Bodybuilder Wesley Vissers is determined to become a two-time Arnold Classic champion. On January 5, 2025, he shared his top four exercises for building the traps ahead of the 2025 Arnold Classic that takes place from February 27 to March 2 in Columbus, Ohio.
Wesley Vissers has quickly become a household name in the IFBB Classic Physique division. He strung together impressive performances last season, laying claim to victories at the 2024 Arnold Classic Ohio and UK competitions.
Although he was considered a frontrunner to dethrone Chris Bumstead at the last Olympia show, his peak didn’t materialize as planned. Instead, Vissers lacked the leg volume needed for title contention and ultimately landed in eighth place, a shocking result considering the hype he brought into the event. With a goal of redemption fueling his every repetition, he walked through the trap exercises he’s using to become a two-time Arnold Classic champion.
Wesley Vissers’ Top 4 Trap Exercises
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Find his exercises below:
- Seated Row (Leaned Back)
- Lat Pulldown Machine (Leaned Back)
- Iso Lateral High Row Machine
- Dumbbell shrugs
Leaned Back Seated Row
To begin the YouTube video, Vissers laid out how to effectively train the traps using the seated row machine.
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“How are you going to train the traps on the seated row? Well, all you’re going to need is an attachment that is about at shoulder-width with a neutral grip like this. That will target and allow you to actually pull back the shoulder blades,” he explains.
He explained that lifters can target the upper back with this machine by leaning back.
“We want to target the upper back so you’re actually going to do a leaned back seated row. This is if you don’t have access to a high row machine for example. You lean back a little bit, and really go into the traps like this.”
“If you really want to make sure you’re doing this correctly, contract for a half a second, stay in there, then slowly go back into the stretch.”
Leaned Back Lat Pulldown Machine
Vissers emphasized why leaning back produces a greater stimulus for the traps on the lat pulldown.
“What you want to do with a lat pulldown is normally, you want to focus on the lats and pull it down with a straight back like this, this really pulls the lats into contraction.
However, just like with the seated row, you can very easily angle your back like this, pull yourself backwards, and also the same thing, pull it towards your upper chest and bring those shoulder blades together. That is a secret of training the traps,” he shared.
Iso Lateral High Row Machine
Aiming for trap thickness, Vissers stands by the utility of the iso lateral high row machine.
“A lot of people don’t realize you can really target the traps with this one quite a lot. The upper back and the traps are kind of synonymous if you have big traps, you will have a big upper back, that thickness is what we’re looking for.”
For the best results, he said to pull back with the shoulder blades and make use of the chest support.
“What you want to do is find a machine with a chest support like this, so you can really pull your upper body into this chest support instead of thinking of rowing the arms back, think about putting your upper body, pulling it and pushing it forward allowing the arms to go backward just like this.”
“Pull back the shoulder blades, so really use the chest support, push yourself against it, push your arms back like this.”
Dumbbell Shrugs
As for dumbbell shrugs, he believes in using heavier weight and pulling them back for a better contraction while keeping the arms straight.
“Grab dumbbell that are nice and heavy but instead of going straight up, we are actually going to pull them back like this that way you get a much better contraction.
Then, make sure you don’t un-straighten your arm too much because a lot of people do this, that’s the biceps. What you want to do is use the traps to go all the way back and all the way down.”
He advocates for a bounce at the bottom of each repetition and shared that some lifters find success with a ‘rotation motion.’
“Bounce a little in the bottom to force the stretch a little more and contract,” he shares. “You can also do it in a rotation motion.”
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The pressure is on Wesley Vissers to turn in a memorable performance at the 2025 Arnold Classic. It won’t be an easy event to win as he must get through Mike Sommerfeld, who recently pushed Bumstead en route to second place at the Mr. Olympia.
Fans look forward to seeing what Vissers has in store for his opponents when he makes his way back to the Arnold Classic. Fitness Volt will have live coverage of the action.
Watch the full video from the Wesley Vissers YouTube channel below:
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