[donkey]

I saw some guy doing shrugs on a smiths at the gym today, have you tried it?

[Vase]

not tried it but i have seen people doing it before. i used to do shrugs but i now find that upright rows are far better and target more muslces than a standard shrug.

[MulMhmm]

you can also do them with dumbells, shrug from behind, side and to the front. will develop the lats and shoulders. and back of course

[donkey]

I gave it a try today. I am sticking to dumbells though.

[Botty Cakes]

I saw some guy doing shrugs on a smiths at the gym today, have you tried it?

I'm with Vase - haven't tried it but seen it done. I prefer upright rows. If I was going to do shrugs at all I'd use dumbells. Just a personal preference. I don't really like using the smith machine for any movement.

[Vase]

I'm with Vase - haven't tried it but seen it done. I prefer upright rows. If I was going to do shrugs at all I'd use dumbells. Just a personal preference. I don't really like using the smith machine for any movement.

I think the smith machine can be of use at times - but the fixed plane of movement will not be as effective as producing a rounded workout that would be offered by a free weight approach. You'll be able to go heavier but the stress on the muscle will be in a single direction only.

A better result may be achieved by using free weights. You'll need to stabilise the weight as well as push it - which is pretty good for you.

[tribal]

Machine shrugs are very good as they focus on one thing, your traps. When using dumbells you can be tempted to use your arms or roll your delts.

[Botty Cakes]

In my opinion the smith machine does have it's place, but it's not in the same league as free weights. Free weights will make you work harder as you have to stabilise the weight which you don't do on a smith machine.

Sure you can use more weight than you would with free weights...but what you have to remember is that the machine is actually assisting you by using a fixed range of motion and it also stabilises the weight for you. So really, the extra weight you use doesn't do much except put extra pressure on your joints.

The only time I've come close to having a serious and long term injury was through using the smith machine - so perhaps I'm more anti-smith than others. I'm not saying that machines are bad, they are ok to use from time to time or as finishing exercises … but I definitely wouldn't choose a machine over a free weight workouts.

[Vase]

I found that I was stagnant in my development until I binned the machine work that I used to focus on. I moved to free weights and suddenly found that I was the strongest accountant in the land.

But seriously - I found that the free weights really made a big change. and with that in mind I am off to the gym now - laters.........

[faz]

i prefer free weights but machines have there place.
try forward and reverse shrugs on smith machine they are pretty good,also like incline bench on smith machine,other than them i am not keen on it.
like the hammer strength machines,
prefer plate loaded if possible.
machines are also good if you have an injury.

[HyperFIT]

I am not a fan of machine shrugs however I regularly do dumbell and barbell shrugs to the front and back.

John

[MulMhmm]

I saw some guy doing shrugs on a smiths at the gym today, have you tried it?

some smith machiens can be a bit cranky i.e. no wd40 applied to them so its soemtimes hard to get the range of movement. I dont do shrugs, but when i do i do the 360 degree shrugs to get that all round shoulder andback development, also helps the traps as well.

But in some cases if the smith machine is the only option then its got to be used. I did dumbell squats last week, but this week chose to do it on the smith it was much better i dont liek dumbell squats

[nero]

I would never touch a smiths machine, particularly for anything like squats or shrugs.

[tribal]

Whats wrong with a smiths machine? Its inferior to free weights but it does have its uses.