maratoolSmith Machine Behind the Back Shrug
How to do the smith machine behind the back shrug
- With the bar at thigh level, load an appropriate weight.
- Stand with the bar behind you, taking a shoulder-width, pronated grip on the bar and unhook the weight. You should be standing up straight with your head and chest up and your arms extended. This will be your starting position.
- Initiate the movement by shrugging your shoulders straight up. Do not flex the arms or wrist during the movement.
- After a brief pause return the weight to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions before engaging the hooks to rack the weight.
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 deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range.
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
The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.
Every exercise using:Machine
These train the traps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Snatch Shrugbarbell
- Standing Dumbbell Upright Rowdumbbell
- Upright Cable Rowcable
- Upright Row - With Bandsband
- Kettlebell Sumo High Pullkettlebell
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.