The usual way people do shrugs won't do squat to build traps.

You may be struggling with this yourself.

If so, I've got the secret for you...and no it's not to put a crap-ton of weight on the bar and shrug like somebody's naliing your spine with a cattle prod... ;).

Traps need heavy loading but that they also need time under tension. The range of motion of the shrug is so short (just a few inches) that a normal set of shrugs results in literally just a few seconds of tension and loading.

This won't build traps...they can take a beating and normal technique won't even make a dent.

The key is to make the shrug a three-part movement.

1. Explode up (the traps are fast-twitch muscles) out of the bottom, trying to touch your shoulders to your ears. Don't explode in a way that releases tension, though...explode up while focusing on INCREASING tension all the way up to peak contraction. I like to visualize the traps as a sponge that you're trying to squeeze water out of.

2. HOLD for 3-5 seconds at the top. This is primarily where people go wrong...they immediately lower the weight, dissipating the tension. If you're using too much weight, you have to lower the bar right away because you can't hold it up, so lighten up the weight until you CAN hold at the top.

3. Lower slowly and under control, let the weight pull you down into a stretch at the bottom then repeat for 15 or more reps. This may seem like "high rep training". However, when you look at overall time under tension in a set, because the range of motion is so short, high-reps are actually the "equivalent" of low reps in many other exercises (think of how far the bar moves in a squat compared to a shrug).

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In other words, shrug to work the muscle...don't just shrug to move a weight.

This will help you develop traps like this...like big alien worms in your back.

If you want traps, my friend and colleague, Jedd Johnson, has just released an excellent new program called "Yoketober".

This program lays out every single workout for 31 days for building the traps and upper back...to help you get YOKED.

This great stuff...definitely effective.

You can't fake traps...and throwing in a few sets of shrugs at the end of a workout and hoping for the best is not a strategy that will work.

This program will give you all the guidance you need to build a MONSTER set of traps.