How to Do Barbell Shrugs + Benefits and Alternatives

The barbell shrug is a weighted exercise that targets the trapezius muscles to help your shoulders grow. In this exercise, you raise your shoulders toward your ears, holding a barbell in front of your thighs in an overhand grip.

This is one of the best shoulder-strengthening exercises you can perform. It isolates the trapezius muscle group as your muscles contract. Barbell shrugs are a great way to promote growth in your trapezius muscles.

Using this move, you can start to build stronger shoulders, improve the look of your upper back and get more shoulder stability. Strengthening your shoulders also helps you to prevent shoulder injuries to the area. It can help with strengthening your muscles and building up skeletal muscle for a stronger frame.

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How-to

Stand and hold a barbell with a shoulder-width overhand grip.
Draw your shoulder blades backwards and downwards, then shrug your shoulders upwards as high as possible, keeping your arms straight. Briefly hold.
Slowly lower the barbell until your shoulders are neutral.

Muscle Worked

Primary Muscle Groups

Traps

Lie on the floor and place a foam roller below your traps and above your shoulder blades.

Secondary Muscle Groups

Forearms

The forearms help you grip objects and move your hands, wrists and fingers

Middle Back

The middle back helps you rotate your torso

Shoulders

Your shoulders are ball-and-socket joints which connect your arms to your torso

Upper Back

Lie on the floor and place a foam roller below your traps and above your shoulder blades.

Pro Tips

Make sure to squeeze hard at the top of the exercise.
Hold this move at the top momentarily to increase your time under tension.
Don't raise your arms in front of you.

Equipments

Barbell

A barbell is a long metal bar with space for weight plates on each end used for weightlifting

Benefits

Barbell shrugs strengthen your trapezius muscles.
Barbell shrugs help you build bigger shoulders.

Variations

The following exercises target the same primary muscles using the same equipment:

What Is the Barbell Row

What is a Barbell Shoulder Press?

Alternatives

The following exercises target the same primary muscles using different equipment:

Barbell Clean and Press

How to Do a Single-Arm Lat Pulldown

What is Incline Dumbbell Chest Flys?

What is the Face Pull Exercise?

Warm Up & Cool Down

Warm Up

This dynamic shoulder warm-up helps you create some movement in the shoulder joints, stimulating the surrounding muscles to prepare for more intense exercise.

Roll each arm at the shoulder joint in circles. Start small, increasing the size of the circles until you are making wide arm circles.
Reverse the direction of your arm circles, starting with big circles and getting smaller.

Cool Down

This stretch involves pulling the arm laterally across your body to stretch out your shoulders and upper back.

Pull one arm across the body with the other to stretch your shoulder.
Hold for 10 seconds or as needed.
Repeat on the other side.

Barbell Shrugs— Exercise

How-to