Getting big trap muscles is not going to happen with all those heavy deadlifts – they’re just not enough to get you up to par.
Heavy shrugs that make you twitch aren’t going to get the job done either, so here’s a useful tip that will help you improve your shrugs.
The real reason your trapezoids will grow is time spend under tension.
If you do dumbbell shrugs with a hold at the top of the movement lasting for 3-5 seconds, that’s where you’re making progress.
While doing this hold, a simple contraction of the traps produce the best results. Do 10-12 reps per set for four sets and you’re all done.
The math says that when you do 12 shrugs with 3 second holds at the top of the movement, you’ll have 30-40 seconds of extra effort being put in your workout, besides the normal time it takes for you to do a rep.
You can either lift really heavy dumbbells for 20-25 seconds and twitch the entire time, or you can work on your traps for more than a minute each – the results will always come with hard work.
The shrug, as an exercise, has a really short range of motion so if you do it with really heavy weights you won’t put your traps under enough tension for enough time to get any results.
However, when you have that 3-5 second hold, you add an effect impossible to gain otherwise, as far as we know.
To finalize, lighten your lifting loads, put your traps under tension for a longer time and you will have the results you want.
So, get to your gym and don’t be afraid to use some strategy in your workouts – work smarter, not harder and it will definitely pay off in the long run!