Thanks for the tip Keith. I tried this exercise on Friday and loaded up the bar. I found I had to space my hands farily wide apart to get the range of motion I wanted. It seemed like I wasn’t really getting anything out of it at the time. Wrong! All weekend and today I am sore as hell all over my traps and upper back. Great exercise.
From a strength perspective, is there some reason to prefer shrugs to heavy pulls as a trap exercise?
I’m not knocking the exercise; I’m sure it’s great for trap development. But then so are, for example, OL pulls and power cleans. I’m just wondering if the shrugs (and Hise shrugs in particular) have anything to recommend them that these exercises don’t.
I have found it to be a different way of training the upper back-never hurts to have a few extra tools in the bag. I also think it helps build a good base to hold the bar when squatting. As a side note, I like to do a variation of the hise shrug, where I am bent over (like a bent over row) beneath the bar of a smith machine (padded) and then do a kelso like shrug only with the weight on my back instead of in my hands-very effective, but takes some balance and coordination.
I just tried these the other day and my traps have never hurt like this before. I’ll let you guys know when I have to start cutting the neck out of my shirts.
You have twins Keith? Dang, your workload was nearly doubled in one day. Good luck. How old are they?
You look like you’re still a big guy. Do you still compete at all?
[quote]Hatebreeder wrote:
I just tried these the other day and my traps have never hurt like this before. I’ll let you guys know when I have to start cutting the neck out of my shirts.[/quote]
Wicked - absolutely wicked exercise!!!
Thanks for the reply, Keith.
The bent-over variation never would have occured to me.
I’ve been doing these for about a week, now. My previous post was made right after 2nd session of Hise Shrugs.
My back is so freakin sore it hurts to move!!
It’s not an ‘injured’ sore - but more of a ‘I had no idea there was a muscle there’ sore.
I’m really not sure what all muscles are being hit with this exercise. One would assume the upper back and traps. but I’m feeling it really intense in the very outside of my mid-lower back. As you can tell - anatomy/physiology is my strong suit.
Anyhoo - just wanted to say thanks for digging this little gem up and sharing it.