Shrugs For Women

[mitchstrongjr]

my girlfriend really wants to build her traps and shoulders. but i never see women doing shrugs. is it not good for women to do shrugs?

[Ravenous_T]

NO!!! In as little as two weeks, she will build up so much muscle that she will outdo Coleman for the Mr.Olympia spot!


On a more serious note - it's perfectly fine for her to do shrugs. Just make sure they are heavy, and none of that "toning" bull****.

[LadyStarlight]

of course she can do shrugs. I don't personally because I have as big as traps as I ever want. Looks funny in shirts sometimes.

[mitchstrongjr]

i also have a post that she wrote with her pics and her workout

[stellar]

I used to do shrugs but stopped. i used to use 25 pound dumbells. I don't know if that would be considered heavy...

My massage therapist told me that i should quit shrugs because i spent so much time during the day with poor posture that i kept those muscles tense all day anyway. I am recovering from a shoulder injury and had to change up my routine completely.

I don't know if as a general rule, people who hunch their shoulders forward should not do shrugs. Any ideas about that, rav_t?

[MsFit]

i also have a post that she wrote with her pics and her workout

Might have her get her own user name here...makes your/her posts confusing.

[Ravenous_T]

I used to do shrugs but stopped. i used to use 25 pound dumbells. I don't know if that would be considered heavy...

My massage therapist told me that i should quit shrugs because i spent so much time during the day with poor posture that i kept those muscles tense all day anyway. I am recovering from a shoulder injury and had to change up my routine completely.

I don't know if as a general rule, people who hunch their shoulders forward should not do shrugs. Any ideas about that, rav_t?

Often people with RC injuries tend to hunch their shoulders, but there could be a multitude of reasons why you do it. I disagree that people with poor posture should do shrugs. If you build up your traps, thats not going to give you poor posture.

What shoulder injury did you have?

[Rocket]

I don't think women need to much trap work (unless they compete) but they do need a lot of pressing and side laterals...the wider a womans shoulders are the smaller there waist will appear! And that is a good thing to any woman.

[TennisChik]

I don't do shrugs, because I believe the trapezius muscles are the most overworked in the body as it is without having to work them directly. I have nice-sized traps and never, ever do shrugs. For me, they are a waste of time.

[stellar]

....

What shoulder injury did you have?

we are still unsure. Could be a rotator tear, i get the ultrasound results next week. My ART therapist thinks i have overdeveloped pecs that are causing me to hunch too much. So i stopped doing shrugs and bench press and a few other exercises that seemed to aggravate my shoulder. I've been hitting the rows and lat pull downs pretty hard to try to build up my back. But my physio thinks it's my neck. Its hard to trust any of them because they all say that i need to come in for treatment after treatment. Hopefully i'll get some answers next week from my real doc. Only problem with him is that he knows NOTHING about training.

thanks for your question.

[Ivey_Itch]

I do shrugs often. I enjoy them!

[Tiedtothickgirl]

It depends on your girlfriends goals. You can try working her traps for a time and see how they respond and what she thinks about them. My wife ThickGirl hits her traps hard. She currently does working sets with 75lb dumbells and she has nice traps but not huge. give the upper back a nice shape.

Try it out. you can alway stop if you dont like the look.

TTTG

[Lil Bullet]

i do shrugs, both barbell and dumbbell. i used to train traps on back day, but now i train them with shoulders (body likes a change). women can and should do shrugs. unless her traps are already proportionally bigger than the rest of her muscles, why not??