SHRUGS | Exercises You Probably Don't Need

The Shrug The shrug is generally performed with either the barbell or a pair of dumbbells. The arms remain relatively relaxed, while the shoulders shrug upwards and back. The target muscle is primarily the trapezius (traps). These are the big bulky muscles that sit between the neck and the shoulders.

Why You Probably Don't Need Them Don't get me wrong: I'm all for trap growth, the shrug just isn't necessary for most people. The vast majority of people I've seen performing this exercise are beginners. As I've covered dozens of times now, beginners will do best to take advantage of their propensity for rapid gains by prioritising large multi-joint exercises. To put it in lay terms: getting your deadlift up is far more important for overall strength, muscle and fitness than spending valuable training time doing shrugs.

Additionally, more research is indicating that the most important part of the contraction for growth is in the lengthened position, i.e. when you arms are being pulled downwards.

Are They Useless?

Definitely not. If you're an advanced lifter, training the traps directly may be necessary if you want to get those last few percent of trap growth. Remember: I said advanced. That means it doesn't apply to me or probably anyone reading this. Second scenario for shrugs: injury. If you have some kind of upper body injury that means you can't do standard pushing or pulling exercises, you may be limited to isolation work like shrugs. Again, this scenario doesn't apply to many people (think two broken arms).

What to Do Instead First and foremost, deadlifts. In the deadlift your traps contract isometrically to stabilise your shoulders. This is a tough task during a heavy deadlift, hence the biggest deadlifters have had monster traps. Additionally, the farmers walk (see above photo) can be both a good conditioning tool and trap-grower once you reach intermediate level. If you're still a novice lifter though, deadlifts are more than enough for trap growth. So in summary:

Ditch the shrugs. Pick up heavy stuff instead.

Taken from my blog