In Pursuit of Perfection, Can We Change the Shape of Our Muscles?
Despite our muscle gains and the conditioning we are able to achieve, many of us remain unhappy with our physical ...
Exercise Execution
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Gut Health: Make or Break Your Body Composition… & Your Health!
Did you know that your body is approximately 90% bacteria and only 10% human? From birth to death, our gut ...
MCT’s versus LCTs: Which are best for boosting performance and burning fat?
Not all fats are created equal. Put simply, there are good fats and bad fats: the so called unsaturated and ...
The Biology of Fat Loss Mechanics – Part 1
By Roland Pankewich Fat loss is the ever-elusive conquest of anyone and everyone who is into health and fitness. Observationally ...
BCAA’s
In terms of exercise performance and recovery, few amino acids get the notable mention that BCAA’s do. While glutamine is ...
Shopping Guidelines: The Nutrition Label Quandary – Are you Being Deceived?
Is marketing B.S & deceptive food labelling costing you your health & slamming the breaks on your progress? We give ...
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Ab Vacuums
Looking for a 'trick' to help you get a smaller waistline? Vacuums are what you're looking for...
Crunching Movements
Ben's top tips for executing the most effective ab crunching exercises for a 6 pack with a pop!
Chest Flyes
There's nothing better than a good fly movement to really isolate and focus on squeezing the pecs... Ben breaks down ...
Leg Presses
Ben's top-shelf tips for leg pressing your way to massive legs!
General Exercise Principles
General Exercise Principles to Learn
Shrugs
General guidelines for all shrugging movements
(unless specifically stated otherwise)
- use lifting straps if desired, particularly for working sets
- take a shoulder-width-grip ideally
- chest up, head / neck neutral, elbows / triceps locked-out (unless stated otherwise)
- if standing, lock out quads and contract glutes and abs (don’t let hips come back and forth)
- pull everything back / retract scapula (not to an extreme, but to avoid any roll forward)
- begin by retracting from around the mid-back
- shrug right to the top of the neck and really squeeze
- push / protract on the way downward to lower the weight (don’t let it drop).
Standing Shrugs – Dumbbell or Barbell
‘Beside body’ variation depicted
- Exercise Specific:
- Be sure to keep everything pulled-back throughout with the weight(s) held (constantly) just slightly in front.
- Dumbbell Optional Variations:
> Hold DB’s Behind body: this is the position in which you will be weakest
> Hold DB’s Beside body: hold with a neutral grip (palms facing) and pay extra attention not to rest during this variation in order to maintain constant tension.
Prone Incline Shrugs – Dumbbell or Barbell
Note how the shoulders are correctly down and back, not raised and forward
- Exercise Specific:
- Actively resist the urge to let the shoulders rise up and sag forward during the movement.
Shrug + Upright Row Combination
- Exercise Specific:
- once at the top, bend elbows and pull / row them upwards about 3 inches further.
