Behind The Back Barbell Shrugs: Muscle Worked & Benefits

Are you interested in taking your trap workout to the next level? The shrugs behind the back barbell might be the exercise you’ve been missing.

While traditional barbell shrugs are great for targeting the trapezius muscles, behind the back barbell shrugs offer a fresh twist by engaging different muscle groups and delivering remarkable benefits.

The behind the back barbell shoulder shrug exercise is one of the most simplistic and easy trap exercises to perform.

We’re going to dive into the world of behind-the-back barbell shrugs, looking at their advantages, proper form, and safety precautions.

Behind The Back Barbell Shrugs Benefits

Here are the benefits of a behind the back barbell shrug exercises :

1. Muscle strength & growth

Practicing barbell shrug workouts is one of the most effective ways to increase hypertrophy in the back and shoulders.

2. Stability & conditioning

Behind the back barbell shoulder shrug activates all major areas of the shoulders, making it excellent for upper body stability and conditioning.

3. Aesthetic look

Traps are difficult to build and there are only a handful of exercises that mainly target your traps, such as shrugging.

Achieve a well-proportioned and aesthetically pleasing physique by targeting multiple muscle groups, including the upper traps, lower traps, rhomboids, and rear deltoids.

4. Improve your posture

The trapezius muscles play a vital role in maintaining proper posture.

When done properly, it helps build strength in your upper body stabilizer muscle groups, which help you stand up tall and keep your back straight.

5. Increased Grip Strength

During shrugs, it is essential to have a strong grip on the barbell.

As you increase the weight, your grip strength will get stronger, which will help you do other exercises that rely on grip strength, like pull-ups and deadlifts.

6. Stronger traps can help reduce neck pain

The study found that strength training, such as shrugging, significantly reduced the overall level of neck pain.

Strengthening your traps increases the activation of your shoulder muscles, helping provide better support to your head and neck.

What Is Behind The Back Barbell Shrug

Shrugs, also known as shoulder shrugs, are an isolation exercise targeting your trapezius muscles. Perform shrugs by grabbing a pair of dumbbells, barbell, and cable.

Behind the back barbell shrugs are one of the best exercises to build bigger, stronger trapezius muscles. This exercise can be done extremely heavily to thicken the traps that really help you in doing back poses.

The barbell behind-the-back shoulder shrug is an exercise that targets the traps. Having the bar behind you helps in keeping your shoulders pulled up and back rather than rounded forward.

It is popular in strength and muscle-focused upper-body training and is often trained on a shoulder day.

Know More: Best Upper Trap Exercises For Muscle Mass and Strength

Behind the Back Barbell Shrugs Muscles Worked

Behind the back barbell shoulder shrugs are a popular choice of exercise for strengthening your upper back, shoulder muscles, neck, and upper arms too.

• The main muscles that barbell shrugs target are the upper traps,
• Other muscles worked are several other upper back muscles, including the middle traps, lower traps, and rhomboids.

How To Do Behind the Back Shrug

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and grasp a barbell with an overhand grip.
2. Both your hands and your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
3. Rotate your hands so that your palms are facing away from your body, and the barbell is resting behind your buttocks.
4. Keep your back straight and your chest up, and take a deep breath.
5. Slowly shrug your shoulders up towards your ears, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.
6. Hold the contraction for a second before lowering the bar back to the starting position.
7. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

While behind the back barbell shrugs can be a highly effective exercise, there are some common mistakes that people make that can limit their results or even lead to injury.

1. Rounding Your Back

Do not roll your shoulders, as this can lead to a shoulder injury.

To avoid putting unnecessary stress on your lower back, please ensure that you keep your back straight throughout the exercise.

2. Hunching Your Shoulders Forward

This can limit the range of motion and reduce the effectiveness of the exercise. Focus on keeping your shoulders back and down throughout the movement.

3. Using Too Much Weight

It’s important to start with a lighter weight and focus on proper form before increasing the weight. The use of too much weight can result in injury or limit your range of motion.

Focus on lifting the weight with your traps and not with your biceps.

4. Not Squeezing Your Shoulder Blades Together

Pausing at the top of the barbell shrug makes the exercise more challenging, and you’ll get more out of it.

The key to engaging the trap and getting the most out of this exercise is this. Focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.

Variations of Behind the Back Shrug

Behind the Back Smith Machine Shrug

Behind the back smith machine shrug is the variation of the smith machine shrug. The Smith machine behind-the-back shrug is an upper-body exercise targeting the traps (trapezius muscles).

It is usually performed for moderate to high reps, such as 8-12 reps per set or more, as part of shoulder or trap-focused training.

How To Do It

1. Stand in a Smith machine holding the unlatched bar with an overhand grip on the back of your thighs.
2. Both your hands and your feet should be shoulder-width apart.
3. Lift your shoulders toward your ears as high as possible while keeping your arms straight.
4. Hold the contraction for a second before lowering the bar back to the starting position.
5. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

FAQs

Are behind the back shrugs bad

Back shrugs are not necessarily bad, but they can be potentially harmful if performed with improper form or excessive weight. It is important to use correct technique, start with lighter weights.

Can behind the back barbell shrugs help with neck and shoulder pain?

This exercise strengthens the muscles in the upper back and shoulders, which can help improve posture and reduce stress on the neck and shoulders.

Takeaways

You can do behind the back barbell shrugs to build muscle and strength in your traps.

The constant tension placed on your muscles through a range of motion, allowing progressive overload to take place, leading to strength and muscle gains.

Discover the benefits of behind the back barbell shrugs in this informative blog. Learn how this exercise can strengthen your upper back and shoulders, improve posture, and reduce neck and shoulder pain.

Find out how to do behind the back barbell shrugs safely and how to use them in your workout. Learn how this exercise can strengthen your upper back and shoulders, improve posture

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