maratoolBarbell Shrug Behind The Back
How to do the barbell shrug behind the back
- Stand up straight with your feet at shoulder width as you hold a barbell with both hands behind your back using a pronated grip (palms facing back). Tip: Your hands should be a little wider than shoulder width apart. You can use wrist wraps for this exercise for better grip. This will be your starting position.
- Raise your shoulders up as far as you can go as you breathe out and hold the contraction for a second. Tip: Refrain from trying to lift the barbell by using your biceps. The arms should remain stretched out at all times.
- Slowly return to the starting position as you breathe in.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the trapezius, which shrugs the shoulder blade up, rotates it, and pulls it back down.
Even with a single joint doing the moving, the muscle is not working alone — the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the mid-back retracts the shoulder blades so the shoulder has something solid to work from.
Every exercise for:TrapsForearmsMiddle back
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A barbell locks both hands to one bar, so neither side can drift and the load climbs in plate-sized steps. That makes it the simplest way to add weight and the least forgiving thing to bail out of.
Every exercise using:Barbell
These train the traps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Cable Shoulder Shrugscable
- Calf-Machine Shoulder Shrugmachine
- Dumbbell Shrugdumbbell
- Kettlebell Sumo High Pullkettlebell
- Smith Machine Upright Rowsmith machine + machine
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 18 traps exercises in this database, 12 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.