Barbell Shrugs

Are you trying to find the way to get the 'no neck' look that most of the bodybuilders have? Your search ends here. You will have to perform barbell shrugs to get the desired look. This is an isolation exercise that is used to target the upper trapezius muscles. This shoulder exercise helps in creating a complete and balanced muscle growth of the upper body. It is one of the most simple exercises, which can be done quickly and is still very effective. We will now see the steps to do shrugs using a barbell.

There are two ways in which you can do shrugs with a barbell. You can either hold the bar in front of you or behind your back. We will now see both the ways of doing this exercise. The weights you are going to use to do the shrugs have to be comfortable and not too heavy. If you use too heavy weights, there are chances that you may injure yourself.

This is the one where you hold the barbell in front of your body. Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart, and hold a barbell with comfortable weights with both your hands. Hold the barbell using an overhand grip, and let it hang down in front of your body so that your arms are completely extended.

Keep your hands straight, but not locked at the elbows, and shrug your shoulders till your shoulders are about to touch the ears. When you shrug, hold the position for a count of 5 at the top of the movement. This will allow the blood to rush to the muscles that are being worked. Inhale and slowly come back to starting position. Repeat the exercise again.

This barbell exercise is similar to the regular shrugs. The difference lies in the way you hold the barbell. To do this exercise, you will hold the barbell behind your back, instead of in front of your body. Stand up straight and keep a shoulder-width distance between your feet.

Hold the barbell with both your hands behind your back using a pronated grip, i.e., with your palms facing back. The distance between your hands should be a little wider than your shoulders. If you find it uncomfortable, you can also use wrist wraps for this exercise so that you have a better grip. Now, slowly raise your shoulders as far as you can.

The best is to shrug your shoulders till they touch your ears. Hold the position for a few seconds. When you shrug, it is very important that you do not lift the barbell using your biceps. Your arms should remain extended all the times, but do not lock your elbows. Slowly come back to the starting position, and repeat the exercise.

There are other variations to this form of exercise as well. One of them is to rotate your shoulders as you go up in a semicircular motion from rear to front. However, this variation is often not recommended, as it can cause shoulder injury, if it is not done in the right way.

The other variations include placing the barbell on the thighs or using the smith machine, shrug machine, or with the dumbbells. There are a lot of people who can't differentiate between dumbbell and barbell shrugs. As far as the muscles used by both these exercises are concerned, there is no difference. It is more a matter of convenience.

Also, it is always better to alternate between both barbell and dumbbell shrugs so that you are not stuck on a plateau. The moment you feel you are hitting a plateau, you can switch to the other exercise.