My traps just won’t grow ant more. Does anyone have any tips out there???
Dead Lifts, some more dead lifts, maybe some quarter dead lifts, then back to dead lifts. Also check an early Poloquin article on traps in the archives at T-mag.
Try farmer walks. Not only will your traps grow so will your forearms
First of all what type of exercises are you doing with your traps? I hit mine twice a week. Once after my chest work-out and another with just my shoulders. You need to go really heavy on these. On chest day I hit them after my deadlift in which I also do after my chest. and when doing my traps I do front barbell shrugs with around 315lbs for 4 sets to failure. If anything over 15 I add weight. The 4 sets of behind the back shoulder shrugs. Be sure on the shrugs you don’t roll your shoulders. This is an injury waiting to happen. Then if you still don’t feel it go get the heaviest dumbbells and place them on the floor. Get on your knees and grab the dumbbells and do shrugs this way. It keeps the cheating down. On shoulder day make sure you hit them hard. Front raises, side lats, upright rows with a barbell. These all hit those monsters. Lift heavy and don’t cheat and you’ll see them grow like crazy. Good luck.
If you have been doing low reps, try high reps. If doing high, then try low. EXPERIMENT!! Are you deadlifting? If not then start! Ever done farmers walks? Or timed holds? Give them a go. There is so much you can try - I dont believe you have reached a point where you wont grow any more, you have just adapted to what you do at the moment. Good Luck.
I would suggest a qualified Chiropractor, especially one trained in ART. If you have a nerve obstruction due to poor posture,muscle imbalance,etc,no exercise in the world will make your traps grow.
There was a good routine by Don Alessi in an Iron Dog column a while back.
You may want to give some Clean and Snatch Pulls a go. Also think about doing manual resistance neck work.
Also, I think the last “Exercises you’ve never tried” article at T-mag had a LOWER trap exercise. I tried it and it killed me. I must have been neglecting this area because I was in pain the next day. Give that one a shot for sure. And don’t forget to deadlift too!
They are tough to grow, because they are stupidly strong. Kinda like how calves are so strong for their size. The trick with traps is negatives, or extreme tension (which is why cleans work so well). Do a couple sets of negatives every two days - that will work. You could also do a couple of sets of normal trap work to fatigue them, and THEN do the negatives - that way you won’t have to do as much weight
Train your lower traps as someone suggested earlier. Your Nervous System may not be allowing for any more growth because of a strength imbalance between your depressors and elevators.
One of the presenters at SWIS (I believe Lorne Goldenberg) sited a study that demonstrated that bodybuilders were stronger in every single muscle group when compared to the average population, with the exception of one muscle group. Guess which one?