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How to barbell shrug [Article, Free Download]

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Feb 14, 2019 9:30:00 AM

How to barbell shrug

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: 

 

  1. Bring the weight to hip height 
  2. Leave your arms fully extended 
  3. Squeeze the bar hard and keep the tension 
  4. Flex your shoulders and bring the weight up as high as you can 
  5. Keep your arms straight while doing this 
  6. Bring the bar back down to the hips 
  7. 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.

Most popular rogue bars in 2020

 
This is an overview of the most popular barbells on Marathon-CrossFit.com during 2020. The ranking is as followed:
 
 
That the operator bar was so popular on Marathon-CrossFit in 2020 came as a surprise to me. It is one of the cheaper Rogue barbells which still has a cool name rather than being a variation of the Rogue Ohio barbell. If you want to feel a little more camouflaged in your life, go with this one. You can read the full review of the operator bar via this link.
 
The West side bar is a variation of the Ohio bar specifically for powerlifting. It is very similar to the Rogue Ohio power bar which recently has gotten a little more attention from influencers. This is a solid bar if you do not intend to do the Olympic lifts and stick to the bench press, deadlift, and barbell back squat in your training. You can read the full review of the west side bar via this link.
 
The Rogue Russian bar is another surprise on the Marathon-CrossFit popularity list. While it is one of the most expensive bars you can get from Rogue I personally find that it is more of a collector's item with nostalgia attached to it. It is a great piece of craftsmanship to recreate a bar from the Soviet era. Unfortunately, the collar system is not used in competition anymore and also tenders the bar useless once you lose one of the collars. Rogue also does not provide an option to buy the custom collars separately in case you do lose them. Based on this I would take the Pyrros bar over the Russian bar any given day for this budget. You can read the full review of the Rogue Russian bar by following this link.
 
The Rogue Multi-grip bar is a great additional tool to bring your bench press training to the next level. Especially if you are a big fan of the Westside training method as it asks for many grip variations. This bar might not be your first purchase, but fun addition to your gym once all the essentials are covered. You can read the full review of the Rogue Multi-grip bar by following this link.
 
The Chan bar is my personal favorite if you want to do it all with your barbell. It is reasonably priced, has a cool design, and can be used for Olympic lifts and the big three alike. If you are a CrossFit fan who wants to workout from home, this is a great pick. You can read the full review of the Rogue Chan bar by following this link.
 

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]

Topics: Lift stronger, Deadlift, Fitness, Strength