Reverse Barbell Shrugs

Muscles Worked: Trapezius Muscle

Spotter Required: No

Minimum Equipment required: 6ft or 7ft Standard barbell

The Best Equipment to Use: 6ft or 7ft Olympic barbell

Warming up: To warm up, perform 1 set of 15 - 20 repetitions of the exercise with minimal weight.

How often should I perform this exercise: Reverse barbell shrugs target the tapezius from a slightly different angle, so it’s worth doing them with every shoulder workout.

When should I perform this exercise: I like to finish my traps workout with reverse barbell shrugs because it’s the easiest of all shrug exercises. But reverse shrugs can be performed at any time during your traps workout.

How to do the exercise: Standing with your knees slightly bent to take pressure off your back, hold the barbell shoulder width apart, behind you and with an overhand grip. Keeping your arms straight and head looking forward, begin to lift the bar up using your trapezius muscle, when you reach the top hold for ½ a second, then lower the weight back down to the start position.

You probably won’t be able to lift the same weight as you can with barbell shrugs because the weight is behind you, but don’t let this put you off, reverse barbell shrugs are very effective. Just Make sure when you lift the weight off the floor you lift with your knees, because of the funny angle if you lift the bar up wrong it can put unnecessary pressure on your back.

If you have a smith machine or power rack it means you can set the barbell at a certain height and not have worry about lifting it off the floor. Also if you need a little extra grip, lifting straps will help you grip the bar better and also allow you to lift heavier.

Mentality: Reverse shrugs are a relatively easy exercise, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and not put any effort into it, make sure you concentrate through your sets until you have completed the workout.

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