EXECUTION
- Assume an erect standing position with the feet shoulder width apart and the legs straight but not locked in the knees. The head should be up with the shoulders back and the chest out.
- Hold a pair of dumbbells with a neutral grip so that your palms face inward toward the outer hips. The arms and shoulders should be somewhat relaxed but still have sufficient muscular tension to support the dumbbells comfortably and to keep the shoulders from rounding.
- Inhale and hold your breath as you raise the shoulders as high as possible. Raise them as close to the bottom of the ears as you can get.
- As you raise the shoulders, the arms should remain straight so that the weight is raised in synchronization with the amount of shoulder raising.
- Keep your shoulders back, chest out and eyes focused straight ahead as you execute the shrugging action.
- After reaching maximum height, tighten and hold the up position for one to two seconds.
- Relax the muscles involved and exhale as you let the shoulders down to the initial position under control.
- In the down position, the shoulders should slope slightly downward from the neutral or straight shoulder position.
- Pause momentarily and then repeat.
Training Tips
- To help ensure a full range of motion, I recommend active shoulder stretching before beginning the shrug exercise Most effective is straight arm relaxed hanging from a high bar and then doing several short range pull-ups (4-5 inches) with a full relaxed hang in between reps. Also very effective is the neutral grip Back Master full shoulder and back stretch.
- Do not relax the muscles completely in between repetitions. If you do this, the shoulders will become rounded and the weights will move slightly in front of the body. If you then start the exercise from this position, you will enforce a rounded shoulder posture rather than an effective shoulder back, chest out posture.
- The key to success in the shoulder shrug is to raise the shoulders as high as possible. The higher the shoulders are raised, the greater is the shortening of the upper trapezius and the levator scapulae. This produces greater muscle mass while maintaining and accentuating the square shoulder posture.
- Do not use excessive weight in this exercise. When you do so, not only is the range of motion cut down considerably, but it will accentuate the sloping shoulder position. In essence, you strengthen and shorten the muscles involved while the shoulders remain low, which results in the sloping appearance to both shoulders. This is not as aesthetically appealing as when you have square shoulders.
- The use of heavy weights may also contribute to greater compaction of the spinal discs. By holding heavy weights in your hands while you execute anywhere from six to fifteen repetitions for several sets, places considerable compression forces on the discs. The compression compacts the discs even more so if you drop the shoulders quickly.
- When you inhale and hold your breath, you can maintain a strong spinal position and a rigid trunk. This helps to prevent excessive compaction on the discs and allows you to do the exercise with good posture and with effective muscular action. Exhaling on the exertion leads to poor muscle control, a sunken chest, rounded shoulders and greater compression on the discs.
- If you do experience spine compaction after doing several sets of the shrug, then you should do some stretching. Most effective is hanging from a bar, inversion on the Yessis Back Machine and the full body Back Master stretch.
- The shrug exercise is only effective for development of the uppermost portion of the trapezius. It has no effect on the middle and lower sections. Thus to get full development of the trapezius, you must do other exercises that target these sections of the muscle.
- It is very important to look straight ahead as you execute the shrugging action. If your head is inclined to the side, you will get disproportionate development of the muscles on either side of the neck. This can result in having a more pronounced side-tilted head even when not doing the exercise.
- Note that if the upper end of the levator scapulae and the upper trapezius contract when the head is free to move, you’ll get head motion rather than elevation of the shoulders. To get pure elevation of the shoulders, you must hold the head stable.
- To be maximally effective the shrug should be done with dumbbells. If you use a barbell, the hands will be placed in front of the body and the shoulders will be rounded. This can result in greater rounded shoulders and a shorter range of motion which may produce even greater postural deviations.
Major Muscles Involved
Only the shoulder girdle muscles are involved in the dumbbell shrug exercise. This includes the uppermost trapezius, levator scapulae and rhomboid muscles. These muscles run in pairs, one on each side of the cervical spine. The trapezius is a large muscle covering the entire upper middle back extending from the base of the skull to the bottom of the thoracic vertebrae and extending out to the sides to the top of the shoulders. However, in the shrug only the uppermost portion of the trapezius is involved. The very top position is thin and curves sideward and forward before attaching to the clavicle. The fibers directly below are slightly thicker and stronger and they run downward and sideward from the spine to the scapula. The rhomboid muscle lies beneath the middle portion of the trapezius directly in the middle of the upper back. Because the fibers run at an upward angle from the inner edge of the scapula to the vertebrae of the spine, their range of motion is somewhat limited in raising the scapula full range. The levator scapulae is a small muscle on the back and sides of the neck lying beneath the upper trapezius. Although relatively small, it is an important muscle in shrugging.
Muscle and Joint Actions
In the shoulder shrug, the muscles involved raise the shoulder girdle (scapula and collarbone) directly upward. There is no rotation of the scapula. Of the three muscles involved, the levator scapulae has a direct line of pull to elevate the scapula. The very uppermost trapezius plays a similar role in raising the clavicle. However, the fibers directly below the uppermost portion of the trapezius, although not vertical, are stronger and play the most important role in the shrug. The rhomboid is most important in the initial raising action and its role diminishes the closer the shoulders get to the base of the ears when the upper trapezius and levator scapulae take over. It should be noted that the upper portion of the trapezius is also involved in upward rotation of the scapula while the rhomboid, in addition to elevating the scapula, also rotates the scapula downward. Since both of these muscles contract, they perform elevation by simultaneously canceling out the opposite rotational effects.
Sports Uses
For bodybuilders, the shoulder shrug is the main exercise for developing the upper portion of the trapezius muscle on both sides of the neck. When you are in good posture, the shrug also improves your posture and aesthetic appeal. In weightlifting, the shrug is used in bringing the bar up as high as possible before executing the drop under the bar in the cleans. The shrugging action is important in the middle to end phase of the deadlift in both powerlifting and in bodybuilding. When the shrug exercise is done full range, it also assists in doing lateral and front arm raises and the overhead press. When these exercises are done through the full range of motion, shoulder elevation occurs during execution. Thus, the shrug exercise helps in more effective full range execution of these exercises. Shoulder elevation is a key action in raising the arms overhead. Thus, it is important in all racquet sports such as in the tennis serve and overheads, in all overhand throwing, in climbing, and in reaching. In volleyball and basketball, it is needed when the arms are raised to catch, hit or shoot a ball. In gymnastics, shoulder elevation plays a very important role in lengthening and shortening the radius of rotation when swinging on the horizontal bar, unevens and on the rings. In football, the shoulder shrug is very important for developing a stronger, more injury resistant neck. The shrug also plays an important role if you carry heavy objects in the hands when walking or standing. In such cases, the muscles involved contract strongly to keep the shoulder and arm up and to prevent excessive leaning to one side.