what are the main muscles stronglifts leaves behind?

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hamlet1222
hamlet1222 Posts: 459 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I notice my trapezius lagging behind the rest of my upper body - wondering whether to add shrugs - or will the deadlifts and rows them as the weight increases - if my grip doesn't go first.

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  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
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    Lats. Rows and deads hit them a bit but you really need either pull-ups or lat pulldowns to target the lats.

    Traps are built with deads and rows. Not to say you couldn't hit them a bit more but I wouldn't go past 2-3 sets of trap specific exercises.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,210 Member
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    calves
  • kerbeya1
    kerbeya1 Posts: 53 Member
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    hamlet1222 wrote: »
    I notice my trapezius lagging behind the rest of my upper body - wondering whether to add shrugs - or will the deadlifts and rows them as the weight increases - if my grip doesn't go first.

    Big threearegoi hit legs chest and lower back for the most part so most everything is going fall behind.
  • piperdown44
    piperdown44 Posts: 958 Member
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    kerbeya1 wrote: »
    hamlet1222 wrote: »
    I notice my trapezius lagging behind the rest of my upper body - wondering whether to add shrugs - or will the deadlifts and rows them as the weight increases - if my grip doesn't go first.

    Big threearegoi hit legs chest and lower back for the most part so most everything is going fall behind.

    Do you even SL?

    Two body parts are listed that have limited engagement and that's about it.

    Deads-hamstrings, glutes and lower back along with upper back, forearms and core.
    Squats-quads, glutes, hamstrings plus core
    Bench-tris, pecs and front delts
    OHP-delts, tri's and, done properly, engage the core
    Rows-upper back, bi's and limited to a bit of lats and traps

    Throw in some pull-ups and you've got lats, upper back and more bi's
    Throw in calves-well you got calves.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    what are the main muscles stronglifts leaves behind?
    Your heart.
  • hamlet1222
    hamlet1222 Posts: 459 Member
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    piperdown44 wrote: »
    Lats. Rows and deads hit them a bit but you really need either pull-ups or lat pulldowns to target the lats.

    Traps are built with deads and rows. Not to say you couldn't hit them a bit more but I wouldn't go past 2-3 sets of trap specific exercises.

    Yeah, I can feel these hitting my traps, but they're not the first point of failure. On the rows it's the little squeeze in middle of the back at the top that I fail on first, and for deadlifts everything else seems to fail at the same time (before traps) - I'm hoping once these weaker muscles have strengthened then I'll start seeing some growth on the trap. But then a friend of mine whose been doing deadlifts for years says his hand grip is what let's him down now on these.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    Dead-lift, rows, and OHP all should hit the traps. If you want to do some accessory work for traps than shrugs are an option. The main problem with shrugs is that they have a miniscule range of motion. But they probably isolate the upper traps better than almost any other exercise. Just remember that shrugs are an accessory exercise like bicep curls. Don't let them detract from your primary lifts.

    Reverse fly, pull ups, face pulls, and dips all hit the traps to some extent too.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
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    No program is perfect and something will always be not trained as optimally as something else. The Traps is not one muscle that would come to mind though when thinking about SL's. The deadlift will train them isometrically, the barbell row will hit the portion of the traps that extend into your upper back, and the shoulder press will also target the upper portion as well.

    I don't know that any real muscle groups are missed with SL. Even calves are pretty heavily recruited in the Squat; look-up EMG studies on the Squat and Peak Muscle Activation, you'll be surprised at the results. Spoiler... calves are usually the 2nd highest in peak muscle contraction even over the quads.

    I think the non-optimal side of SL's is that there's no focus on unilateral work. If I were going to implement something similar one of the Squat days would be dropped for some kind of Lunge or Step-up but in the Frontal or Transverse plane of motion, just to help work on overall movement and function. I would also add 1 Ab exercise in at least 1 of the 3 weekly sessions. Deadlifts and Squats are the best for the posterior Core muscles but that's not true of the anterior Core muscles. Chin-ups would also be added on the days you don't Row, but that's just my opinion on what I would do.
  • hamlet1222
    hamlet1222 Posts: 459 Member
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    Thanks, I already do chin-ups, and my calves I'm happy with. I'm thinking of adding some weighted abs work for the rectus abdominis because I was also feeling sl wasn't quite hitting that. But really it's the traps that I feel look poor, I'll look to add in some reverse flies and shrugs, and may ease up on the chest a bit (possibly overdeveloped compared to the rest - I always loved whaling on my pecs
  • conniedj
    conniedj Posts: 470 Member
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    After doing SL for a quite a while, I felt like I needed more core rotation to get my core to tighten up:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=k--dW53UQWs _This is one of my faves.

    I would do hanging leg raises over weighted ab work.....

    I also like just plain old back hyperextension <even after DL's> to ....But that's me!

    I agree with pull ups.....and a then supersetting those with DB curls.....

  • armylife
    armylife Posts: 196 Member
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    OP, in another post last week you said you only workout once every five days or so. I am slightly confused as to how you think the SL programme has been leaving a part of your body lagging behind if you have not been following the program as it was written.

    As I approached the end of my time doing SL a few years ago I noticed that I was starting to lack some grip strength, so I added towel chin ups and some direct grip work. I also started Olympic lifting and moved to using a hook grip which improved my grip strength, or at least the amount I could lift. If you are struggling with grip, as your post seems to indicate you might be, you may benefit from direct grip work. In addition to tha, any addition to SL becomes, in the words of Rippetoe, "not doing the program".

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