Hmmmm… Maybe Shrugs? 
cleans and high pulls
I’ve had good results from hang cleans, they’re kinda like power cleans but with less range of motion. If you search you’ll be able to find a description on how to do them properly.
deadlifts?
Deadlifts and power cleans make my traps grow like none other.
Deadlifts, Power Cleans, and Snatches. There is also an article on some trap exercise in a previous issue. It’s one of the “short topic” articles.
Just remembered an old exercise that Don “Ripper” Ross wrote about. Calf Machine Shrugs. Stand in the Calf Machine and shrug your shoulders, thats it. No grip to give out.
To train the top of the traps (Ian King has some great articles on training the rest of the trapezius muscle), I recommend barbell shrugs, twice a week. Do them first in your back workout while you are prioritizing your traps. Perform one or two warm-up sets and four or five work sets.
While this seems obvious, I have seen many trainees fail to achieve trapezius hypertrophy or strength. The main mistakes I see in the gym are:
Poor Mechanics. Many newer lifters (and quite a few that have been around for a while as well) have poor range of motion. The heavily-loaded bar needs to travel as far (well, almost as far) as an unloaded bar does during a warm-up set. Also, the lifter should briefly pause the bar at the top of the lift.
Lack of Intensity. Many lifters do not realize that the shrug is a lift in which a large muscle moves weight a short distance. This makes it possible to develop a 1000 lb or greater drug-free max (I did), with a 5 rep max over 765 lb. In fact, many relatively small female athletes shrug over 500 lbs for reps. But many lifters stick with 200 - 300 lb training weights, because this weight seems heavy enough, at least when compared to weights used in other lifts. Well, this is not heavy enough to stimulate trap development. Shrug heavy, with proper form. Improve every week.
Lack of Dedication. Many lifters give up trying to grow this important muscle too quickly. It takes time to stimulate the traps, but they will respond quickly once they start to grow. After a few months of very slow growth, they will start to grow at a very rapid rate, as long as the lifter keeps training hard. At this point, the traps can be worked later in the workout (I do them after bent-over rows…the bar is already set up, and just needs more weight). Also, it will be possible to drop to once-per-week trap training (they will be sore most of the week if they are trained properly).
Of course, proper sleep and nutrition are essential.
The traps are worth training. Strong trapezius muscles help with all the lifts, and they look good too (the ladies do seem to like them). Good luck.
The traps will respond to just about anything but moreso than most muscle group they will also quickly adapt. For this reason you should use a wide variety of weight, tempo, and exercise considerations. Hit them super heavy with partial and regular deadlifts, hit them explosively with variations of the olympic lifts including power shrugs, hit them strictly with slow tempo controlled bodybuilding style shrugs, dumbell shrugs and upright rows, and also hit them for pain by working the endurance aspect by using non typical exercises such as Farmers walk for time (5-10 minutes), wheelbarrow walks, and high rep kettlebell swings, cleans, snatches etc.
mine are naturally big
A combo of power cleans, clean shrugs, and snatches are my reccomendation. If you don’t know how to do them, learn them and you get great results. Why do u think power athletes and football players have such good trap development? Give them a try.
On my Ironmind training hall tape, you can see little 54kg 13-15 year old kids doing deadlift/shrug combos with >150kg, that’s almost triple bodyweigh, so I’d say most other lifters don’t use enough weight.
Like rubberman, I don’t do “direct” trap work (like shrugs), and like Big Chief, Rack Pulls are an AWESOME power movement in which you can really move some weight. (If you want to see someone executing some Rack Pulls while pushing some Iron, get your hands on King Kamali’s tape.
So…for my money…Deadlifts and Rack Pulls…
Hello, MarkR. I have just finished reading your article. Bravo for encouraging training of the trapezius. I agree totally that this is an area that receives far less attention than it should. It is also a great show muscle.
However, I think that you should be completely honest with the t-mag forum. Your article was great until you talked about doing a 1,000 pound shrug. You also claimed to have done it drug free. How did you put that much weight on the bar? How far did you move the bar? How many reps did you do? I would be curious to know what the world-record shrug is. I admit that I haven’t done a ton of research on this subject. However, I have perused many muscle magazines with some of the top athletes in the sport of powerlifting and bodybuilding. I have never seen anything approaching that. Certainly not drug-free. Thank you for your response.
PumpkinPie,
I’m glad you enjoyed my post on traps training. You may have noticed that I typically don’t include weights that I lift on this forum, mainly because there is usually no reason to do so. I posted it here because I felt it was pertinent to the topic.
To answer your question, I hit a 1,000 lb shrug for a single (full range of motion) about three weeks ago. I also performed it six months earlier. The first time, I was in a gym with 100 lb plates, so they fit easily onto an Olympic bar. The recent complete attempt was at a gym with no 100s, so I put 10 45s, one 25 and one 2 1/2 on each side…they just fit with enough room for a collar, which is necessary because the bar will bend and whip around when lifted. I set it up on the squat rack (of all places!), which at my height (5’10", the only thing you guessed accurately in your fake post from me on the last board) is perfect for standing up and clearing the bar at the bottom position. Also, I did use straps and chalk (I don’t like using an alternate grip on this exercise…the pronated side stretches differently than the supinated side.)
In all fairness, I’ve always had disproportionately large traps, even prior to ever touching a weight. While I would have preferred genetically large arms, I guess this is better than nothing.
As far as other athletes, I believe the Ultimate Warrior shrugged a fully loaded bar for several reps. Also, I believe Amy Weisberger shrugs 500 lb for reps, at a bodyweight of 123! (Kicks my ass pound for pound). Not sure how natural either of these athletes are, of course…Mark
Why are big traps nice to have? What does it add to a person’s look? Wondering.
cleans!!! mine got huge!!!
deadlifts
Traps give shape to the shoulders, so they are evident even in a long sleeve loose-fitting dress shirt. For me, as a powerlifter, strong traps help on the deadlift (added support) and on anything involving shoulders. Also, lifters with strong traps simply LOOK powerful.
Traps are also nice to have for those who want big biceps. Poliquin says that weak traps can keep you from making gains in your biceps.