Instructions

  1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, stand up tall with your chest out, and lean forward so the dumbbell handles are over your toes and your shoulders are over the dumbbell handles.
  2. Let the dumbbells pull your arms straight and shoulder blades down as far as they’ll go.
  3. Take a deep breath, brace your abs, and raise your shoulders straight up toward your ears as high as they’ll go, keeping your arms straight.
  4. Pause briefly, then let the weight pull your shoulders down and return to the starting position.

Expert Tips

  • Think about trying to touch your shoulders to your ears, and pause a little longer at the top than you would for most exercises. This exercise has a shorter range of motion than most, so you want to make sure you take full advantage of it.
  • Allow the dumbbells to pull your shoulders as low as they’ll go. Ideally, you should feel a stretch along the sides of your neck and top of your shoulders.
  • Use lifting straps if your hands give out before your traps. This will prove true for most people. You don’t want your sets limited by your grip strength.
  • Move your shoulders straight up and straight down. Don’t roll them forward or backward.
  • Keep your arms perfectly straight and your torso completely still throughout each rep. If you find yourself bending your arms or swinging your torso to finish reps, you’re using too much weight.

Workout Programming

A good default is 3 sets of 8–10 reps with 1–2 minutes of rest, taking each set 1–2 reps shy of failure—the point where you can’t complete another rep despite giving your maximum effort.

Program dumbbell shrugs as part of a pull workout, upper-body workout, or full-body workout, usually after your presses, rows, and pulldowns. If your upper traps are your priority, you can do shrugs as the first exercise in your workout, as in the first workout below.

Mike’s Take

The dumbbell shrug is an outstanding exercise for training your upper traps. It effectively isolates your traps and allows you to add weight in small increments, use a full range of motion, and take your sets to or close to failure.

Some people also find dumbbells more comfortable and can get a little more range of motion with them than with a barbell.

That said, I generally prefer the barbell shrug because dumbbells are harder to get into position and, depending on the dumbbells available at your gym, often force you to add weight in larger increments.

All of that said, you can use the barbell shrug and dumbbell shrug interchangeably in your workouts.

Dumbbell Shrug Alternatives

  • Barbell Shrug. My preferred alternative because it usually lets you add weight in smaller increments than dumbbells and is easier to set up.
  • Machine Shrug. This is easy to set up, comfortable for most people, and requires less balance and coordination than the dumbbell version, but not every gym has one.
  • Trap-Bar Shrug. Using a trap bar allows you to hold the bar in a position that most people find more comfortable than a straight barbell, although some find it limits their range of motion, so you’ll have to test it yourself. It’s also more annoying to set up than a barbell.
  • Cable Shrug. Some people feel that using cables better activates their traps, but these are more annoying to set up and most machines force you to add weight in large increments, so I prefer a barbell or dedicated shrug machine.
  • Smith Machine Shrug. Faster to set up than a barbell shrug, but most people find it less comfortable.
  • Shrug-Back. This is a horizontal shrug that primarily trains your mid-traps, making it a great complement to vertical dumbbell shrugs, which primarily train your upper traps.

3 Dumbbell Shrug Workouts

Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the dumbbell shrug in a trap workout, an upper-body workout, and a pull workout.

Trap Workout with the Dumbbell Shrug

Dumbbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Chest-Supported Machine Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Shrug-Back: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
V-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest

Upper-Body Workout with the Dumbbell Shrug

Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
V-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Dumbbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

Pull Workout with the Dumbbell Shrug

V-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Chest-Supported Machine Row (or T-Bar Row): 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Shrug: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Alternating Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

To progress these workouts, use double progression: use a weight that allows you to work within the given rep range, take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure, and once you hit the top of the range for your first set, add weight.

More Trap Exercises