EXERCISE OF THE WEEK!

This week's exercise is an Overhead Shrug.

Make sure that before completing this exercise you have consulted with your Exercise Physiologist whether this exercise is good for you.

The overhead shrug is a great way to get the scapula moving over the rib cage. We usually to a lot of work with the scapula via protraction and retraction (exercises like rows, scapula push ups and external rotation) but at time we can forget about other movements that the scapula does such as elevation and depression. This helps to move the scapula up and down the rib cage. This is where the overhead shrug comes in.

I have demonstrated this exercise kneeling using both arms (bilateral) but you can change this exercise to anyway you like. Doing one arm at a time kneeling (unilateral), seated on a chair or even standing.
To start the exercise, we don’t want to go too heavy with the weights, you are more than welcome to try this exercise without any weight at all. I am demonstrating this exercise with 1kg weights. Place your arms above your head and relax your shoulders, from here I want you to shrug your shoulders up towards your ears (elevation). In this moment we will also get some upward rotation (great for the swimmers out there) we want to pause for a second or two at the top and then return the shoulders back to our relaxed starting point (depression). This is a good exercise to warm up with or to put with your routine. If it is a warm up I would recommend doing only 5-10 reps 2-3 sets, otherwise when using it in a program following your normal rules for hypertrophy 8-12 reps/2-4 sets

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