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The trapezius is the visual center of the upper back and ties together the neck, delts, and lats. Traps play an especially important role during contest prep because they are visible during both front and rear poses.
It is important to keep your trapezius development in proportion with the rest of your body. If they appear too high or slope down to abruptly, it will make your deltoids appear smaller than they really are.
As a described in an earlier post, most beginners should begin training using heavy compound movements to build a solid foundation. Compound movements such as upright rows and deadlifts will definitely put stress on your traps and lead to muscle growth. Lateral raises also stress the traps at the bottom of the movement.
As you advance in your bodybuilding training you can begin adding heavy barbell and dumbbell shrugs. These can be performed from the front or rear.
I train traps after shoulders because they are slightly involved in many shoulder exercises I perform. I usually perform 2 exercises of around 3-4 sets each. For others struggling to build up your traps I would add in another exercise to target the trapezius. Mine respond very well to heavy weight so I don’t have to train them with many sets.
To really get the most growth out of your trap training, you should really invest in some lifting straps. These will allow to focus on letting your traps do all the work and not focusing on holding onto the dumbbell or barbell. Also unless you have crazy man grip, you will be able to shrug more weight using straps. I can almost double my total wight on barbell shrugs with the use of straps. I will provide a link at the bottom for Valeo lifting straps. I have used them for years and never have had a problem. Plus they are only $3.
If you have no clue on how to perform shrugs, here is a video from bodybuilding.com showing smith machine shrugs.
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