Smith Machine Behind the Back Shrug

Back · Machine

How to do it

Guided bar at thigh height with you **facing away** from it, overhand grip at shoulder width. Unhook and stand tall with head and chest up and arms straight. Lift your shoulders towards your ears, squeeze for a second at the top and lower slowly. The guide stops the bar drifting away from you, so you can go heavy without fighting for balance, and behind the back the shoulder sits further back and more mid trap comes in. The classic mistake is forgetting to hook the bar at the end.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

Also works: Shoulders

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