Those that deadlift..

[TC2]

Do you guys do shrugs also as a part of your workout? Or do you think that doing anything more than deads is overkill?

 

[Phaded]

never heard of that... if you hold your shoulders back it kills the traps so i dont know if that would even be necessary..

 

[kethnaab]

get your pull up about 100 or so pounds, then see if you need to ask that question.

if the answer is 'yes', then do some hanging cleans or power cleans or power shrugs (if you aren't already).

 

[psychedout]

I don't see the need for the shrug whether you deadlift or not. It could just be a matter of genetics in my case though.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Between deads and rows/cleans, they don't seem necessary. If you haven't already, you might want to check out the "Power Shrugs" thread a bit lower on the page.

 

[tzan]

I do deads with my back and shrugs with my delts. For me, shrugs are a must exercise for traps.

 

[b fold the truth]

People comment all the time on my traps...say that they often don't really look human...lol. I can't even remember when I last did a set of anything for them.

I deadlift 1-2x per week, do farmers walks, and strongman events though...

 

[bignate73]

i don't do shrugs, just deads, cleans and hang snatches.

 

[AEKDB]

I do, but not the way you are probably referring to. I use heavy shrugs to train my grip for deads and at the same time help with the lock out.

I set the bar at knee level in a squat rack, so the bar does not have far to travel, and I use my normal deadlift grip. A typical shrug workout:

135 x 5
225 x 5
315 x 5
405 x 5
495 x 5
585 x 5
675 x 5
etc. tol failure.

As the weight gets heavier I do start cheating. At some point the shrugs become mental and I don't think the bar is actually moving. This is okay since the point is to just get used to holding heavier weights.

Does it work? I think it does since my weak link in setting personal bests is no longer my grip.

 

[Guinness5.0]

I'm of the opinion that regular shrugs are a waste of time/effort. Deads, cleans, and power shrugs are where it's at from my experience. My traps are dif. my best bodypart, no question about it and they got big right when I started deadlifting seriously. Lately i've been power cleaning and the've grown even more. I think big traps come from dynamic pulling (deads, cleans, snatches, etc).and stabilizing HEAVY weights (deads, farmer's walks, etc).

 

[Tweakle]

polite little 100lb DB shrugs like you see the regualr joes doing all the time are worthless.. but I do like doing power shrugs occasionally, especially now as I cant deadlift without a lot of pain and need to train my traps.

I try to minimise cheating as I dont think it's the best thing for those with crushed discs, but if your back is good to go then a little more bounce is probably ok.

 

[tzan]

polite little 100lb DB shrugs like you see the regualr joes doing all the time are worthless.. .

LOL....I love how if it's not an olympic type lift it's deemed worthless by everyone on this board. Yes, I do believe dead, squats, rows, etc....should be the staples of your routine, but there are other exercises that are beneficial as well.

 

[bignate73]

its not that they aren't beneficial, its just you can get the same workload on some other lifts that benefit other muscle groups as well. its compound over isolation, thats all. more bang for your buck.

 

[BiggT]

Look around most gyms at most people doing isolation trap work and polite little dumbell shrugs, then look at their trap development. Then look (you may not be able to find any in most gyms) at people who pull heavy, do dynamic movements, do strongman, and look at their trap development. I think 'worthless' is a pretty good adjective to describe the way the average Joe trains at the gym. Things like behind the back Smith Machine shrugs, dumbell shrugs, smith machine shrugs rolling the shoulders back, machine shrugs, cambered bar shrugs, and all the other shit people do is time consuming, and like Nate said has no bang for your back, as the only purpose is to isolate, and the development gained from them is zero-very minimal, where if they powercleaned, they'd kill about a thousand birds with one stone, including developing the traps much better than iso-shrug work could ever hope to.

 

[AEKDB]

I think 'worthless' is a pretty good adjective to describe the way the average Joe trains at the gym.

Agreed. This way of training carries over into every lift they do including shrugs. In addition to deads, 1 arm snatches, and cleans, I think shrugs, high pulls, up right rows, etc are valuable assistance exercises but must be trained with the same level of intensity. 30lb dumbbell "shrugs" are not shrugs.

Of an interesting note, FitTV had a special on yesterday about strength. One segment showed Shane Hamman doing power shrugs or were they high pulls? When you’re that big I guess the hand spacing is the same. That is one strong guy with a great personality.

 

[d3track]

i would say do farmer walk, or my preference, do some db walking lunges on leg days

 

[psychedout]

polite little 100lb DB shrugs like you see the regualr joes doing all the time are worthless.. but I do like doing power shrugs occasionally, especially now as I cant deadlift without a lot of pain and need to train my traps.

I try to minimise cheating as I dont think it's the best thing for those with crushed discs, but if your back is good to go then a little more bounce is probably ok.

What happened to the back?

 

[Tweakle]

piriformis, the fuckin irony is I was reading an article on it on elite the day it happened... I managed to do something very unpleasant to it and now it hurts like a bitch unless I spend about 20 mins stretching before I try to lift. Deads are out and I cant squat above 500lbs without it cramping up and me falling over in the rack

smallest violin plays for me.

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

What's piriformis? What did you do that was unpleasant?

 

[perp69]

Nope.

Perp

 

[UrlMighty]

I do power shrugs mostly for fun but they can be effective for blowing your traps up. I don't see anything wrong with working them as an assistance to deads. It can help make lockout one less thing to worry about.

 

[Tweakle]

What's piriformis? What did you do that was unpleasant?

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5834878#post5834878 there ya go mr tommy t, the unpleasantness came after I blew my hamstring out last year and tried to do deads.. without being able to explode my form went to shit and the stress was placed on one tiny muscle that wasn't able to handle it

now I need to use a chair to put my shoes on, very annoying

 

[carlsuen]

well... i don't need to do shrugs.. deadlifting and power cleaning already gave me those.. no one at my gym who does machine crap, and "polite"(lol) DB shrugs can compare to my trap development..