Smith Machine Shrug: Muscle Worked, Benefits & Alternate

If you want to learn more about the Smith machine shoulder shrug exercise and include it in your workouts for a stronger, better-looking traps. Then you are at the right place, here we will discuss in detail the smith shrug exercises.

If you neglect your traps and fail to strengthen them alongside the other muscles in your back, it can lead to poor posture, decreased performance, and even injury down the line.

If you do smith machine shoulder shrugs to make your traps stronger and more balanced, you’ll be able to lift more weight and do better overall.

In this blog post, we will dive into the following Topic.

  • What is Smith Machine Shrug
  • Its Benefits
  • Smith Machine Shrugs Muscles Worked
  • How To Do It Properly
  • Its Alternates

What is Smith Machine Shrug

The Smith machine shrug is perhaps the go-to movement when looking to tone or add mass to the trapezius muscle, specifically the upper traps.

The Smith machine is a piece of weightlifting equipment that consists of a barbell attached to a set of rails. The barbell moves up and down along the rails, allowing you to perform a variety of exercises in a fixed path of motion.

The Smith machine offers the advantage of providing stability and control during the exercise. It allows you to focus on strengthening the trap muscles without worrying about balance or keeping the weight stable.

It is usually performed for moderate to high reps, such as 8-12 reps per set or more, as part of shoulder training or trap-focused training.

Smith Machine Shrugs Benefits

Here are the benefits of a doing shoulder shrug exercises on smith machine:

  • Practicing smith shrug workouts is one of the most effective ways to increase hypertrophy in the back and shoulders.
  • Traps are tricky to build. There are only a handful of exercises that mainly target your traps. Smith machine shrugs are one of the most effective and incredible exercises that targets your traps and shoulders.
  • The shrug aids in enhancing the strength of the stabilizer muscles of the upper body. This helps you stand up tall and keep your back straight.
  • A study has shown that shrugging helps relieve shoulder and neck pain. Strengthening your traps increases the activation of your shoulder muscles, which in turn helps provide better support to your head and neck
  • A Smith machine may let you lift more weight because you can focus on lifting (shrugging) the weight instead of balancing (this machine locks the bar in a fixed pathway).

Smith Machine Shrugs Muscles Worked

The smith machine shrug, primarily muscle worked Upper Trapezius

In addition to its target, the main upper trap muscles. The smith machine has the involvement of several other muscles, these muscles include,

Smith Machine Shrugs Muscles Worked

How To Do Shrug On Smith Machine

  1. Stand inside the Smith machine with your feet shoulder-width apart. The barbell should be positioned at waist height.
  2. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Your palms should be facing your body.
  3. Stand up straight, keeping your core engaged and your back in a neutral position.
  4. Lift your shoulders toward your ears as high as possible while keeping your arms straight.
  5. Hold the contracted position for a brief moment, emphasizing the squeeze in your upper back muscles.
  6. Slowly lower your shoulders back down to the starting position in a controlled manner. Avoid letting the weight drop or bouncing at the bottom of the movement.
  7. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Smith Machine Shrug

Best Tips and Form For Machine Shrug

  • Focus on lifting the weight with your traps, not by your biceps.
  • Stand up straight with your core engaged and your back in a neutral position.
  • Pausing at the top of the smith shrug makes the exercise more challenging, and you’ll get more out of it.
  • The shrug is a simple up-and-down movement; don’t roll your shoulders—it doesn’t provide any extra muscle stimulation and actually increases the chance of getting hurt.
  • Exhale when you lift your shoulders and inhale when you lower them.
  • Don’t bend your elbow as you lift weights. Keep your arms straight as you try to touch your traps to your ears.
Know More: Shrug Exercise: Benefits, Variations, Muscles Used, Tips

Smith Shrug Variations

There are several variations of Smith machine shrugs that offer unique benefits and can help target different areas of the upper back.

1. Smith Machine Behind-the-Back Shrug

Behind-the-Back Smith Machine Shrugs are a variation of the traditional shrugs, where you do the exercise with the barbell behind your back.

In this variation, an additional emphasis is placed on the lower 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.

Smith Machine Behind-the-Back Shrug

How To Do Behind The Back Smith Machine Shrug

  1. Adjust the Smith machine barbell to an appropriate height, ensuring it is behind your back.
  2. Hold the unlatched bar in a Smith machine with an overhand grip on the back of your thighs.
  3. Both your hands and your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
  4. Lift your shoulders toward your ears as high as possible while keeping your arms straight.
  5. Hold the contraction for a second before lowering the bar back to the starting position.
  6. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

2. One Arm Smith Machine Shrug

One-Arm smith machine shrugs allow you to address any strength or size imbalances between the left and right trapezius muscles.

Focusing on one side at a time will ensure balanced development and improve overall symmetry.

One Arm Machine Shrug

How To Do One Arm Machine Shrug

  1. Adjust the Smith machine barbell height to an appropriate height.
  2. Stand inside the Smith machine with your feet shoulder-width apart.
  3. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip using only one hand.
  4. Lift your shoulder on the side of the arm you’re working with up as high as you can. Then squeeze the trapezius muscle.
  5. Hold this position for a while. Then lower your arm back down in a controlled manner.
  6. Repeat the exercise for the desired number of repetitions, then switch to the other arm.

Best Alternate or Substitutes of Smith Machine Shrug

Before we deep dive into the best smith shrug alternatives. We must remember, a good machine shrug alternative will be able to satisfy the following criteria:

  • Activate the trap’s muscle groups, which are trained in the shrug.
  • Isolate the muscle groups during execution
  • Train the trap muscle through a longer range of motion

1. Barbell Shrug

The Barbell Shrug is 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 barbell shoulder shrug exercise is one of the most simplistic and easy trap exercises to perform. You can do the shrug either using a dumbbell, Barbell, and smith machine. But the barbell variation is the classic variation to build massive traps.

2. Cable Shrug

The cable shrug is a variation of the shoulder shrug and one of the best trap exercises that are utilized to build the trapezius muscle of the upper back.

It’s one of the best exercises for isolating the traps and offers versatility to further improve development.

3. Farmer’s Walk

Farmer’s walk involves walking while holding heavy dumbbells or kettlebells in each hand. This exercise engages the entire body, including the trapezius muscles, as they work to stabilize the shoulders and upper back during the walk.

Know More: Upright Row: Muscle Worked, Form, Benefits, Variations

Frequently Asked Question

Can you shrug on Smith machine?

You can do the shrug on a smith machine. It is one of the best ways to build stronger shoulder muscles.

Smith Machine Shrugs Vs Dumbbell Shrugs Vs Barbell Shrug

  • Barbell and dumbbell shrug also allow for a more natural arc of movement. Dumbbell shoulder shrug required more balance than barbells or smith machines that can lead to greater muscle fiber recruitment.
  • The Smith machine offers a controlled path of motion and safety latches if you get stuck.
  • Dumbbell shrugs are done with dumbbells and allow for more range of motion and symmetry.
  • You can do shrugs with a heavier weight when using a barbell compared to using dumbbells.
  • Smith shrugs will slightly activate the rhomboids and spinal extensors more due to the fact that the bar is pulling you forward.
  • Dumbbell and barbell shrug require the most help from shoulder stabilizer muscle groups. This helps strengthen muscles that are often difficult to target, such as the rotator cuff, which can make you stronger and less susceptible to injuries.
  • The Smith machine relies on fewer stabilizer muscles, but this benefit comes with the tradeoff that smaller, weaker muscles will not interfere with your strength. This means you can lift heavier weight.

Takeaways

You can do shrugs with the Smith machine 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.

18 Best Trap Exercises To Build Mass and Strength

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