Did you ever see Tom Hardy and wish that you had his traps?
I am going to show you in this video how, with one training secret, you can see his
traps in the mirror every single day.
What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM
Today we're going to talk about one of the hottest topics now, even though the movie
is old now, Batman.
Tom Hardy is still one of the most popular guys in Hollywood, and people talk about guys
in our community that like to lift weights, they're talking about mostly not just his
whole physique but mostly his traps.
And there is a training secret that you can use when you're doing your traps that isn't
all that secret, but I think guys are really missing the point.
A lot of times I think there are two mistakes that I think people are making.
Number one, they do barbell shrugs as opposed to dumbbell shrugs, and I'll show you the
reason why.
If you do a barbell shrug, you're pretty much limited by the position of the bar of how
far back you can go.
So most of the time guys are doing their shrugs straight up and down.
And again this might look pretty familiar if this is what you're doing, or guys that
do behind the back shrugs.
But again you're limited as to how much you can actually move the bar.
Right?
It's a little bit awkward to be gripping it behind you and pulling it up, and here you're
limited by your thighs as to how far you can move the bar back.
The reason why that's a big deal is you have to understand what the traps do.
They don't just elevate the shoulders or the scapula upward, but they also retract the
scapula and pull them back.
So unless you have that component in the exercises that you're doing to train your traps, you're
not going to have the elevation that you want or the development that you want on them.
So we've switched to dumbbells and importantly we do something very different with the dumbbells
when we do the shrug.
So when I grab a set of dumbbells here, I will turn to the side first, what it allows
me to do, is not just pull up.
Ok?
When I pull up, I'm actually kind of doing this with a rounded shoulder because that's
really the tendency that guys have to develop that forward posture.
We don't want to go just up, we also want to go back, ok, because retracting at the
same that we elevate we really contract the traps at time that we elevate, will really
contract the traps.
And understand that guys, I say it all the time, you want to contract the muscle that
you are working.
Ok,so if I turn, you're going to be able to see the difference.
Here is a normal shrug with dumbbells or with the barbells with my hands in front of me.
I shrug up, ok, definitely getting some activation up there, but not what we could do if we get
the retraction at the same time.
So here we go, from here, retract and back.
Ok so I can squeeze the traps.
So I can squeeze back, rotating back, so you see here it is rotating up and then up.
And then up, ok, so if you look at it again, then you see the big difference.
That is actual true trap activation and that is going to lead to true trap development.
So a lot of times we find ourselves in the gym just going through our workouts but not
really thinking about each movement that we're doing or even every rep on the exercise that
we're doing, and it is an important point I think that we need to address and correct.
And with AthleanX, what I try to do is focus on those smaller things, because those smaller
things done repetitively will add up to big differences in how you look and the results
you can see from your training.
So even though, people say, Jeff you're a physical therapist so you're going to nitpick
on those things, it is because that's what is going to lead to the best end result and
that's what I want for you.
So, guys if you haven't already, head over to AthleanX.com right now.
Grab the training program that the top guys are using to get into the best shape of their
lives.
Some of our top row athletes, they need a big strong foundation up here, but they also
need strength everywhere else.
Power, and I show them how to do it.
And then I show you how to do it, also.
I will see you guys back here in 7 days.
In the meantime, I'll see you over at AthleanX.com.