Lift More Weight through Building Bigger Shoulder Muscles

The shoulders have an important connection with bench press exercises. Generally speaking, the strength in the shoulders allows for better control and heavier lifting off the bench. In order to maximise the benefits you are getting from bench press exercises, there is no point having poor shoulder strength. Aside from the fact that you will not be training to your full potential, there is also a heightened risk of shoulder injury if you do too much with weak shoulders. The whole idea of what you learn today, is for you to see how to build your shoulder muscles, to achieve maximum bench press potential.

Have you thought about which deltoid is the key component when you need to address your bench press capabilities?

Some of you would already have worked it out. It is of course the anterior deltoid, sometimes referred to as the front shoulder head, that is responsible for the “pushing” motion.

Does the weight in an eccentric movement need to be controlled?

This is when you will see and feel the posterior deltoid kick into action. A strong rear shoulder head allows for better control and results when bringing the bar down towards the chest. As well there is the mid deltoid, known as the middle shoulder head, and is the main abductor right at the joint of the shoulder. A strong mid deltoid region will assist with strengthening the other two groups of deltoids.
So how do you start to build shoulder muscles so you can increase the bench press weight?

Believe it or not, there are already many workouts that will target your deltoids. Some would be:

• Raising your dumbbell in front of you• Raising a barbell out in front of you

What about the rear shoulder muscles for controlling that weight?

Then you will target your anterior deltoid, with exercises like:

• Dumbbell Laterals – Bent Over

This is one of those exercises that have a few different variations. The most common is when you will perform these standing up straight. A different variation is to bend over whilst sitting on the edge of a step, and you can also try these standing firmly against a wall.

Now you need to develop your mid shoulder muscles so your front and rear shoulder muscles are strengthened.

You will find that your mid shoulder exercise will also work the other two areas of the shoulder. A great way to train this area is by applying the following exercise:

• The trusted Military Press

Hopefully you are now aware of how to build shoulder muscles so that you can really boost your bench press capabilities, as well as gaining control and reducing your injury risk.