Is it possible to REDUCE the size of a muscle through weightlifting

aoa321

Hi,

I know next to nothing about weightlifting, I started lifting a little over the last few months and I'm fairly impressed by what it has done to my body.

I try to keep things really simple, basically 3 sets of 12 reps for an exercise, if I keep increasing the weight over time I see some gains.

However I do seem to have freakishly large Trapezius muscles, totally out of proportion with the rest of my skinny yet podgy body. Like I say I am making gains on my shoulders and arms and I think it looks good but purely in the interests of aesthetics I would like to make sure that my Traps get no larger or even decrease them slightly.

Is there anything any of you folks can suggest? Lots of reps of a certain exercise with small weights? Or perhaps I'm talking through my hat. I realise a good plan would be to build up the rest of my body to be in proportion and perhaps that's a god plan, however I'd still be interested in knowing the answer to the question - is there a way of reducing the size of a muscle through weights?

rubadub

If there is a way I would imagine it is unadvisable. Probably overtraining them to the point where they breakdown.

Just stop working them, what exercises do you do?

because_I_can

there is a way, a couple of hundred reps in one set very light weight and dont get any protein in afterwards. But why would you want to?

the traps are the sexiest muscle group there. They can never be too big. Until you cant see your ears from behind!
Just bring everything else upto par.

Unless you are trying to get under a weight limit, forget about it.

This guys traps are out of proportion too but i doubt many ppl would complain if they had his body or his medals

The one thing is dont build your traps with shrugs. Anyone can build big traps like this and it gives the impression you are strong, but you mightnt be. Cleans are the best trap builder and you'll be damn strong from it

wasabi

Nope, no way to use weights to reduce a muscle's size, and high reps with a low weight won't make it smaller. That's a myth (edit, didn't think of what because i can said, that might work but it'd be daft).

Could the large traps be due to a postural issue, or could a postural problem be making them look larger? A rounded upper back and a forward head could do it - really common in people who work with computers. A good trainer should be able to tell you.

Otherwise, have a read of the Neanderthal No More articles, linked from here, a fair way down the page:
http://forums.menshealth.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/855109121/m/156108723

because_I_can

can you explain why its a myth?

wasabi

The only way to make a muscle smaller is to reduce the intensity with which you'd train it AFAIK, and if the OP hasn't been training his traps then just adding in high rep exercises wouldn't make any diff. Mind you as I said in my edit the thought of deliberately breaking down the muscle and avoiding protein after had not occurred to me.

g'em

wasabi wrote:

Mind you as I said in my edit the thought of deliberately breaking down the muscle and avoiding protein after had not occurred to me.

Even by avoiding protein after high rep low intensity work it won't reduce the size of the muscles, they'll just fail to grow any bigger. The only way to make them smaller is to let them atrophy (waste) by avoiding direct and indirect use of them. This would pretty much entail doing no upper body work at all though!!

Your traps are really quite big muscles that extend from high up on the nape of the neck, around where the hairline is, across the shoulders and down to the midline of the back:



Heavy pulling movements (shrugs, cleans, snatches, deadlifts) will all work the traps reasonably directly, and some people's traps respond very quickly to this kind of lifting (my own are the same- I've done virtually no direct trap work like shrugs, but thanks to heavy DLs I have rather large traps). As bIc said, it's actually a very, very good look!! And they'll help with the heavier lifts no end. So don't worry about it too much- jsut get some heavy DLs into you to bring the width of your back up correspondingly

Dragan

Right, if you just started working out and your traps are coming along quickly then it means your

A) Trap dominant , in that you traps are very strong so being recruited a LOT for various lifts ( the body will always try and use the strongest muscles to achieve the goal you are giving it )
Using ****ty form and forcing the load through the PC for just about everything.

As Cause said, the traps are the sexiest part of the body, no doubt so you should be thinking how to bring up everything else in par with them!! Personally I love my big meaty traps and the fact that you can see them through pretty much whatever I happen to be wearing at the time!!! You'd see Cause's through a suit of armour FFS!!!!

So, get your form checked, post your program and lets see if you putting excessive load through a naturally strong muscle group?

brianthebard

I'd love to hear your workout OP, if its making you TOO big then I definitely want to try it out!!!

davyjose

If you use correct form and keep going the way you are, it'll all even out. Your traps will plateau a little, and your other muscles will start to grow a bit more. But don't get rid of what gains you have made there - work harder in other areas. As the guys said, you are doing well to have big traps.

aoa321

Everbody,

Thank you very much for all the very helpful advice and opinion, if you're all going to be this helpful I'm going to post more questions here !!!

I'm very new to weight training. A couple of years ago I decided to get fit again in my mid thirties, mostly through road running. Since then my best 5K is about 20 mins, and my best 10K about 44 mins.

I tried weight training for the first time last year, (initially as part of a circuit training class) now I do a bit on my own, I like it, it's great for my overall health and fitness - however I'm pretty clueless about it.

So clueless in fact that I don't even know what ...

Dragan wrote:

Using ****ty form and forcing the load through the PC for just about everything.

means !!

Anyway the question was as much theoretical as practical and you've answered it.

brianthebard wrote:

I'd love to hear your workout OP, if its making you TOO big then I definitely want to try it out!!!

Now I see how I might have given the wrong impression but I've seen the contributions and workouts of some of the posters here. I've also come across some of you guys and gals on other forums and if you all think that I'm going to make a holy show of myself by posting my twice-a-week-try-to-get-something-done-when-the-kids-are-gone-to-bed-programme for comparison with yours ... well youze have another thing coming !!

Thanks for all replies.

brianthebard

Roffles that's ok, its just rare that you would hear someone complaining about getting to big. Most likely as already pointed out your traps have just responded better than the rest of your body at the minute. Perhaps your traps used to be big when you were younger and they "remember" that?

Oh and I'm still haven't posted my workout and diet yet, but hopefully will this week, I want some feedback.