Exercise:

Bent Over Dumbbell Shrug

Target Muscle:

Back (Traps)

Dumbbells

Grab a pair of dumbbells and hold them at your sides, slightly angled out in front of your body 1-2 inches outside of shoulder width.

Lean your upper body forward slightly and let the dumbbells hang down with your arms fully extended.

Instead of shrugging the weight straight up and down, shrug it at a horizontal angle so that your shoulders are being shrugged both up and backward at the same time.

Squeeze your traps in the top position, and then lower the dumbbells under control until your arms are fully extended.

- Don’t think of this as an "explosive" exercise. Instead, keep every rep smooth and controlled and use a deliberate cadence while really aiming to forcefully squeeze your traps on every rep.

- In the bottom position of the exercise, allow the the dumbbells to hang forward so that you feel a good stretch in your traps.

- This exercise takes a bit of practice in order to really feel your traps working, so make sure to start off with lighter weights until you nail down the proper form before increasing.

- To increase the activation of your trap muscles even further, you can use a set of lifting straps or lifting hooks to fully eliminate your grip from the equation.