Shrug

Movement

What the shrug asks of the shoulder blade

The fibres of the trapezius fall into three groups: upper, middle and lower^7,8. These are also called the descending, transverse and ascending parts, after the way their fibres run^7,8. The upper fibres can raise the scapula (shoulder blade), rotate it upward and extend the neck⁷.

Authors of a trial in 38 oral cancer survivors after neck dissection call the upper trapezius the primary mover of the shoulder shrug⁹. Neck dissection is surgery that removes lymph nodes and other tissue from the neck. That means the main muscle that makes the movement.

The versions studies have used

The studies on this page tested the shrug in several forms^11,12,13:

• A weighted shrug with the arms at the sides, and a shrug with the arms overhead¹¹.
• A one-arm shrug¹.
• An “upward rotation shrug”, with the arms held 30 degrees out to the side⁴.
• Shrugs with the arms raised to 30, 90 and 150 degrees of abduction, which means lifting the arm out to the side¹².
• A self-chosen (“preferred”) shrug, a frontal-plane shrug and a “stabilization shrug”, each at 30 degrees of abduction¹³. The frontal plane is the side-to-side plane that divides the body into front and back.
• Dumbbell shrugs, as one of five exercises in a workplace training programme⁵.

What it loads

The upper trapezius

In surface EMG from 30 healthy people, the one-arm shrug gave the highest upper trapezius activity of the 10 exercises tested¹. In 26 people, upper trapezius activity was high in a weighted shrug, an overhead shrug and an overhead shoulder-blade retraction¹¹. It did not differ significantly between those three exercises¹¹.

A study of 12 women workers with trapezius myalgia compared several strength exercises². Most of the exercises drove the neck and shoulder muscles above 60% of maximum voluntary contraction². In the shrug, trapezius activity reached about 102%². Trapezius activity was highest in three of them, and the shrug needed the heaviest load²:

Exercise	Trapezius activity, % of maximum voluntary contraction
Shrug	About 1022
Lateral raise	About 972
Upright row	About 852

In that study, the shrug used loads of 20 to 30 kg, while the lateral raise and upright row used 3 to 10 kg².

How arm position shifts the work

In several studies, arm position changed how active the shoulder-blade muscles were^4,11,12. One study of 26 people recorded muscles on the inner side of the shoulder blade during shrugs and retractions¹¹. These were the upper, middle and lower trapezius, the levator scapulae and the rhomboid major¹¹. The levator scapulae runs from the neck to the top of the shoulder blade. The rhomboids are muscles between the shoulder blades and the spine.

The study used skin sensors and fine-wire electrodes, very thin wire sensors placed into a muscle¹¹. The activity of these muscles depended on the shoulder position used¹¹.

Findings from those studies^4,11,12:

• Arms 30 degrees out, against arms at the sides. In 23 people without shoulder problems, activity rose significantly in the serratus anterior and in each of the three trapezius parts⁴. In 14 people with multidirectional instability, only the upper and lower trapezius rose significantly⁴. That is a shoulder that tends to slip out of its socket in more than one direction.
• Arms raised higher. In 20 people with what the authors call scapular downward rotation impairment, upper trapezius activity was greater at 90 or 150 degrees of abduction than at 30¹². In them, lower trapezius activity rose with the angle, and serratus anterior activity peaked at 150 degrees¹².
• Upper trapezius against levator scapulae. In the same 20 people, the ratio of upper trapezius to levator scapulae activity was greater at 90 degrees than at 30¹². Scapular downward rotation syndrome is a shoulder blade that sits turned downward at rest. In 17 people with it, a frontal-plane shrug gave more upper trapezius activity and a higher ratio than the preferred shrug¹³.
• Arms overhead. In 26 people, levator scapulae and rhomboid major activity was significantly lower in the overhead shrug than in a weighted shrug, arms down¹¹.

In that 26-person study, three exercises were compared, one of them a scapular retraction: drawing the shoulder blades back toward the spine¹¹. Retraction with the arms overhead was the most effective of the three at working the inner-side muscles¹¹. It gave significantly higher rhomboid major, middle trapezius and lower trapezius activity¹¹.

The muscles that turn the shoulder blade

The trapezius and serratus anterior are considered the only muscles that rotate the shoulder blade upward¹. The serratus anterior and upper trapezius work as a force couple for shoulder-blade movement: two muscles pulling in different directions that together turn a bone¹⁴. The trapezius rotates the shoulder blade against the levator scapulae and the rhomboids⁷.

In 17 people with scapular downward rotation syndrome, the stabilization shrug turned the shoulder blade significantly further upward than the preferred or frontal-plane shrug¹³.

How the body adapts

What changed straight after shrugs

One study measured shoulder-blade position right after shrugs, not after weeks of training¹². In 20 people with scapular downward rotation impairment, a downward rotation index was lower after shrugs at 90 and 150 degrees than at 30¹².

Loads over a 20-week programme

In a cluster-randomised trial of 537 industrial workers, participants did 20 weeks of neck and shoulder strength training⁶. On average they more than doubled their training loads⁶. In shrugs, for example, the load went from 8 kg to 21 kg⁶.

Trials of programmes that included shrugs

In the two trials below, shrugs were one of five exercises in each programme^5,6.

Trial	Who took part	What they did	What was found
Office workers	447 office workers, with and without neck or shoulder pain5	One hour a week of supervised dumbbell training for 20 weeks, five exercises including shrugs5	Neck pain fell more than in a group without training5
Industrial workers	537 industrial workers6	20 weeks of neck and shoulder strength training, three times a week, five exercises including shrugs6	Neck pain fell more than in a group advised to stay active; shoulder pain only tended to fall6

The office trial used three weekly schedules: 1 × 60, 3 × 20 or 9 × 7 minutes⁵. Some workers started with a pain rating of 3 or more⁵. Among them, all three schedules reduced neck pain more than the group without training, with no statistical difference between them⁵.

In the industrial trial, some workers started with a neck or shoulder pain rating of 3 or more⁶. Among them, the training group had higher odds of rating pain below 3 after 20 weeks than the control group⁶. The odds were 3.9 times higher for the shoulders⁶. For the neck they were 2.0 times higher, though the margin of uncertainty reached no difference⁶.

The same industrial trial reported its adverse events, meaning unwanted effects⁶. Those from overload or poor technique were described as minor and short-lived⁶. Four people in the training group, about 1%, left the trial citing musculoskeletal (muscle and bone) pain⁶. The authors say the training may have provoked it⁶.

How quickly neck pain changed

A second analysis of one cluster-randomised trial followed 131 women industrial technicians with neck pain above 30 mm on a visual analogue scale¹⁵. That scale is a line on which a person marks how much pain they feel. One group did four dumbbell exercises, shrugs included, plus a wrist exercise, three times a week¹⁵. The other group was advised to stay active¹⁵.

The difference in neck pain between groups became significant after 4 weeks¹⁵. Compared with the control group, pain in the training group fell fastest in the first 7 weeks¹⁵. It fell more slowly in weeks 8 to 15, then levelled off from week 16¹⁵.

Where the evidence is thinner

A systematic review sums up the research on a question, found in a set, checkable way. One such review looked at exercise trials for chronic neck pain with no specific cause¹⁶. It grouped shrugs with other arm exercises aimed at the shoulder and shoulder-girdle muscles¹⁶.

Two trials studied that group of exercises, both at high risk of bias¹⁶. Risk of bias is a rating of how likely it is that flaws in a study skewed its result. Their findings on pain were inconsistent¹⁶.

The shrug as a measurement

Some studies used the shrug as a measure, not as training^17,18. In a cross-sectional study of 60 people, which looked at the group once, maximal shrug strength was lower in two groups than in healthy controls¹⁷. One group had current chronic neck pain, and the other was in remission, pain-free for now, from recurring neck pain¹⁷.

A case-control study compares people who have a condition with similar people who do not. One such study used ultrasound, a scan made with sound waves¹⁸. It compared 36 people with chronic whiplash-associated disorders, the range of symptoms and effects that can follow a whiplash injury, with 36 matched controls¹⁸.

During shrugging, the whiplash group’s superficial (nearest the skin) upper trapezius changed shape less, both lifting and lowering¹⁸. After a loaded arm-raising task, this change of shape fell in both groups, but significantly only in the whiplash group¹⁸. The authors say this may reflect a different way of using parts of the muscle, and call for more research¹⁸.

Progressive overload

A 2026 position stand describes progressive overload as the need to raise the stimulus on the muscle through a training programme¹⁹. In each study below, shrugs were one exercise among several in a programme^5,6,20,21. So the results belong to each whole programme, not to the shrug by itself.

Raising the load in worker trials

Three trials of workers set the load as a repetition maximum (RM), the heaviest load a person can lift a set number of times^5,6,22. A lower RM means a heavier load⁶.

Trial	Who took part	How the load rose over 20 weeks
Industrial workers	537 industrial workers6	From 15 RM, about 70% of maximal intensity, to 8 to 12 RM, about 75 to 85%6
Office workers	447 office workers5	From 20 RM to 8 RM5
Office supervision	351 office workers22	From 20 RM to 8 RM, with tests at the start and halfway to set the intensity22

In the industrial trial, load rose while total repetitions fell in weeks 1 to 12, a pattern called linear periodisation⁶. Periodisation means planned changes to training, such as load and volume, over a programme. Weeks 13 to 20 used undulating periodisation⁶. Training diaries showed the RM falling while sets per session rose slightly, in an up-and-down way⁶.

In the trial of 351 office workers, each session began with 10 repetitions at 50% of one-repetition maximum²². Neck pain fell significantly in the minimally supervised group, compared with the reference group²². In the supervised group it only tended to fall²². The two training groups did not differ on any measure²².

In 131 women industrial technicians with neck pain, adherence was highest in the first 7 weeks¹⁵. Adherence means how far people kept to the planned training. It fell after that, especially after week 10¹⁵.

Adding repetitions and sets

In a preliminary trial of 25 people with chronic non-specific neck pain, one group did a standing shoulder shrug among general exercises²¹. Each set rose from 5 repetitions to 20 by week eight²¹. That group and a group doing specific neck exercises both improved in pain, disability and neck joint repositioning error²¹.

A trial of 69 military helicopter pilots and crew used shrugs with elastic bands²⁰. Training varied between 2 and 4 sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, in three 20-minute sessions a week for 20 weeks²⁰. About a third of the training group trained regularly²⁰. In the 10 who did, maximal shoulder elevation strength on the right side increased²⁰.

Connections

The muscle it loads

The shrug loads the trapezius, the large muscle across the upper back and neck^1,9. The trapezius steadies and moves the shoulder blade⁷.

Other muscles measured during shrugs

• The levator scapulae, whose activity against the upper trapezius changed with arm position^11,12.
• The rhomboid major, one of the rhomboids, which was less active in the overhead shrug^11,23.
• The serratus anterior, a muscle on the side of the chest. It was more active with the arms 30 degrees out in 23 people without shoulder problems⁴. It peaked at 150 degrees in 20 people with scapular downward rotation impairment¹².

A condition it was measured in

People with chronic whiplash-associated disorders showed less change of shape in the upper trapezius during shrugs than matched controls¹⁸.

Sources

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3. De Meulemeester K, Calders P, De Pauw R, Grymonpon I, Govaerts A, Cagnie B (2017). Morphological and physiological differences in the upper trapezius muscle in patients with work-related trapezius myalgia compared to healthy controls: A systematic review.. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice. doi:10.1016/j.msksp.2017.02.007 PMID 28315581
4. Pizzari T, Wickham J, Balster S, Ganderton C, Watson L (2014). Modifying a shrug exercise can facilitate the upward rotator muscles of the scapula.. Clinical Biomechanics. doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2013.11.011 PMID 24342452
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Every source the library cites

Changes

• October 23, 2026 Added a Progressive overload section.
• September 29, 2026 First published.