mega power

I thought a power shrug was when you not only pulled your traps up to lift weight held in your hands, but also rolled your shoulders a bit, overextending it with a slight jerk. I'm not sure if the jerk is needed, but I imagine it is added to give the "power" effect to the exercise.
 
To be honest I am not entirely sure.  I am not an expert in olympic movements so the following is based on my overall training knowledge.  However, I would say the first video would be the power shrug.  It is essentially the very top part of the second pull in a clean and the video shows good form.  The second video I would say has bad form and is more of a cheat shrug.  (Think about deadlifting and letting your knees push the bar that far out from your spine on the eccentric).  The third video is almost a clean pull and I would call it a clean shrug, basically the clean loaded heavier and pulled to a shrug (the clean pull would involve more elbow bend and be slightly higher on the body, see video #1).  The fourth video was plain sexy!  Hopefully others will correct me if I'm wrong.  I just wanted to reply because of the overall sexiness of video #4.
 
1) Power Shrug with a vertical bar path; 2nd pull of clean.

2) Power Shrug with some horizontal movement since he keeps his torso more vertical. This is more like the 2nd pull of the snatch. If his grip were snatch width the bar path would be vertical. There is some horizontal movement because he has to clear his legs. It also means he is resting the bar somewhat on his legs on the dip.

3) Clean pull. Elbows bent would be a clean high pull.

4) I'd hit it.
 
NONE OF THE ABOVE!!! I couldn't believe anyone would call those power shrugs. Shrugs are not done with the LEGS, or with MOMENTUM of an Oly movement, or with the help of old ladies in water.

POWER SHRUG:
Grab the bar from your rack, safety stops, curl stand or table.
1.) With it hanging, shoulders drooping, and a good grip, let the shoulders roll forward and the UPPER spine only, curve a bit to the front.
2.) Your head usually will be down and you're looking at the floor. As you bring your head up, pull back and up with the traps, rhomboids, and whatever else you have, and do a static hold at the top for one second.
3.) When you can't clear your gear for height, the set is over. Because this is initiated with the upper back muscles instead of just the traps, you can go bug-heavy on these.
4.) grip wide enough so you won't try to "curl" it at the elbows. A semi-wide stance helps keep the heels on the floor. Heels come up and it's not a shrug.

These are what made my traps explode at last.
Trapth.gif

I just spent a half hour looking at Utubes of "power shrugs" and couldn't find even ONE guy who knows how to do it right. Closest I found was this guy, and he's cheating with the legs, and not holding at the top very long:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjBsqMurq9s&feature=related
The point is to pull with the traps, right? A power shrug, rolling back from a forward shoulder hits the lower traps as well. I do them with up to around 405, and the only thing moving is the shoulders. Not elbows, knees, or low back. I can't believe the horrible videos I just saw, so I guess I should make one and post it.
 
i completely agree. i build up to a heavy weight , do them real strict and hold at the top if i can. dont cheat unless i decide to go mad and stick loads of weight on the bar, but i only do that every so often for one set just to shock them!
 
Depends

Oly lifters will do a power shrug that is setup to mimic the complete extension of the lift

it aint cheating, its a movement setup for a specific goal
 
I'm not sure that the hold at the top of a shrug is an important part of what makes it a 'power' shrug. That would seem to be a matter of choice and might limit the load you could use for a progression. I would actually think that if you could pause for a second at the top of the movement (for each rep), you could also regular shrug with that load.

My take on power shrugs is that they are a way to allow for increased load above and beyond what you could regular/strict shrug with, in the same way that a push press allows you to increase the load over a strict press. So there will be a little hip flexion to get the weight up and then you will be fighting the bar from dropping down with your traps (ie. focussing more on the negative after a ballistic contraction).

If you approach 'power shrugging' in this way then you won't be tempted to use a ridiculous load just for the sake of holding it and/or twitching/bouncing about with it (à la lots of the vids you see on YouTube); you should be expecting/trying to get the same sensation of strain/loading on the traps that you get from regular shrugs (in fact more so, because of the heavier load). If this isn't the case then you are not transferring the load onto the working muscles effectively.

Like Aaron said, an Oly lifter would approach it as a way to train that part of the snatch or clean. I use power shrugs to help me achieve my specific goal; as I already know how to make strict shrugging effective for me, power shrugs are a useful way to extend a load progression.

I'm pretty sure that there are benefits to be had from just holding a heavy load and doing pulses with it: connective tissue strengthening and other support structures as well as trap and upper back strength. It might not be the most effective way to build traps but it ain't doing nuthin' either! (ie. it IS doin' sumpin')
 
I'm sure it also has genetic connections where one method may work better than others for an individual. I have no movement goals, so hypertrophy and the FUN of pulling abnormally heavy loads is my reason for using them.
I think the static hold may incorporate more motor units for the subsequent reps; at any rate they're almost a second rep of their own. Regardless, I can honestly say that it's all traps doing the work in my sets. If others want to bounce, wiggle, or jump it's their business. Just don't call them power shrugs, please!

I've been looking for Goldberg's secret and think I found it!  
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(quadancer @ Jul. 09 2009,12:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Just don't call them power shrugs, please!</div>
So a style of lifting that has used that sort of term for 60+ years cant used the term?
 
I dunno; are you talking about Oly lifters? That's out of my realm. I got my instructions from one of the PL sites and I think it was also posted on Testosterone Nation as an article once.
Yea, I guess people are gonna call things whatever they want. But if someone says their jumping slop is a power shrug to me, they'll get corrected, 'cuz I'm a descriptive proper kinda guy.  
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Did you see some of those vids on Utube? Like a hodgepodge of uninstructed flotsam.
 
Woudlnt descriptive proper rely on the first implimentation of the lift. Which was from Oly lifting. Years before powerlifting existed.
 
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