What Are Barbell Shrugs?

Barbell shrugs are an exercise where you shrug your shoulders while holding a weight bar in front of you. There are other versions of the exercise using different kinds of resistance, as I’ll explain below.

The movement is similar to how you shrug your shoulders when you tell someone, “I don’t know.” Except when you do shrugs with weight, you train the shoulder muscles to grow bigger and stronger.

Barbell Shrugs Muscles Worked

Barbell shrugs primarily work the trapezius muscles or traps. This large diamond-shaped muscle runs from the back of your neck, out to the top of your shoulders, and down to your mid-back.

However, the shrug movement specifically targets the upper part of the traps. As well as the muscles in your neck and shoulder blades.

How To Do Barbell Shrugs

Before you do a barbell shrug, load the bar with the weight you need. You may also want the bar on a rack just above knee level. Otherwise, you will need to pick up the bar from the floor.

Approach the bar and stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Then grab the bar with an overhand grip so your hands are just outside your thighs.

With the bar firmly in your hands, stand up straight so the bar is resting on the front of your thighs. Now shrug your shoulders up towards your ears while keeping your arms straight.

Then lower the weight back to the starting position to complete one rep. Repeat this for the desired reps and set the bar back down. To recap, here is the step-by-step guide and a video.

Here is how to do barbell shrugs step-by-step:

1. Use an overhand grip just outside your thighs
2. Stand up with the bar at arm’s length
3. Shrug your shoulders up towards your ears
4. Let the bar back down until your traps stretch
5. Repeat for the desired number of reps

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Barbell Shrugs Form

The barbell shrug is a pretty straightforward exercise. Yet, I see many people at the gym throwing around heavy weights without actually engaging their traps.

Some of the most common mistakes are using momentum and “bouncing” the weight up and down. This happens when you initiate the movement with your legs, then pull by bending your arms.

But when you use sloppy form, your traps barely do any work! And that means they won’t respond as much as they could if you perform the exercise with strict form.

Do not do the following:

In contrast, good form involves keeping your arms and legs as straight as possible throughout the movement. This means you don’t use momentum and do lift the weight using only your traps.

Think of your arms as ropes, with one end tied to the bar and the other to your shoulder. A rope under tension can’t bend; it can only pull. In the same way, your arms shouldn’t bend; they should only pull.

Barbell Shrugs Variations

There are a few ways to do barbell shrugs with different bars or grips. So here are some additional barbell shrug variations you can try.

Smith Machine Shrugs

The Smith machine shrug is virtually identical to a barbell shrug, except the bar moves up and down in a fixed path. This reduces the need to balance the bar, so you can focus on squeezing your traps.

Sometimes I’ll do Smith machine shrugs if a barbell isn’t available. But other times, I do it to isolate my traps. You’ll definitely be sore after doing strict, heavy Smith machine shrugs.

Barbell Shrug Alternatives

Of course, you don’t have to do shrugs with a barbell or trap bar. You can do several other shrug variations with pretty much any equipment you have.

Dumbbell Shrugs

If you want to maintain a neutral position for your hands while performing shrugs, using dumbbells is another option. With this technique, you hold a dumbbell in each hand at your sides and execute the shrug movement.

The benefit of dumbbell shrugs is that you have complete control over your arm position, allowing you to pull your shoulders up and back as you shrug. However, lifting extremely heavy weights with dumbbells may be more challenging.