How to do the Trap-Bar Shrug
Step by step
- Stand inside a loaded trap bar and grip the handles at your sides.
- Stand tall with the bar hanging, arms straight and shoulders relaxed down.
- Shrug your shoulders straight up toward your ears.
- Pause and squeeze your traps at the top.
- Lower your shoulders back down slowly under control.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your arms straight and let the traps do the lifting. Bending the elbows turns it into a partial upright row.
Coaching cue
Brace your core and keep your ribs down so you shrug up instead of leaning back.
Stay safe
Pick the bar up and set it down by pushing your hips back with a flat back, not by rounding over it.
Make it easier or harder
- Harder: Hold the top squeeze for three seconds on every rep.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Traps
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.