How to barbell shrug
Decide whether you want to use straps or not. Go for 8 - 12 repetitions per set and go one plate down from what you can deadlift. 3 To 5 sets after a deadlift session depending on how beast you feel on the day do the trick.
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What is your why
Before we go into the details of the barbell shrug let me ask you a couple of questions:
- Why do you want to barbell shrug?
- Why do you want to get stronger?
- Why do you want to build muscle?
- What happens if you do?
- What happens if you do n’t?
These questions might seem trivial to you. They make all the difference. Life will punch you in the dick. You better have a good reason to get back up again. Fitness, as anything worthwhile in life, is in an area where rewards are delayed. You get your result a long time after you put it in the effort. Not a preferred feedback loop in the social media age of snowflakes. Read the book Nudge to get an excellent overview of why you are not designed for delayed feedback loops.
Based on this your underlying value set and motivations for training better be solid. Most people go about their lives in this way:
- What do I want
- How do I get it
- Why do I want it
Based on this thought pattern it will your life more reactively than proactively. What you want on a daily basis is easily influenced. Your mood swings based on hunger, the people you meet, the weather and whether you made it in time to work. If you live your life like this you will be a slave to your instincts. If you flip this thought pattern on its head your life will change.
- Why do you want something
- How do you get it
- What do you need to do to get it
This way you will put your deepest desires and wishes front, right and centre in your life. You will know why you get up in the morning. You will know why you are doing this menial task at work. You know will know why you get up at 5 to clang and bang. If you want to dig deeper on how this works on a psychological level read Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and slow. Not convinced yet? Look up Simon Sinek's TED talk on the golden circle. He makes a very compelling case for this mindset telling the story of the Wright brothers.
For me the self Journal from best self was essential to get more focused. It helped me a lot to reprogram my mind to be more productive and get things done.
Barbell shrugs
Barbell shrugs are probably the single best exercise to train your traps. You can also use dumbbells it kettlebells to shrug. The fact remains. If you want big traps, shrug away to your hearts contempt.
To execute the barbell shrug bring the barbell to hip height. This can either be done from the pins in a rack or from the ground. There are two schools of thoughts around the shrug.
The first is that you shouldn’t shrug what you can not deadlift. With this approach, you keep injury risk lower and usually work in the higher rep ranges. This lends itself to more of a bodybuilding approach to trap training. You will also find powerlifters who are of this opinion.
The opposing school of thought is that the shrug should be used to overload the traps by going high in weight. Here the barbell shrug is especially helpful as you can start it from pins. This is not as easy for dumbbells and kettlebells.
What ever your starting point is here is how you execute a barbell shrug:
- Bring the weight to hip height
- Leave your arms fully extended
- Squeeze the bar hard and keep the tension
- Flex your shoulders and bring the weight up as high as you can
- Keep your arms straight while doing this
- Bring the bar back down to the hips
- Don’t rush the process, savour each rep
As with many other lifts, leave the ego at home. The goal is to keep your traps under tension to stimulate them. You don’t want to rip your biceps off (which happens if you turn the shrug into a curl) or pull your arms out of their sockets (which happens if you do the reps like a monkey being electrocuted).
The biggest advantage of the barbell shrug is that it is a very good exercise to isolate your traps without using a machine. There are little to no exercise which is as good to build a bigger neck.
The biggest disadvantage of the barbell shrug is that it is a low yield exercise. You only train a very limited section of your body when you could be training more muscles in the same time.
Repetitions
The barbell shrug is usually treated as an accessory exercise after a core workout or incorporated in a bodybuilding template.
This makes it a lift which is usually performed in the 8-12 repetitions per set area or to failure.
I always find it hard to determine which weight to use in the shrug. With a deadlift max of 190kg, I shrug somewhere between 100 to 140kg depending on the day. 3-5 sets to failure depending on how much time I have.
Straps or No straps
Leather straps are also a point of discussion on deadlifts and shrugs. Straps are either made of leather or nylon and wrap around the bar.
Your grip is usually weaker than your back and therefore forms the limiting factor to the shrug. Straps put the weight on your wrist instead of in your fingers. This balances off the constraint and helps you shrug more weight for more repetitions.
Opinions on this range this from “if you use straps you are a pussy” to “if you don’t use straps you are a retard”. What is discussed very little in these comments is what the training goal is.
I personally got better results whenever a steered clear from dogma. I believed for a long time that straps and sumo deadlifts are cheating. I was wrong. Whenever my cycle focuses on building muscle Ibuse straps and sumo deadlifts as I get more work done.
Powerlifting
Generally speaking, I agree with the school of “if you can’t deadlift it you shouldn’t shrug it” approach for powerlifters. There is no point in building your traps to shrug a weight which you can not get off the ground. It is not relevant for performance on the platform.
If you deadlift 900 pounds and think your traps are puny, be my guest, throw in some strapped heavy shrugs so that you look more like a turtle.
Bodybuilding
For bodybuilders, I think strapped heavy shrugs are a good thing to make your traps pop more. There are only a few machines which address the traps in the same way.
It is also good to have days in the free weight section to mix things up. Barbell and dumbbell shrugs are a good addition to attack the traps from different angles.
Strongman
Strongman athletes can shrug, however I also think it has little carryover to most exercises in competition. Farmers walks and rope pulls probably are a better investment of your time depending on what is coming up in your next competition.
Good addition for strongmen is to shrug with asymmetrical loads and unusual objects. Find two heavy objects without a handle and try to shrug them. This helps to be prepared when you have to lift stones or industrial equipment which is usually not that heavy, but very awkward to move.
How to barbell shrug
You can mix it up to fit your style. What I personally do is that I barbell shrug on my two deadlift days. I finish my heavy sets, strip off a plate with on each side and do five sets of heavy Yates rows. When this is done I keep the same weight and do five sets of shrugs to failure. I use no straps. The shrugs are started off the ground. This way I get a good workout done without having to move around a lot or hug too much equipment in the gym.
Most popular Rogue bars in 2020
This is an overview of the most popular Rogue barbells per views and click through rates for Marathon-Crossfit.com in 2020. If you want more details on how the data was collected you can dig deeper in what were the most popular Rogue products in 2020.
Classic barbell
The classic barbell is what you you will find in most gyms. They vary widely in their quality with the York ones being the most cost efficient and therefore at the lower end of the quality range. You might find barbells with bushing or bearing, still most of them will have bushing in your local gym.
If your local gym is serious about lifting you might find specific olympic weightlifting and powerlifting barbells. These have a more aggressive knurl to ensure more grip for the professionals. You will experience these to be rougher on your skin which has the benefit of being able to lift more and the downside of higher likelihood to get your skin damaged.
In addition the knurl marks are slightly different between olympic and powerlifting bars to show you where to put your hands. Usually the powerlifting bars are built to withhold more psi (basically tells you how mch weight you can put on the bar until it breaks) than olympic bars due to the fact that there is more load moved in the powerlifts than in olympic lifts.
Lifting is not always for beginners. You need proper technique, balance and a bit of strength to do it. Otherwise you might hurt your shins on the deadlift or pulll some muscles when squatting. Improper squatting might also harm your spine. So get proper advise or start deadlifting with other bars.
Further reading
Can barbells help lose weight? [Article]
Which Rogue barbell to buy? [Article, Free download]
Which barbell for home gym from Rogue [Article, free download]