Middle Back Shrug
Trains the Rhomboids and Middle Trapezius.
- Equipment
- Dumbbells and an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Lie face down on an incline bench set to about forty-five degrees, chest against the pad.
- Let both arms hang straight down with a dumbbell in each hand.
- Keep the arms straight and the elbows locked for the whole set.
- Pull the shoulder blades back and together, letting the dumbbells rise a few inches.
- Hold the squeeze briefly at the top.
- Let the shoulder blades come apart again under control.
Common mistakes
- Bending the elbows. The straight arm is what makes this a shoulder-blade movement; bending turns it into a row and the middle back stops being the only thing working.
- Expecting a long range. The shoulder blades travel a couple of inches across the ribs and that is all there is; height beyond that is the elbows or the spine.
- Loading it like a row. With straight arms the lever is long and the muscles moving the blades are small, so the dumbbells are light.
- Lifting the chest off the pad. The pad is what fixes the torso; coming off it lets the back extend and hides how far the blades actually moved.