🚨 Best Exercises to Build Monster Traps
✅ Monster traps command respect from those around you. They can transform an ordinary physique into an exceptional one. They’re associated with power because most of the movements that grow our traps are big, powerful exercises. Look at history’s great deadlifters or Olympic lifters, what do they have in common? Massive, powerful traps.
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✅ But a lot of lifters are clueless about how to build those gargantuan traps. They add in a few sets of dumbbell shrugs at the end of shoulder day and wonder why their traps just won’t grow.
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1. 🚨 Deadlift
Deadlifts should be the staple of EVERYONE’S workout. Try all different variations: conventional barbell deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, dumbbell deadlifts, wide-grip deadlifts, deficit deadlifts, rack pulls. The list goes on and on. The deadlift is the best exercise for the whole posterior chain, and it is a fantastic way to pack on mass to your traps.
2. 🚨 Shrugs
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Shrugs are the go-to exercise to isolate the traps. Make sure you keep your arms straight and pull only using your traps. DON’T roll your shoulders. Let the weight pull your arms down and stretch the traps, followed by a hard squeeze at the top. Try with a barbell or dumbbells. Also try while lying face down on an incline bench. Get creative and force your traps to grow.
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3.🚨 The Clean
One needs only to look at an accomplished Olympic lifter to see the effect the clean has on the traps. This lift works the traps in a couple different ways; during the first pull you want a tight upper back, which is accomplished by squeezing your scapulae together. Scapular retraction is a great lower/mid trapezius exercise. During the second pull of the clean, a shrug motion is performed completing your full extension, working the upper part of the trapezius muscle. If cleans are not something you want to take the time to learn, just do clean high pulls.
4. 🚨 Barbell Shrugs
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The barbell shrug is the king of all trap-building exercises, says Tyler English, author of the Men’s Health Natural Bodybuilding Bible.
It targets the upper portion of your traps, which are responsible for lifting your shoulder blades.
5. 🚨 Dumbbell Lateral Raise
Your middle deltoid may be the hardest working muscle during this movement, but your upper traps are working, too. They assist in raising the weight and act as stabilizers.
