width apart slightly outside of my quads. Eyes forward again, my neck is completely tall, shoulders are relaxed. I’m going to stick my chest out and drop my shoulders down as far as I can. He said I’m coming all the way up as high as I can squeeze and then down dropped back down to shoulders, up, squeeze and then drop back down, up, squeeze, making sure I hold pause and then back down. And I’m really stretching out my traps and each round, each rep squeeze. And then now since I consider this my heavy movement, I’m going to do about four sets.

It’s 10 reps up, squeeze and down, and that’s it. Those are the only three exercises I really ever do for my traps to target my traps directly. Obviously when you’re working your shoulders, your trashcan worked indirectly. So real quickly, a couple of tips. Make sure you can handle the weight full range of motion, chest out, and always drop your shoulders as low as you can. So if you’re up here and just keeping it short, you’re not working at traps to the full potential price forward, not at the floor, nowhere else. That way your posture is perfect when you’re working the traps. Another thing that’s important, anybody, part, legs, arms, whatever. If you want them to grow, you need to work with them twice a week, guaranteed. Otherwise you’re just wasting your time. So I would pick two or all three of these exercises, add it to your shoulder routine, but make sure you do it twice a week. Otherwise, I’m not going to see the growth you’ve won. Don’t forget to subscribe guys, and like the video. See you guys next time.