maratoolBarbell Shrug
How to do the barbell shrug
- Stand up straight with your feet at shoulder width as you hold a barbell with both hands in front of you using a pronated grip (palms facing the thighs). Tip: Your hands should be a little wider than shoulder width apart. You can use wrist wraps for this exercise for a 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.
- 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.
Every exercise for:Traps
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.