I am guessing that 3/4 of the reason people can't build traps is because of poor form when doing shrugs and lack of dead lifts. Watch yourself in the mirror. If you are using too much weight, most guys will stick their head forward, making it feel like they are shrugging, when really they just look stupid.
A great alternative to doing damaging upright rows is doing reverse upright rows. Use a curl bar...you don't need much weight at all...hold it behind you. You want to shrug, then pull up slightly with your arms and squeeze. Just tonight I used two 10lbs plates on each side of a 25lbs curl bar and used good form and got a nice feeling from it.