5 Best Tom Hardy Traps Exercises

If you have seen Tom Hardy in Warrior or The Dark Knight Rises, you must have wondered how he got that giant muscular body. While a lot of actors put on fake skins on them to look muscular, Hardy actually built it all. The most significant features of his upper body has got to be those giant traps which many believe to be genetically, but actually is the result of some immense gym workouts we're just going to look at.

 Tom Hardy or Edward Thomas Hardy, 36, is an English actor mostly known by his role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. He's not a bodybuilder, just an actor who's got the same amount of motivation and dedication towards bodybuilding.

Tom Hardy's transformation is mind blowing. The picture below gives us a better idea of it. These shots his body and after the Warrior workout.

For the role of Bane in Dark Knight Rises, Hardy had to put up a total of 30 pounds of pure muscle in less than 3 months - and he did it, under the training of Patrick Monroe who made Tom follow an extremely difficult workout plan by working out 4 times a day.

Throughout the day you need to send constant signals to your body, so that it adapts in the direction you point it in. It's better to do 10 press-ups every hour than 100 in a single burst. If you do things often enough, your body adapts for the task you set it, and you evolve, says Monroe - Tom's trainer

Traps don't get massively huge overnight. No matter how hard or how much you train, you've got to give your body some time and a good diet to grow up. Hardy is one example where time wasn't much taken care of but the objective was achieved.

He worked when he woke up, at lunch, before dinner and before going to bed. By following certain techniques like "training moves not muscles" by focusing on fighting positions while lifting and "confusing your muscles" by trying different exercise positions, he almost achieved the impossible.

To get in shape like Tom, your body will require a good and balanced diet with special focus given to protein since we are talking about building muscle (depends upon your body).

Enough wait, now let's take a look at Tom's traps exercises which can help anyone get massive traps if followed properly.

1. Trap Bar Deadlift 

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Deadlift is among the best compound exercises that hits your back, chest and arms. One variation of the exercises is using a trap bar which has parallel holders. The procedure is simple. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart holding the trap bar in both hands and stand like in a normal deadlift position.

2. Dumbbell Shrugs

Shrugs is another powerful exercises for building up traps. It also acts on the shoulders. While shrugs can seem easy at start, on a higher weight, it becomes harder to complete a set.

To do shrugs, hold dumbbells in each hand with palms facing your torso and hand extended on the sides. Lift the dumbbells by elevating your shoulders as high as possible. Hold the position for a second or two and slowly move your shoulders to the starting position.

3. Sumo High Pull

Sumo high pull can be done with either a kettlebell or dumbbells. Position your feet in a wide stance and hold the kettlebag or dumbbells with both hands. Bend your knees while keeping your hips as far as possible and chest and head straight up. 

Extend the hips and knees while simultaneously pulling the weight to your shoulders. Reverse the motion to complete a repetition.

4. Snatch Shrugs

Snatch shrugs are similar to dumbbell shrugs but are usually done with barbell and the hands are kept wide.

Keeping your back erect and inclined slightly forward, hold a barbell with a wide grip and shrug your shoulders to the ears. Slowly move them back.

5. Shoulder Flies 180 Degrees 

This exercise is a variation of the standard shoulder flies aka shoulder flies 90 degrees. Here instead of lifting 90 degrees, you pull your arms further to the top thereby moving at 180 degrees from the start position.
Building muscle is not easy. Yes it requires some guts and power but the real thing that matters is the motivation you got. Without motivation and dedication towards exercise, your body won't grow.

The exercises mentioned work amazingly on traps. Make sure to add them to your workout routine and let us know the results.