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Shrugging at Shrugs
by Stephen Holt

 

When I ask people why they do shrugs there is typically no thoughtful answer at all or they say, “because shrugs are good for the traps.”

The truth is shrugs may be bad for the “traps.”

Shrugs are a traditional exercise that most people perform without even thinking. You may want to consider removing it from your strength training routine.

The fact is that the traps have actually three parts – upper, middle and lower. Shrugs can overemphasize the upper part of the trapezius. The problem is that most people don’t understand what the trapezius does and how it works.

Since your entire shoulder girdle and your arms have only two small bony connections (the sterno- clavicular joints) to the rest of your skeleton, the entire trapezius has to work together to stabilize your shoulder girdle whenever you move your arm.

More specifically, the upper and lower traps work together in what’s sometimes referred to as a "force couple."

It’s the upper trapezius and lower trapezius acting along with the serratus anterior that results in the upward rotation of the shoulder blade that allows us to raise our arms overhead.

If you isolate the upper traps with exercises such as shrugs, they become inordinately strong compared to the lower traps and serratus anterior.

Even more important, the upper traps are neurologically predisposed to shorten and dominate the force couple. Shrugs may exacerbate this problem.

Once upper traps become dominant (or facilitated), they will neurologically inhibit or weaken the lower traps.

Thus, the stronger muscle becomes even stronger and the weaker one becomes even weaker. The stronger your upper traps become, the more likely it is to throw off the way your shoulder is supposed to move (athrokinematics) and the greater the likelihood of shoulder injuries.

Instead of the upper arm (humerus) remaining firmly in the socket (glenoid fossa) of the shoulder blade, the humerus moves upward and leads to impingement or “squishing” of the tendons and muscle fibers of the rotator cuff (specifically the supraspinatus).

If you insist on performing shrugs, make sure that you do at least an equal amount of work for the middle and lower trapezius.

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