maratoolSmith Machine Shoulder Shrugs
How to do the smith machine shoulder shrugs
- Place the barbell at waist height.
- Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your abs drawn in.
- Grasp the bar with an overhand grip and straightened arms.
- As you lift the bar allow the weight to pull your shoulders down, shrug your shoulders up and to the back.
- Hold for a moment and then return to starting position.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the deltoids, which raise and rotate the upper arm at the shoulder joint.
Every exercise for:Shoulders
How this movement works
Everything happens at one joint. That gives you direct control over where the tension sits; the trade-off is that the muscle gets no help, so the load that feels hard here is a fraction of what a multi-joint version of the pattern would take. Slow, complete repetitions beat heavy ones.
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 Smith machine runs the bar on a fixed track. You never have to balance it, so you can chase the target muscle harder, but your joints have to accept the path the rails picked.
Every exercise using:Smith machine
These train the shoulders too, using equipment this one does not:
- Standing Alternating Dumbbell Pressdumbbell
- Standing Barbell Press Behind Neckbarbell
- Standing Low-Pulley Deltoid Raisecable
- Standing Two-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
- Two-Arm Kettlebell Cleankettlebell
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.