Do Barbell Squats Hurt Your Neck & Traps?

"Do Barbell Squats Hurt Your Neck & Traps?"

A common complaint that I hear quite often from
a lot of new lifters who are starting to include
barbell squats into their workouts is:

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"The bar digs into my shoulders & hurts my neck
what can I do to make squats more comfortable?"
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In fact someone made a post about this on the
Total Fitness Bodybuilding Messageboard recently.

Now a lot of people and most so called "experts"
will tell you to wrap a towel or pad around the
bar to try and cushion the pain and make it more
comfortable to squat.

However, I actually disagree with this because
it throws off your exercise form, especially
once you start working up to heavy weights.

Not only that, but the risk of having the pad
roll and the bar slide down your back during
the exercise is quite high.

Instead of trying to cushion the pain with pads
and using a "band aid" type of approach, I say
tackle the problem head on and toughen up your
traps so that the bar doesn't dig in and cause
pain to begin with.

One of the best exercises for strengthening your
traps is the "Hise Shrug". This is an old time
exercise that works awesome for building up your
entire upper back and toughening up your traps.

I just posted a quick video clip below that
shows how to do the Hise Shrug.