maratoolClean Shrug
How to do the clean shrug
- Begin with a shoulder width, double overhand or hook grip, with the bar hanging at the mid thigh position. Your back should be straight and inclined slightly forward.
- Shrug your shoulders towards your ears. While this exercise can usually by loaded with heavier weight than a clean, avoid overloading to the point that the execution slows down.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the trapezius, which shrugs the shoulder blade up, rotates it, and pulls it back down.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
How this movement works
The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.
It is filed under olympic weightlifting. The bar must move fast enough for you to get underneath it, which makes this a skill rather than a grind: low repetitions, well short of where fatigue starts editing technique.
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:
- Dumbbell Shrugdumbbell
- Kettlebell Sumo High Pullkettlebell
- Leverage Shrugmachine
- Smith Machine Upright Rowsmith machine + machine
- Upright Cable Rowcable
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.