Instructions
- Set the safety bars or hooks in a squat rack to midthigh height and load the bar (or load a barbell on the floor and deadlift it into position).
- Grip the bar just outside your thighs with your palms facing you, stand up tall with your chest out, and lean forward slightly so your shoulders are over the bar.
- Let the bar pull your arms straight and shoulder blades down as far as they’ll go.
- Take a deep breath, brace your abs, and raise your shoulders straight up toward your ears as high as they’ll go, keeping your arms straight.
- Pause briefly, then let the weight pull your shoulders down and return to the starting position.
Expert Tips
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with a slightly wider grip. Some people find that placing their hands about 3–6 inches outside of their thighs allows them to engage their traps more, whereas others find it uncomfortable. Don’t go so wide that you have trouble holding onto the bar, though.
- Think about trying to touch your shoulders to your ears, and pause a little longer at the top than you would for most exercises. This exercise has a shorter range of motion than most, so you want to make sure you take full advantage of it.
- Keep the bar close to your thighs and lean forward just enough to stay balanced.
- Use lifting straps if your hands give out before your traps. This will quickly prove true for most people. You don’t want your sets limited by your grip strength.
- Move your shoulders straight up and straight down. Don’t roll them forward or backward.
- Keep your arms perfectly straight and your torso completely still throughout each rep. If you find yourself bending your arms or swinging your torso to finish reps, you’re using too much weight.
Mike’s Take
The standard barbell shrug is my favorite exercise for training your upper traps.
In a study conducted at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, the one-arm shoulder shrug produced the highest upper-trapezius activity of the 10 exercises tested.
The scientists didn’t test the barbell shrug or directly measure muscle growth, and those readings can be misleading, but there’s no doubt the barbell shrug is effective for building your upper traps.
That said, most people who follow a well-rounded resistance-training routine don’t need much direct trap training. Exercises like the Romanian deadlift and barbell deadlift already make your upper traps contract without moving to keep your shoulder blades stable. That doesn’t count as direct trap-building volume, but a few direct sets are usually enough to round out their development.
Thus, while the barbell shrug is an outstanding exercise, I don’t include it by default in my programs for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.
In other words, I think of the barbell shrug as a specialized tool for boosting your trap development rather than a staple exercise.
It’s also important to understand that the barbell shrug trains your upper traps, the fibers running from your neck to the tops of your shoulders, and your levator scapulae (a neck muscle that helps lift your shoulder blade). It doesn’t effectively train your middle or lower traps, which pull in different directions.
Read this article to learn which exercises train every portion of your traps:
The 15 Best Trap Exercises and Workouts for a Thicker, Stronger Back
Some people find dumbbell shrugs more comfortable than barbell shrugs, but I’ve never found this to be true for myself or the tens of thousands of people I’ve worked with.
Dumbbells allow you to rotate your wrists slightly, but they’re also more annoying to get into position, require more coordination and balance, and (depending on what’s available at your gym) often force you to add weight in larger increments (5–10 pounds instead of 2.5–5 pounds).
You’ll also sometimes see people recommend the behind-the-back barbell shrug, but I don’t. It forces your shoulders into an awkward position that most people find uncomfortable and almost always forces you to use less weight.
I usually program barbell shrugs for 2–3 sets of 8–10 reps and take each set to failure.
Barbell Shrug Alternatives
- Machine Shrug. This is easy to set up, comfortable for most people, and requires less balance and coordination than the barbell version. Some also have grips that make the handles easier to hold than a barbell.
- Dumbbell Shrug. A fine alternative to the barbell version, but it doesn’t have any clear advantages for training your upper traps, either.
- Trap-Bar Shrug. Using a trap bar allows you to hold the bar in a position that most people find more comfortable, although some find it limits their range of motion, so you’ll have to test it yourself. You can load it on a squat rack, but then you have to high-step over the bar to get into position for each set. Most people prefer to load it on the floor.
- Cable Shrug. Some people feel that using cables better activates their traps, but these are more annoying to set up and most machines force you to add weight in large increments, so I prefer a barbell or dedicated shrug machine.
- Smith Machine Shrug. Faster to set up than a barbell shrug, but most people find it less comfortable.
3 Barbell Shrug Workouts
Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the barbell shrug.
Trap Workout with the Barbell Shrug
Seated Cable Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Seated Cable Shrug-Back: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
V-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Pull Workout with the Barbell Shrug
Barbell Deadlift: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
One-Arm Dumbbell Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Alternating Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Upper-Body Workout with the Barbell Shrug
Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Seated Cable Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Single-Arm Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
To progress these workouts, use double progression: use a weight that allows you to work within the given rep range, take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure (except barbell shrugs, which you can take to failure), and once you hit the top of the range for your first set, add weight.
More Trap Exercises
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