Dumbbell Shrugs
For dumbbell shrugs, start by holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms relaxed at your sides. Keeps your knees slightly flexed and your body immobile for this movement; only your shoulders should be moving. You will be rotating your shoulders from front to back as you raise them, so start off by bringing your shoulders forward just before you lift them up.
Rotate your shoulders as you raise them, feeling the contraction in your trapezius at the top of the movement.
Continue the movement by bringing your shoulders back and squeezing them together, then return to the starting position.
Tips
* Rotating the shoulders like this as you raise them will work all parts of the trapezius. The upper part is worked at the top of the movement while the middle and lower parts of the trapezius as well as the rhomboids receive the effort at the bottom of the movement when the shoulder blades are squeezed together.
* Using heavy weights will make it impossible to fully rotate the shoulders, which is the ultimate purpose of this exercise and is what differentiates it from
barbell shrugs.
As a result, you should keep in mind that this movement is more about taking your trapezius through a full range of motion than it is about using heavy weights. In this sense, this is a good exercise to include as part of a warmup or cool-down.
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