Weight Training Advice
Trap Workouts
traps you'll see the muscles jut out above your collarbones on each side of your neck. Building these muscles with trap workouts will give your body a more powerful look. Since the traps will get some indirect work when you do exercises for other upper body muscles, you won't need to do very many exercises for them.
Since they are a relatively small muscle group, it may be best to perform trap workouts as part of your shoulder workout routine. They can also be trained as part of your upper back routine if you'd like.
Without a doubt, the best exercise to do as part of a trapezius workout routine is the shrug. To do them you grip a barbell at about shoulder wodth and use your trapezius muscles to "shrug" it up. Since you don't have to lift the weight very far and the traps are a strong muscle group, you'll likely be able to use a lot of weight when performing barbell shrugs. Because of this, you should use wrist straps while shrugging so your grip doesn't give out before your trapezius muscles do.
You can also perform shrugs with dumbbells when you do trap workouts. wen you do dumbbell shrugs you hold a dumbbell in each hand and shrug them up using your traps. Like with the barbell version of this exercise, you should use wrist straps for a stronger grip.
Another excellent exercise to do during a traps workout is the upright rows. To do this exercise you grip a barbell and pull it straight upward to your neck. Many lifters do upright rows with a close grip but this can be bad for your shoulder joints. If you perform upright rows with a shoulder width or wider grip you won't feel it as much in your joints.
Here's a sample traps workout you can try:
Light workout (15-20 reps)
1-2 sets of barbell or dumbbell shrugs
1-2 sets of upright rows
Medium workout (10-15 reps)
2-3 sets of barbell or dumbbell shrugs
1-2 sets of upright rows
Heavy workout (7-10 reps)
2-3 sets of barbell or dumbbell shrugs
2-3 sets of upright rows
For a complete physique, you need to train the trapezius muscles. These muscles, also known as the traps, are located high up on the upper back to the sides of your neck. When you develop your
