Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below I can't quiet figure out how to do these correctly. Some days i can do 80lbs on both sides and feal like im doing them correctly some days i can hardly do 50lbs. Some people i see move there heads forward and lift there shoulders which seems to be working a different muscle than if you leave your head in the normal position. Also what muscle is this isolating?I could not find it on the EXRX list thats why i posted it thanks
.jpg "Research Chemical Sciences")
.png "Research Chemical Sciences")
Shoulder Shrugs
- Thread starter Loner
- Start date
Welcome to the boards brother!! Well, nothing is really getting isolated, but no exercise isolates a single muscle anyway. Even with curls other muscles like the forearms support and move the weight. Shrugs with a barbell or dumbell will hit the traps the hardest though. Aslong as your moving the weight straight up and down, with the elbows straight your basically doing them right. Focus on the traps, and contracting them, getting a nice burn. Id try not to stick the head out to far, and rolling your shoulders has been said to be dangerous, but Ive never had a problem with it. In case your not familiar with which muscle the traps are, heres a pic of mine. Its the muscle near my neck with all the veins. Dumbell shrugs and barbell are my favorites for building traps. Deadlifts are great also.
Maybe one day I wont have to hold my breath to make the veins emerge!! When well developed theyll be like a second pair of shoulders, one on top of the other. Ive always like the freakiness of a good pair of traps. Shrug intensely and maybe even a few times a week and theyll sprout up quicker then you think! Hope that helps!
Maybe one day I wont have to hold my breath to make the veins emerge!! When well developed theyll be like a second pair of shoulders, one on top of the other. Ive always like the freakiness of a good pair of traps. Shrug intensely and maybe even a few times a week and theyll sprout up quicker then you think! Hope that helps!
callthedoctor
New member
I typically do dumbell shrugs....in the 80-100lb range. I try to touch my shoulders to my ears (in a head normal fashion) and I hold at the top portion for a couple of secs...
Seems to work for me...
Another great shrug that I've read about is a second step when doing barbell rows...after pulling BB to your chest, shrug the bar also....I tried this and it works VERY well.
I've also heard its pretty hard on the shoulders to do the rolling motion...although I see people do it everyday; don't think I would as I can almost feel the bones scrapping all the soft-tissues on those peeps.....
Seems to work for me...
Another great shrug that I've read about is a second step when doing barbell rows...after pulling BB to your chest, shrug the bar also....I tried this and it works VERY well.
I've also heard its pretty hard on the shoulders to do the rolling motion...although I see people do it everyday; don't think I would as I can almost feel the bones scrapping all the soft-tissues on those peeps.....
Damn walking beast thats exactly what I needed, I asked some guy with big nice traps at the gym how to work the traps and he said doing upright row works them and dumbells are just a defining exercise. Anyway thanks. And what you said about doing incline bench makes your chest bigger than regular bench. Incline only works the top of my chest while regular bench seems to work everything and decline works below the nipps so I incorperate all 3. BTW ive been ont his board a while I just lost my old user name and I hardly ever post 
Loner said:Damn walking beast thats exactly what I needed, I asked some guy with big nice traps at the gym how to work the traps and he said doing upright row works them and dumbells are just a defining exercise. Anyway thanks. And what you said about doing incline bench makes your chest bigger than regular bench. Incline only works the top of my chest while regular bench seems to work everything and decline works below the nipps so I incorperate all 3. BTW ive been ont his board a while I just lost my old user name and I hardly ever post
No problem brother!! Good to see you aboard!! Shiver me timbers!! Upright rows will hit the traps, but theres nothing like free weight shrugs. Dont let em tell ya any differently. The beast devours fools such as that. Incline should hit more then just the top of your chest. My entire chest always gets sore after inclines. I think Inclines may even hit more of your chest then the flat bench. It does depend on the angle though,too. For example, my incline is really close to my flat bench if I do them with an arch on a certain angle. But now that Ive switched benches and am using a stricter incline form, my weights have dropped considerably and I feel it even more in my upper chest.
I havent done declines in years personally. Part of this is due to NO decline bench available to me for years. Setting up in the power rack is too much of a pain, and I seem to get plenty of chest work from flat, incline, speed bench and flies and push ups anyway. I also use occasional Hammer Strength Machines like the "Wide Chest", which is great also. PM me anytime and I wish you the best in your journey!!
Dave949
New member
I recently seen an interesting shrug move done with dumbells. Start with arms hanging straight down as in regular shrug and you pull the dumbells up into your arm pits or as close into the arm pits as you can get. Unlike regular shrugs you will have to bend the elbows. I have not tried this move yet but it sounds interesting and different and will try it soon.
Pump on .....
Pump on .....
