Press - shrug only

[Chickma2]

Do you think there would be any benefit to strengthening the rotator cuff by pressing a bar up to the top and just doing shrugs. I.e shrugging, relaxing the traps, shrugging again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Let's hear your reasoning.

[AndrewLewis]

Do you think there would be any benefit to strengthening the rotator cuff by pressing a bar up to the top and just doing shrugs. I.e shrugging, relaxing the traps, shrugging again.

Which muscles create the shrugging motion?

[pgoreham]

I'm happy to give it a try.

Some questions to consider.
1. For the movement as you have described, is it effective for strengthening the rotator cuff? - Yes, but in a limited way. I think it will probably strengthen the rotator cuff to some extent but it seems like it would be very awkward/difficult to incrementally load. Therefore is probably less effective than other approaches or will have use for a brief time.
2. Is shrugging providing any benefit to the described goal of strengthening the rotator cuff? - I would think not. I would guess for the rotator cuff shrugging has little to no benefit for strengthening the rotator cuff. As you stated above you are working the traps. Both with shrug and without this is an isometric hold for the rotator cuff.
3. Are there other exercises that are more effective? - I think probably. I would think that the Press and its accessories (Pin Press, etc) would be more effective. The above exercise is isometric for the rotators cuff and therefore does not provide ROM (for whatever it would be for rotators cuffs). Press is going to move the rotator cuff muscles through a much longer ROM which will be better for strengthening them.

If you're rehabbing use Rip's shoulder rehab protocol. If your just proposing a mental exercise I would think for a novice the muscles will strengthen but you will not be able to use the exercise for very long. Pressing will provide a better approach for strengthening the rotator cuff muscles.

[Kyle Stevens]

How would you quantify a "successful rep" and a "missed rep" with shrugging?

[Mark E. Hurling]

I only know of two people who advocated this type of shrug. Paul Kelso, who seems to have come up with it and bunch of other inventive shrugs, along with Stuart McRobert who picked up on the overhead shrug. Seems like another angle of attack on the traps, although a relatively lightly loaded one and with a very weak set of links in the triceps and delts.

[danomite!]

Wouldn't this risk shoulder impingement (between the head of the humerus and the AC joint)?

[CarteringKat]

Wouldn't this risk shoulder impingement (between the head of the humerus and the AC joint)?

Looking at it logically, if the shrug at the end of the shrug is supposed to prevent impingement, why would shrugging at the top of a press cause impingement?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Because of the position change in the scapula from start to lockout.

[Chickma2]

I have no reasoning other than, at some point in the last 6 years of my 1000000 hour spent reading and rereading the books and scouring this forum, I thought I remembered it being said that the shrug itself at the top of the press is what strengthens the small rotator cuff muscles.

Also, sometimes to warm up for bench or press I will holy an empty bar in a shrugged position, or hang from a pat pull down shrugged, or do a few exaggerated shrug face pulls. So I thought maybe just focusing on the shrug would potentially provide some additional useful strengthening of the rotator cuff.

Beyond that, I have no other reasoning, and certainly nothing scientific.