Shoulder Shrug Training Tips

Shoulder shrugs target your upper trapezius muscles, also known as the traps. In colloquial gym language, well-developed upper traps are often called a yoke. Located on your upper back and across the back of your shoulders, big, strong traps can be useful in contact sports such as wrestling, football, hockey, boxing and rugby as they provide essential support for your neck -- an important factor for injury prevention. From an aesthetic point of view, well-developed upper traps result in a powerful-looking physique, and many bodybuilders work hard to develop this muscle. Of all the exercises you can perform for your upper traps, one of the most common is the shrug.

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You possibly might even shrug the weight up and move the weight up in a circular motion with your shoulders. Check out the image below. 

This is the traditional way of doing the shrug and it is an effective traps builder.

Now, I’m going to pass on a tip that will make this exercise so much more effective.

Before I give you the tip, the next time your looking at the muscle magazines, take a look at how some of those pro’s perform the shrug.

This little movement is very subtle but it makes a world of difference in the results from the shrug exercise.

What I’m talking about is making the shrug exercise a little more difficult to perform while reducing the amount of “cheat” that’s involved in the exercise.

I’m sure most of you seen dudes in the gym using 300 or even 400 pounds for the shrug but barely moving the weight up and down.

The problem here is that the target muscle group isn’t being trained in the most effective way.

I’ll tell you right now that you don’t need to slap on 300 pounds to get the most from the shoulder shrug. Way too many times have I seen guys in the gym perform this exercise in the most ridiculous manner by using too much weight.

Alright, what is my shoulder shrug tip. Here's what I want you to do.

Stand up and pretend that you have a barbell in your hands. Next perform the shrug like you normally would. Shrug your shoulders up and down. Now, try this little trick. Stand like you normally would when your doing the shrug but slightly bend forward and look at your feet. Now try doing the shrug.

By doing this, you take out the element of cheating and you really increase the pressure and stimulation on the trapezuis muscles.

It's very important that you keep your chin down because this really helps isolate the trap muscles and you get much more muscle stimulation. Also, try narrowing your grip a little be about 3 inches on the bar.

Now, I'm going to tell you now that you won't be able to handle the same amount of weight that your used to for regular shrugs because you can't hoist the weight up. Instead, your going to have much more control over the weight and your going to feel much more stimulation in your traps. I suggest giving it a try for your next workout, you'll be pleasantly surprised.