Barbell High Pull
The high pull teaches you to transmit force from the hips through a violent shrug, building powerful, dense traps and rear delts along the way. It bridges strength and athleticism, making it a favorite for lifters who want their traps to do more than pose. Technique and timing matter, so learn it light before loading up.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Type
- Functional, Strength
- Browse by muscle
- Trapezius Upper, Deltoid Middle
- Browse by movement
- Hinge, Shoulder Raise
- Target
- Trapezius Upper, Deltoid Middle
- Secondary
- Deltoid Posterior, Erector Spinae, Gluteus Maximus
- Tertiary
- Biceps Brachii Short Head, Brachioradialis
How to do it
- 1
Set up over the bar with a shoulder-width grip, hips back, and a flat, braced back.
- 2
Pull the bar off the floor smoothly, keeping it close to the legs.
- 3
As the bar passes the thighs, extend the hips and knees explosively.
- 4
Immediately shrug hard and pull the elbows high and to the sides.
- 5
Guide the bar to about chest height, then let it settle back down.
- 6
Reset the hips and bracing before the next rep.
Tips
- Let the hip extension launch the bar; the arms only finish the pull.
- Keep the bar close to the body the entire way up.
- Finish tall with the elbows above the hands, not with a backward lean.
Variations
Common mistakes
- The hips rise faster than the shoulders off the floor, so the bar is past the knees before the chest has moved and the pull becomes a stiff-legged yank.
- The load creeps up until the bar barely clears the navel, at which point this is a slow deadlift with a shrug and none of the speed it exists for.
- The shrug arrives late, after the hips have already finished, so the bar decelerates at the hip crease and never reaches chest height.
- Bouncing each rep off the plates instead of resetting the hips means every pull starts from a slightly worse back angle than the one before it.
- A pull that finishes above the collarbone brings a fast-moving bar up near your chin; keep the finish at chest height, where the elbows can still stay above the hands.
Frequently asked
- What is a sensible starting dose for the barbell high pull?
- Start at roughly half your deadlift for three or four sets of 5 crisp reps, placed first in the session while you are fresh. The prerequisite is a deadlift you can hold a flat back on for five reps at a moderate weight: a spine that rounds on a slow pull will round faster on a fast one. Add weight only while every rep still finishes with the elbows above the hands, and end the set the moment bar speed drops.
- What can I do instead of the barbell high pull if I have no barbell?
- A dumbbell high pull trains the same hip-to-trap sequence with a freer hand path, and a heavy kettlebell swing finished with a hard shrug covers the explosive part without any arm pull at all. A trap bar works too and is kinder to the low back off the floor.
- Who is the barbell high pull for, and when should it be skipped?
- It is for lifters who want the traps and upper back to produce force quickly, and it feeds straight into the clean and the snatch. Skip it if your goal is size, since rows and shrugs build the same muscles with far less that can go wrong. Skip it while a shoulder is cranky, because the fast, high-elbow finish loads the joint in a rolled-in position. Pulling from the floor at speed also asks a lot of the low back, so it belongs early in a session rather than after squats.
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