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Dumbbell shrugs: A powerful move for a stronger upper back

Target your traps and amass upper body power by shrugging your shoulders

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Dumbbell shrugs are a simple yet highly effective exercise to target your traps and help you build a more powerful upper back. All you need is two dumbbells, and you’re good to go. Even though it’s a simple exercise, there are plenty of common mistakes to avoid that can hamper your muscle-building success. Let’s look at how you can improve your form, the benefits of dumbbell shrugs, the muscles worked, and more.

What is the dumbbell shrug?

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The dumbbell shrug exercise involves holding two dumbbells down at your sides and shrugging your shoulders up and back down again. It’s a variation of the shrug exercise that isolates your trapezius muscles.

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What muscles are targeted during the dumbbell shrug?

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This single-joint isolation exercise mostly works your trapezius muscle as well as stabilizer muscles like your erector spinae.

Trapezius

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Your trapezius muscle is a three-pronged muscle connecting along your upper spine. It’s the largest in your back, beginning from your head and neck and extending towards your shoulders. The muscle joins in the middle of your back to form the geometric shape of a trapezoid. Your traps help you shrug your shoulders, turn and tilt your neck, and stabilize and move your shoulder blades. 

Forearms

Your forearm muscles isometrically contract so that you can keep a closed fist around the dumbbell. You’ll feel the burn in your forearms when you go to town with dumbbell shrugs.

What are the benefits of dumbbell shrugs?

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The benefits of dumbbell shrugs include:

  • Increase upper body strength and muscle mass.
  • Work with your hands at your sides.
  • Help correct certain muscular imbalances and reduce neck and shoulder tension.
  • Improve your posture by strengthening your trapezius and supporting muscles around your upper back and shoulders.
  • Improve your grip strength.
  • Isolate your traps.
  • Stronger traps level up your ability to perform other exercises like deadlifts.
  • It’s a simple and convenient exercise.

How to do the dumbbell shrug

Man doing dumbbell shrugs.
Anete Lusina / Adobe Stock

You’ll need two dumbbells.

Here’s how to do the dumbbell shrug:

  1. Stand upright, holding a dumbbell in each hand. Your arms should be down at your sides.
  2. Your feet should be planted directly under your hips, and your gaze should be straight ahead in the starting position.
  3. Engage your core and use your traps to pull or ‘shrug’ your shoulders up to your ears.
  4. Pause for a moment before slowly lowering the dumbbells back down to the starting position.
  5. Repeat until the set is complete.

Most common mistakes to avoid

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Eduardo Cano / Unsplash

Master the dumbbell shrug by avoiding these common mistakes:

  • Arching your back or slouching your spine.
  • Bending your elbows.
  • Using momentum to swing the weights up.
  • Shrugging the weights too high up. Try to pull the dumbbells up about 3 or 4 inches for the full range of motion.
  • Lowering the weights too quickly.
  • Gripping the dumbbells too hard, which can accelerate fatigue in your forearms.
  • Tilting your torso and not bracing and stabilizing your core.
  • Rolling your shoulders.
  • Not squeezing your traps.
  • Not moving both of your shoulders together in unison.

Top tips

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Cotton Bro / Pexels

Get the most out of dumbbell shrugs with these top tips:

  • Let your arms hang down freely at your sides, and avoid bending your elbows.
  • Focus on targeting your traps and performing the dumbbell shrug motion mostly with your shoulders.
  • Focus on deliberate shrugging motions at a steady pace using a medium-heavy weight.
  • Pause at the top of the movement to amplify results.
  • You can work your traps more frequently with high reps once you’ve perfected your technique.
  • Try to make sure your core is engaged and you’re breathing properly.
  • Try to keep your neck neutral throughout the movement.

Variations and alternatives

man holding one dumbbell in his hand dumbbell shrug outside in parking lo
Anete Lusina / Pexels

Mix things up with these dumbbell shrug variations and alternatives.

Variations:

  • Single-arm dumbbell shrugs — Work one arm at a time and place your non-working arm on your hip or braced against a stable structure.
  • Kelso shrugs — You’ll need to lean forward and rest your torso on an adjustable weight bench for this variation. Set the weight bench between 45 and 60 degrees for optimal muscle engagement.

Alternatives

  • Smith machine shrug — You can practice the shrugging motion using a Smith machine. Set the bar so it rests around knee level or a little higher.
  • Rack pull — To perform the rack pull, you’ll need to set up a barbell at around knee height in the power rack and address the bar with a conventional deadlift stance. You’ll hinge forward at your hips to lift the bar as you would the conventional deadlift. The rack pull has a shorter range of motion, so you might be able to lift more weight than the deadlift.

FAQs

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Who should do dumbbell shrugs?

Dumbbell shrugs are an excellent choice for anyone looking to specifically target and grow your traps. It’s suitable for beginners and more advanced exercise enthusiasts. If you have a shoulder injury or you’re not sure if dumbbell shrugs are suitable for you, consult with your healthcare provider, physical therapist, or personal trainer.

dumbbell outside on floor weights stack rack
Anete Lusina / Pexels

How much weight should you choose?

Your upper traps are large muscles, and you should be able to lift heavier weights with dumbbell shrugs. That being said, you should always focus on perfecting your form before trying to increase the weight. How much weight you should lift depends on your individual fitness level and your goals. Generally speaking, a male beginner lifts around 32 lbs for the dumbbell shrug, and an intermediate-level male lifts around 101 lbs.

Can you alternate dumbbell shrugs?

You can alternate dumbbell shrugs if you’d like to switch between shoulders. Just make sure you’re working each side evenly, engaging your traps and core, and focusing on proper form.

How to include dumbbell shrugs in your workout routine

man holding dumbbell arms down by side close up dumbbell shrug
Andres Ayrton / Pexels

You can include dumbbell shrugs in your back workouts, shoulder days, upper body days, and full-body workouts. If you’re just starting out, shoot for 3 sets of 10 reps with a moderate weight. If you’re looking to ramp up hypertrophy, aim for 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 reps with a moderate to heavy weight. You can work your traps more frequently than many other muscles, but be mindful that lots of other compound exercises also hit this area, like one-arm dumbbell rows and face pulls, so you don’t want to overdo it and reach burnout.

Shrugging your shoulders is one of the best ways to target your trapezius muscles and develop robust strength in your upper back.

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Steph Green
Steph Green
Steph Green is a content writer specializing in healthcare, wellness, and nutrition. With over ten years of experience, she…
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