Lee Haney and Richard Gaspari used to be the ultimate training partners, with the duo still being talked about in the world of bodybuilding. They started training together in the year 1984 when Haney was set on winning his first title of Mr. Olympia and Gaspari had his eyes on the NPC Nationals and the Amateur World Championships to acquire his pro card.

In his initial days, the Itch had a blocky heavy body and was in the process of transforming it so that he could become lightweight and have an aesthetic physique. In one of their podcast together, Haney revealed why he chose the New Jersey bodybuilder to be his training partner. He said, “I saw the hunger and desire in Rich, that was very unique.” Gaspari is still deeply inspired by his training sessions with the 8x Mr. Olympia and continues to implement the lessons he learned from Haney, as seen in a recent post.

Twist in the contemporary?

Gaspari reveals that Haney’s favorite exercise for his traps was the behind-the-back shrugs. This is a rather novel way of doing shrugs as displayed by The Dragon Slayer on his Instagram profile. He posted a video of him working out to it and said, “Smith Machine behind the back shrugs with a drop set. Behind the back shrugs I learned from @lee_haney_official which was his favorite trap exercise.”

However, even with the Haney twist Gaspari brings about a little edge and takes on his own set. He says, “My variation is done with the Smith Machine. You get a much better contraction on traps done from behind. Drop sets hit the muscle deep. Heavy weight and dropping the weights and on last drop set do really strict form on the last drop set. 3 sets of 10 increasing weight each set until the last set and heaviest weight with the drop set.”

What really is the twist?

In the video, Gaspari is seen doing the shrugs from behind using the Smith machine. While this is a common technique, what changes here is he puts the bar behind him, instead of putting it upfront.

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Another effective twist that he is seen implementing in his workout is the drop set. For his last set, the Itch starts off with fewer repetitions of the heavyweight and then completely drops down the weight to the lowest and pulls out as many reps as possible. A significant mention of the drop set made by him is about maintaining the posture in the last set, which actually works on conditioning and building the trap muscle.

What do you think about the behind-the-back shrugs in the Smith machine with the drop set? Let us know in the comments!

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