the Of course we want to take a holistic approach to weightlifting. We want every muscle to be strong and well defined and we want as little fat as possible.  However, very few muscles or muscle groups scream brute strength like the trapezius. Traps, once they are built out, just announce your presence. So where yesterday we focused on arms today we will look at the traps and I will give you a trap burn out that I feel encourages growth and gives your upper body that GET THE FUCK OUT MY WAY look.

Not only do strong and well-defined traps look great, but also there are many practical reasons to isolate and build them up. Having strong traps helps in shoulder and neck injury prevention, which should seem obvious. If you strengthen the muscles that hold your shoulders and neck in place, your chances of injuring them are much less.

Always working traps. Always in the beater.

Further, strong traps are athletically functional for just about every sport from volleyball to boxing to hockey.

Finally, the number one reason you want to work on having great traps is that without them you will simply look silly in your beater. Once you have well defined arms, shoulders and traps the beater goes from simple piece of clothing to a flag of determination.

This year when you are at the beach or at the park and you take off your shirt, I want your traps to be the first thing everyone notices. Because of this, I am going to give you my full trap isolation workout as a challenge below.

The Oak Prioritized Traps (and filled out his beaters)

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you. Also, if you have any tips or tricks to growing strong and well-defined traps, share them below! A lot of people will tell you that traps are a purely genetic thing and there is something to it. Some people just grow traps faster or bigger. But do not let this deter you. Remember, here at WB Fitness we aren’t looking to be stronger or more fit or better built than anyone else. We are aiming at being the strongest, most fit and best built us we can be. With this in mind, do not be discouraged. The workout below will fire up your traps and with proper diet and regular savagery in the gym build them up to your peak potential.

So this weekend on your rest day or, after your Friday workout if you have the time, get in there and fuck this workout up. When you are done you should crawl to the locker and washing your hair should be a chore for the next few days. Trust me, when spring comes and you get out there in your beater you will thank me for pushing you now.

One side note about shrugs. A commonly made mistake is that people will roll their shoulders. This is not just counterproductive in that it doesn’t give you the full benefit of the workout, but is absurdly bad for your shoulder. A shrug, whether it is barbell, dumbbell, behind the back or in the front is a very simple workout that is exactly how it sounds. Shrug your shoulders straight up as far as they will go and then straight down as far as they will go. Do not roll them. Good luck Fellas.

WB FITNESS TRAP WORKOUT

Deadlift 3×12 @9RPE

Two Plate Shrugs 4×25

Behind The Back Barbell Shrugs 4×12 @9RPE

Barbell Upright row 4×20 @9.5RPE (you really want to push this as close to failure as possible)

Cable Face Pull 4×20 @9RPE (on the last set do a drop set AMRAP* all the way down until you can’t feel the weight)

Dumbbell Push Press 4×12@9RPE

Dumbbell Shrug RUN THE RACK**

*As Many Reps As Possible

**Running the rack on the dumbbell shrug is the absolute best finisher to this workout. You go and grab the heaviest dumbbell you can shrug. Hopefully it will be a one rep max if the gym doesn’t have dumbbells this heavy then go to the heaviest and AMRAP it. Then go to the next lightest set of dumbbells and AMRAP that. Then to the next and AMRAP that. Do this all the way down until you get to the lightest dumbbells in the gym…even if they are just 1 pounders. I have done this starting at 200 pound dumbbells and by the time I got to the 1 pound dumbbell I was hardly able to do 2 or 3 reps of it.