Clean Shrug

How to do it

1. Set a loaded barbell in a rack at mid-thigh height, or lift it there from the floor.
2. Take an overhand grip wider than your shoulders, as for a clean.
3. Stand tall with the bar against your thighs, arms straight.
4. Dip slightly at the knees, then drive up through the legs.
5. As the legs finish, shrug the shoulders hard toward your ears.
6. Lower under control and reset before the next repetition.

Common mistakes

• Shrugging before the legs have finished. The leg drive and the shrug are one movement in sequence — starting the shoulders early means the legs contributed nothing.
• Bending the elbows to lift the bar higher. Once the elbow bends this is an upright row or a partial clean, and the shrug has stopped being what moves the bar.
• Treating it as a heavier version of a barbell shrug. The leg drive is what lets the load be higher; the trapezius is not doing proportionally more work just because the number went up.
• Doing it without a plan for what it is for. It is an accessory to the clean — training the top of the pull — and as a trapezius exercise a plain shrug puts more of the load where you can control it.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Traps

Secondary

• Forearm Flexors
• Forearm Extensors
• Shoulders