Josh Bowmar explains and demonstrates how to train your traps without doing shrugs. Shrugs are NOT the most effective way to build your traps. Josh Bowmar shares his best trap training tip, so if you want to build those traps, listen up! Let’s start with the fact that you can only see about 25% of your traps from the front of your body. Building your traps to be more noticeable is not as hard as it seems; you just need to focus on training from the top down. Try focusing more on your upper neck and insertion of your traps, this will help make them bigger. Josh Bowmar’s favorite ways to train his traps are the exercises below and any static holding movements like rack pulls.
Grab a moderate amount of weight. It doesn’t need to be super heavy. Sit on a bench and hold your weight in your hands, keeping your hands down by your sides. Then, turn your knuckles facing forward and put your hands close to the back of your legs as demonstrated in the video at the bottom of this post. Once you are in that position, you will want to roll your shoulders forward because it helps flex your traps. This helps put tension on your occipital protuberance (the upper part of your neck). Then you roll your head back and tuck your chin. You will feel all that tension on your neck and traps. Do it over and over untilyou can’t anymore. This will help define and build your trap muscles!
What is a rack pull?
This exercise can be performed on a power rack with the barbell on the pins. You start out just like you are doing a deadlift. Grip the bar in the most comfortable position for you. You can do a mixed grip or a hammer grip. With this exercise, you want a lot of weight! Make sure your positioning is correct and your back is arched. When you stand up with the weight in your hands, pull your shoulders back to make sure you are hitting those traps!
CLICK HERE to see Josh Bowmar explain and demonstrate this trap tip and workout!