Are shrugs supposed to be explosive, or controlled?

[AD1985]

i think I yank on trap bar shrugs more than other lifts. Could be that the exercise leds itself to explosive movment, or it could be the weight is too high and i'm doing it wrong. What would you guys say?

[SuffolkPunch]

Either

If your goal is to get good at power cleans, it is necessarily explosive

If you want hypertrophy or shoulder health, I would aim for full ROM smooth and controlled movement. I prefer overhead shrugs for this purpose.

[WolfRose7]

Either

If your goal is to get good at power cleans, it is necessarily explosive

If you want hypertrophy or shoulder health, I would aim for full ROM smooth and controlled movement. I prefer overhead shrugs for this purpose.

Or chest supported reverse incline db shrugs... bit long winded haha

[supramax]

Either

If your goal is to get good at power cleans, it is necessarily explosive

If you want hypertrophy or shoulder health, I would aim for full ROM smooth and controlled movement. I prefer overhead shrugs for this purpose.

The best of both worlds is a power clean with either a strict press or push press and an overhead shrug lockout or a muscle snatch ending the same way.

[EliKoehn]

If you're doing them for strength, I'm not sure how they could be explosive without a high risk of injury.

You should be able to shrug at near-deadlift weight, and I wouldn't recommend yanking the bar up with that kind of poundage.

[JoshLV]

The only key item is to pull them back and lower the weight not drop it. Got a little stupid once and was letting my arms drop instead of lowering the weight and got a nasty pop in my neck.

[supramax]

If you're doing them for strength, I'm not sure how they could be explosive without a high risk of injury.

You should be able to shrug at near-deadlift weight, and I wouldn't recommend yanking the bar up with that kind of poundage.

It's not a concern if you're power cleaning the weight.

[kmcgu]

i think I yank on trap bar shrugs more than other lifts. Could be that the exercise leds itself to explosive movment, or it could be the weight is too high and i'm doing it wrong. What would you guys say?

It depends on what you are trying to achieve.

If you are trying to build your trap muscles, then you would want to increase your weight as you go and do controlled shrugs. Also if you want to strengthen your neck, controlled shoulder shrugs is the way to go.

Doing power cleans, it should be explosive, because you are trying to increase your power and it wouldn't work as well if you didn't have any explosive action.

With this movement, there are many muscles involved including trapezius, all parts of your deltoids, and some rotator muscles as well.

[anonymous]

not an exercise I'd want to do explosively given the shoulder anatomy and the beating they take from other lifts tbh

I do cable row shrugs and trap bar shrugs for higher reps because of the short ROM and squeeze each rep but my main concern is shoulder health

[BeginnerGainz]

Depends on the type of shrug

Bill Starr style power shrugs should be done explosive with heavy weight

Bodybuilding boring ass shrugs should be done slower and more controlled

Yates style dumbbell shrugs (monkey or armpit rows) should have a fast concentric and slow eccentric

[TheShadowMan]

What it's supposed to be should depend on what the training goal is. If you want to grow, take it slow. If you want a big lift, do it swift. Personally, I avoid jerking/explosive motions as they lead to injury for me and I don't care about being the strongest anyway, so that style isn't worth it for me. I like shoulders to go up and back, medium speed, nice and controlled so I can really feel them working and get a nice contraction. I use less weight on them cause I go to failure each set anyway. If you're trying to really hit the traps good though, i'd say screw shrugs and lean more heavily on things like cleans, deadlifts, and rows with a more upright torso angle. They also get a bit of work on shoulder press variations, so it's like why isolate them when they're being hit so often?

[BeginnerGainz]

What it's supposed to be should depend on what the training goal is. If you want to grow, take it slow. If you want a big lift, do it swift. Personally, I avoid jerking/explosive motions as they lead to injury for me and I don't care about being the strongest anyway, so that style isn't worth it for me. I like shoulders to go up and back, medium speed, nice and controlled so I can really feel them working and get a nice contraction. I use less weight on them cause I go to failure each set anyway. If you're trying to really hit the traps good though, i'd say screw shrugs and lean more heavily on things like cleans, deadlifts, and rows with a more upright torso angle. They also get a bit of work on shoulder press variations, so it's like why isolate them when they're being hit so often?

This guy gets it. Isolating the upper traps is a waste of time. Too many people are hunched over from poor posture all day so their upper traps take over most movements anyway....