Shrugs: When Did Your Traps Take Off?

[quote]therajraj wrote:
You guys all do high reps for shrugs?

When I reach the top weight that I can absolutely explode the rep (~425lb) I do 5 reps. By the end of the set I’m pretty dizzy and light headed.

But I do what akuma does, start at 135lb and work my way up.[/quote]

I normally do 15reps a set, and try to maintain that til about 495lbs (starting at 135 and bumping by 45s every set). Then it starts to drop, 12 reps, 10, 8. My goal is to shoot for 15 though. As i hit it or get closer, the weight goes up. I really love my shrugs too lol, tear the shit out of my hands tho.

And straps are a must for me. Im training my traps, not my wrist flexors.

If yours have trouble growing, probably a healthy mix of training techniques, like going super heavy, explosive, high reps, supersets, TUT focus/squeezes, etc, and experimenting with frequency/volume is a good place to start.

Never shrugged seriously.

My traps really took off once I was able to hit at least 100% of my BW for reps with the BTN press.
I started incorporating shoulder training pretty late, though, my third year in, to be exact. So, my BW was about 220 lbs, back then.

I’ve once tried shrugs for shits and giggles, though. Due to my former home gym setup, I never went over 352 lbs (160 kg), though. I compensated via reps: never went below 20 and did a lot of super-setting.

Just wanted to say, though: if you OH press, the upper traps are pretty much involved once your upper arms are over the horizontal.

My traps grew the best from hang cleans mostly because of bad form. Now, I do upright rows just like cleans, but no leg drive or catch. This also alleviates any shoulder pain I get from traditional upright rows.

I think we should hear it from the Trap master himself.

So, basically, now I’m gonna shrug even at my sleep.

I do not see big thick traps aside from Delta, Modok, and almost Akuma.

BugAD is working on it and Zraw is working on it.

I didn’t notice mine pop out until I was doing about 4 plates a side on the barbell shrug. After that they blew up the heavier I went. Now, I don’t even have to go very heavy. I am actually backing off of them because if they get too big, riding my bike gets to be more of a hassle because they keep my head from being able to go back far enough to keep my head up when riding.

Shrugs work, period.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I didn’t notice mine pop out until I was doing about 4 plates a side on the barbell shrug. After that they blew up the heavier I went. Now, I don’t even have to go very heavy. I am actually backing off of them because if they get too big, riding my bike gets to be more of a hassle because they keep my head from being able to go back far enough to keep my head up when riding.

Shrugs work, period.[/quote]

WTF? Who the fuck said shrugs didn’t work?

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I do not see big thick traps aside from Delta, Modok, and almost Akuma.
[/quote]

This was taken over a year ago, and they’ve grown (a fair amount) since then.

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I didn’t notice mine pop out until I was doing about 4 plates a side on the barbell shrug. After that they blew up the heavier I went. Now, I don’t even have to go very heavy. I am actually backing off of them because if they get too big, riding my bike gets to be more of a hassle because they keep my head from being able to go back far enough to keep my head up when riding.

Shrugs work, period.[/quote]

WTF? Who the fuck said shrugs didn’t work? [/quote]

I actually recall reading something like “shrugs don’t work” in TNation before. Can’t remember if it was an article or several posts.

[quote]DeltaOne wrote:

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I didn’t notice mine pop out until I was doing about 4 plates a side on the barbell shrug. After that they blew up the heavier I went. Now, I don’t even have to go very heavy. I am actually backing off of them because if they get too big, riding my bike gets to be more of a hassle because they keep my head from being able to go back far enough to keep my head up when riding.

Shrugs work, period.[/quote]

WTF? Who the fuck said shrugs didn’t work? [/quote]

I actually recall reading something like “shrugs don’t work” in TNation before. Can’t remember if it was an article or several posts.
[/quote]

lol, some people don’t seem to be living in this world.

[quote]DeltaOne wrote:

[quote]austin_bicep wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I didn’t notice mine pop out until I was doing about 4 plates a side on the barbell shrug. After that they blew up the heavier I went. Now, I don’t even have to go very heavy. I am actually backing off of them because if they get too big, riding my bike gets to be more of a hassle because they keep my head from being able to go back far enough to keep my head up when riding.

Shrugs work, period.[/quote]

WTF? Who the fuck said shrugs didn’t work? [/quote]

I actually recall reading something like “shrugs don’t work” in TNation before. Can’t remember if it was an article or several posts.
[/quote]

Just giving X a hard time by paraphrasing a response he gave me in another thread.

Anyways I have pretty decent traps but I will not post pics…Yayyy

[quote]SSC wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I do not see big thick traps aside from Delta, Modok, and almost Akuma.
[/quote]

This was taken over a year ago, and they’ve grown (a fair amount) since then.[/quote]

Good, keep it up. I am looking for something like this.
[photo]28695[/photo] [photo]30068[/photo]

I am a little leaner now but the goal is to simply not have a neck eventually.

Bottom line, I think if you speak on what works for traps then there should be some huge ones sticking out of your ears.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am a little leaner now but the goal is to simply not have a neck eventually.

Bottom line, I think if you speak on what works for traps then there should be some huge ones sticking out of your ears.[/quote]

You’re big all over, but I’d say your chest, traps and delts are really fucking awesome.

I remember doing a set of 405 for 20 on a bet that I couldn’t do it, and I swear my traps grew noticeably for like 3 weeks without training them again.

[quote]kingbeef323 wrote:
I remember doing a set of 405 for 20 on a bet that I couldn’t do it, and I swear my traps grew noticeably for like 3 weeks without training them again.[/quote]

It’s like magic. You get up to that much weight and if you don’t notice your traps growing from it, you just don’t have it. I haven’t seen “rack pulls” build that kind of size over shrugs.

[quote]MEYMZ wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I am a little leaner now but the goal is to simply not have a neck eventually.

Bottom line, I think if you speak on what works for traps then there should be some huge ones sticking out of your ears.[/quote]

You’re big all over, but I’d say your chest, traps and delts are really fucking awesome.[/quote]

Man, I’m shooting for everything being really fucking awesome…but I do appreciate the words.

My calves suck though even though they measure bigger than some here who look better.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I haven’t seen “rack pulls” build that kind of size over shrugs.[/quote]

I agree.

In a way, this is like the “I don’t need direct arm work because training back works my biceps” argument.

There is no straighter line between Point A and Point B than doing Shrugs for traps.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I do not see big thick traps aside from Delta, Modok, and almost Akuma.
[/quote]

Why thank you X.
Only saw this post now.