Shrugs, also known as shoulder shrugs, are an isolation exercise targeting your trapezius muscles. Perform shrugs by grabbing a pair of dumbbells, barbell, and cable.
Behind the back barbell shrugs are one of the best exercises to build bigger, stronger trapezius muscles. This exercise can be done extremely heavily to thicken the traps that really help you in doing back poses.
The behind the back barbell shoulder shrug exercise is one of the most simplistic and easy trap exercises to perform. It is the classic variation to build massive traps.
Traps, being a stubborn muscle group for many, can be trained with a fairly high frequency during the week.
Behind The Back Barbell Shrugs Benefits
Here are the benefits of a behind the back barbell shrug exercises :
- Muscle strength & growth: Practicing barbell shrug workouts is one of the most effective ways to increase hypertrophy in the back and shoulders.
- Stability & conditioning: behind the back barbell shoulder shrug activates all major areas of the shoulders, making it excellent for upper body stability and conditioning.
- Builds Traps: Traps are tricky to build. There are only a handful of exercises that mainly target your traps.
- Improve your posture. When practiced with proper form, behind the back shoulder shrug help build strength in your upper body stabilizer muscle groups, helping you stand up tall and keep your back straight.
- Stronger traps can help reduce neck pain. Strengthening your traps increases the activation of your shoulder muscles, helping provide better support to your head and neck.
Behind The Back Barbell Shrug
The barbell behind-the-back shoulder shrug is an exercise that targets the traps. Having the bar behind you helps in keeping your shoulders pulled up and back rather than rounded forward.
It is popular in strength and muscle-focused upper-body training and is often trained on a shoulder day.
Muscles Worked
Primary: Upper Trapezius
Secondary: Middle Trapezius, Levator Scapulae
How To Do It
- Stand while holding a barbell with an overhand grip behind your thighs. Both your hands and your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
- Lift your shoulders toward your ears as high as possible while keeping your arms straight.
- Hold the contraction for a second before lowering the bar back to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tips
- Focus on lifting the weight with your traps and not with your biceps.
- Pausing at the top of the barbell shrug makes the exercise more challenging, and you’ll get more out of it.
- Do not roll your shoulders, as this can lead to a shoulder injury.
Some variations of it
Behind the Back Smith Machine Shrug
Behind the back Smith Machine Shrug is the variation of the smith machine shrug. The Smith machine behind-the-back shrug is an upper-body exercise targeting the traps (trapezius muscles).
It is usually performed for moderate to high reps, such as 8-12 reps per set or more, as part of shoulder or trap-focused training.
Muscles Worked
Primary: Upper Trapezius
Secondary: Middle Trapezius, Levator Scapulae
How To Do It
- Stand in a Smith machine holding the unlatched bar with an overhand grip in the back of your thighs. Both your hands and your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
- Lift your shoulders toward your ears as high as possible while keeping your arms straight.
- Hold the contraction for a second before lowering the bar back to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Takeaways
You can do behind the back barbell shrugs to build muscle and strength in your traps.
The constant tension placed on your muscles through a range of motion, allowing progressive overload to take place, leading to strength and muscle gains.
For More Related Articles
- Behind The Back Barbell Shrugs: Muscle Worked & Benefits
- 12 Most Effective Smith Machine Leg Workout & Exercises
- Best Upper Trap Exercises For Muscle Mass and Strength
- Shrug Exercise: Benefits, Variations, Muscles used, Tips
7 Best Shoulder Shrug Variations For Bigger Traps | Shoulder Shrug Workouts
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