I think the best Trap builder is....

[Bando]

The T-Bar Row.

I took years off from doing this lift as it bothered my elbows and I didn't see where it was helping me. After 6 weeks of doing them I'm happy to see my traps as big as when I was chasing dead PR's.

Your results may vary..

[Little Tim]

BOR's

-or-

Upright rows to collar bone, if you don't really care about your rotator cuff. 


Farmers walks tend to get them fired up as well. 

[Bando]

Farmers walks tend to get them fired up as well.

I've never seen a damn thing from trap specific work, it's when I'm doing something else that they actually grow.

[Trev71]

One armed barbell shrugs.. game on.

[Get-n-fit]

I don't do any direct trap work and my traps continue to grow grow grow.

[FLEX]

Shrugs on the standing calf raise machine.   

[tobymax]

For me it's been deadlifts.

[BigDaddy]

For me it's been good old barbell shrugs.  But you actually have to shrug the weight not just move your neck like a bunch of the guys at my gym. 

[AlexanderOmand]

Farmers carries, superset with Barbell Shrugs.

I love this combo for making the upper back thick and strong.

[Fiend_73]

When I was a gym rat I trained traps with old fashioned BB shrugs.
Then there was so much weight on there and it began to cause certain "impingements" to my nut sack.

Then I started to do them behind the back with the bar braced up against the side of the squat cage, much like a Smith machine.
This removed my nutsack from the equation and seemed to target the traps more directly.

Then I did no direct trap work for a few years...and they didn't shrink.
I also was not doing many deadlifts either.

I just re-started deads and my traps are sore as fuck.


I don't rally care about traps anymore, just as long as the are in alignment with the rest of my body.









and btw...this is a great thread and we should have a series of them for every bodypart-srs
even abs! 

[induced_drag]

Then I started to do them behind the back with the bar braced up against the side of the squat cage, much like a Smith machine.

Anyone who can do behind the back shrugs should not be working traps.....they should be working glutes! 

Proud member of the "There is no way in hell I could ever do a behind the back shrug" club


Oh...and high rep deads I have seen hit my traps harder than ANYTHING.   Farmers are great too, but not part of my regular routine.

[tobymax]

For me it's been good old barbell shrugs.  But you actually have to shrug the weight not just move your neck like a bunch of the guys at my gym.

That cracks me up. Guys pick up heavy dumbbells like 100 lbs, and then stand there and bob their head up and down.

I do shrugs sometimes, but never got the feel of using a barbell, so I use dumbbells.  If I use lighter weight like 50 lb and concentrate on the mind-to-muscle thing with high reps, I can really feel it.  But the ego gets the better of me and I usually go up to 70 or 75 lb db's.  But I don't bob my head.   

[tooth]

I don't do any direct trap work and my traps continue to grow grow grow.

Same here.  I have no neck.  One of my nephews who's 11 looked at me this year at the beach and said "why are your shoulders so high?" 

A few years back I saw an art therapy guy.  He's pretty much worshiped by the local crossfit gyms in my area because they are so prone to fing up their shoulders.  He's a great guy and very knowledgeable.  Fist thing he told me was that my upper traps and lats where way over developed and my lower traps where way underdeveloped.  He was bang on.  Nuthin like a big ol set of traps though.