Thread: benching for shoulders, not overhead presses

Well honestly your shoulders should have very little to do with bench pressing if you are benching correctly. You need to be sure you keep your shoulder blades pinned together and your shoulders rolled back and this forces you to use mostly your chest and triceps. Also keep the bar very low on your chest, almost on your upper abs.

My guess is you were completely overtraining your shoulders and when you laid back on the shoulder work they started to grow.

Benching only works the front delts a bit. OH pressing works the entire shoulder, but mostly the medial delt.

Your answer? Bench + OH press + row = big shoulders.

Well, D gave a great, (and) perfect explanation of how to correctly bench.

As far as your delts go...Military pressing IS the way to growing your entire shoulder girdle. (compound movement)
there are web sites you can go to for explanation and execution of exercises.
Personally, some time back, I did mainly incline Bench pressing. My anterior (front) delts got hit hard and grew more than the rest of my delts. I had a rounded over look. I don't do front raises..or rarely.
Military press (or overhead if u want to call it that) Targets your medial head as well as the anterior head)
How is your form and Range Of Motion? If you are doing them correctly and your delts aren't growing..something is wrong.
Also, what do you do for the medial and anterior heads? (side and back parts of the delts)
benching does not directly make your delts grow.

ok i guess that makes sense. And not that im trying to attack or go againts anyone who answered but does anybody here who honestly has big round shoulders does not bench press, dumbell chest press, or do pushups?

A few years ago, i used to weighted inclined one arm pushups for several months with usually 4 sets x 5 reps and when i was finished i went to the miror and checked my shoulders and they always got really big and round.
People at my school , even the beginners benched and always got big round delts.

I do think that if a person is to put a solid workout regimine together and leaves out any kind of bench at all, then its not a solid workout regimine. So to answer your question, no, people who have big round shoulders do indeed do some form of bench press. But who doesnt?

Then again for the most part I know whenever my shoulders are growing from one thing or another, and I can tell you for a fact you will gain nice big shoulders from a military press before you do from bench, unless you are leaving your shoulders open for injury. This happens all to often, people dont know the proper way to preform a bench press and use their shoulders. Which can be effective, but dangerous. Whenever you go up weight and start preforming low reps then thats whenever it starts to get dangerous.

alright thanks. I just get desperate for big shoulders. When i first started overhead pressing my shoulders really got big and round so i got happy and decided to stick with it but then after a few weeks of doing them i felt my front delts were getting worked much more than my sides which got me a little ticked, db raises didnt work either. Now, a year later i thought back on all the times i did pushups, bench presses and db chest presses and thought what they did to my shoulders as well as what they did to other people i know. In the weightroom, i have only seen them bench as a basic upperbody exercise but never shoulder press or db raise and they got pretty toned rounded delts(you know, the new people who seem to do the popular exercises and rarely any of the more specific exercises and dont know too much).

You still do bench pressing right? I know alot of people dont do flat benching because it hurts their shoulders, but fo you do some type of benching? I guess I need to correct myself a bit, I think benching does effect your shoulders, but not to the extent that shoulder presses do. There is my correction. I would think the bench if done properly would hit the shoulders lastly, and only to a certain degree. The most stress would be on your triceps and chest.

Well i dont bench because its hard to find a good spotter at home who doesnt get all jumpy if he thinks ur lifting too heavy and the fact that my left arm is weaker than my right arm so i dont get a good workout and it is unsafe. Right now im doing weighted pushups with these pushup stands i have. I guess i'll just do them, shoulder presses and db side raises and see what i get, and i recently bought some supplements so it might take a faster pace.

Also during the time i was doing shoulder/overhead presses my side delts were rarely ever sore the next day so thats definatley a problem.

Just because a muscle doesnt get sore doesnt mean it isnt getting worked. Also do you not have Db's at home? You can buy the handles for about 30 bucks and add weight to em. Weighted pushups may be ok, I dont know what training history you have, but there really isnt a good substitute for some kind of horizontal press. I know Bowflex makes a bench that has built in spotters on the sides. I had a buddy buy one 5 days ago for about $275. Its really sturdy and nice. Also your left arm will find its way out of being weaker the more you press. I think just about everyone starts out that way then within normally a month or so its fixed itself.

o my bad my bad i just realized i my shoulders probably didnt get sore from bb shoulder pressing the next day since my left arm is weaker so my right arm doesnt get a good workout since it can easily lift the weight. My left arm however did get sore. Haha sorry buddy.

Benching does use the shoulders more than a "little" way, but overhead presses can be done in a variety of ways.

Barbell Press
DB Press
Alternating DB Press
Arnold Press

Seated or (my fav) standing!

I personally dont like any sort of raises. If I settled for one, it would be scaptions, but for size, Id ditch them or keep them low volume. You want big shoulders? Utilize big compounds...and dont forget to bench.

Originally Posted by Double D

I guess I need to correct myself a bit, I think benching does effect your shoulders, but not to the extent that shoulder presses do.

Thought I would bring this to everyones attention.

I think D also brought up the point about your arms not being of equal strength.
If your arms aren't up to par, as it were....you don't need to be worrying about using weight that would require you to need a spotter. (always good to have one if one is available)
Keep your weight at a range where you can do about 8 - 10 reps without failing. (close, but not fail)
Your weaker arm will catch up tothe dominant one. It HAS to. When the bar is going up steadily and level...then you can think of adding weight.

But to not do a core exercise, 'cause you can't find a spotter? Don't make excuses. How old are you? we've got a 13 year old on-site...he's alittle nut job...but I will give him credit for his desire and intensity...

When I was in highschool...I had no idea what I was doing...nor did the guys I 'lifted' with. We'd hit bench presses all class...or we'd do curls...and curls..and more curls...maybe some squats...most likely the WRONG way to do them.

See you've been here a few hundred posts...stick around and learn to do this the right way. Read the stickies. Ask questions.
If I knew then what I know now...and had that natural testosterone flowing in the levels you do...whooo! Would have been good times!

Hes been here longer than me Burner.

427 posts to 3,757?
ooohh......you took the SHORT bus to school....

Look! I made another funny!

Of course the post number is different, but the join date is before mine. Are you calling me a post whore?

Originally Posted by Burner02

I think D also brought up the point about your arms not being of equal strength.
If your arms aren't up to par, as it were....you don't need to be worrying about using weight that would require you to need a spotter. (always good to have one if one is available)
Keep your weight at a range where you can do about 8 - 10 reps without failing. (close, but not fail)
Your weaker arm will catch up tothe dominant one. It HAS to. When the bar is going up steadily and level...then you can think of adding weight.

But to not do a core exercise, 'cause you can't find a spotter? Don't make excuses. How old are you? we've got a 13 year old on-site...he's alittle nut job...but I will give him credit for his desire and intensity...

When I was in highschool...I had no idea what I was doing...nor did the guys I 'lifted' with. We'd hit bench presses all class...or we'd do curls...and curls..and more curls...maybe some squats...most likely the WRONG way to do them.

See you've been here a few hundred posts...stick around and learn to do this the right way. Read the stickies. Ask questions.
If I knew then what I know now...and had that natural testosterone flowing in the levels you do...whooo! Would have been good times!

alright thanks

and im 16

naw....you haven't broken 10k yet....but some day, my padewon...

Well I probably will within the next year. Damn old post whore.....

well, mi amigo....if u get a mid-shift job w/ internet access...and basically nothing to do...and a few night owls on....you too can get the stupid post count #'s I have...

Well thats where I am right now, at work! Easy job ya know. But I have something I am sure the next guy isnt going to be to happy about. Oh well its the first one back since xmas. He'll get over it.

what would that be?

I was suppose to change a gasket on a bleach press. I didnt get it done.

Yes, bench pressing works your shoulders a lot too.

There are a lot of reasons why you might not have seen the results you wanted before though: diet, poor exercise selection, not enough/too much stimulation of the muscles in question, etc.

Originally Posted by CowPimp

Yes, bench pressing works your shoulders a lot too.

There are a lot of reasons why you might not have seen the results you wanted before though: diet, poor exercise selection, not enough/too much stimulation of the muscles in question, etc.

Yea i got a few things covered now:
For diet i dont need to worry so much because i recently just bought some musclebuilding powder-muscle milk.
For the poor exercise selection, well i was way too obsessed with getting big shoulders i just focused on doing OH presses and db raises. I never thought of adding some horizontal press in my routine.

Originally Posted by GoLdeN M 07

Yea i got a few things covered now:
For diet i dont need to worry so much because i recently just bought some musclebuilding powder-muscle milk.
For the poor exercise selection, well i was way too obsessed with getting big shoulders i just focused on doing OH presses and db raises. I never thought of adding some horizontal press in my routine.

If thats all you were doing for a long time, then your body had already adapted to those moves.

Originally Posted by GoLdeN M 07

Yea i got a few things covered now:
For diet i dont need to worry so much because i recently just bought some musclebuilding powder-muscle milk.
For the poor exercise selection, well i was way too obsessed with getting big shoulders i just focused on doing OH presses and db raises. I never thought of adding some horizontal press in my routine.

Musclebuilding powder isn't going to diddly if you aren't getting enough calories, sorry to say. There is more to a good diet than using a weight gainer supplement. Those are generally garbage. I would check the diet & nutrition section out.

Check your chest development. If your chest isn't growing but your shoulders are (especially if your delts get a pump from benching but your chest doesn't) then it points to a number of things:

1. Diet lacking suffiecient correct calories
2. Times a week you train the area compared to the other
3. Type of training you use for each muscle group

but more commonly-

4. Form

Diet is imperative. Not eating enough of the right stuff will halt progressive growth, and be detrimental in energy availability for training and general everyday activity/functions.

Secondly, depending on how the muscle reacts to the stimulation of lifting (does it benefit from being trained more often or by having longer rest phases etc)- train one more than the other will usually lead to that muscle getting bigger faster than the one with the less attention.

The type of training is a huge factor as well. If you train your shoulders with free weight traditional lifts but then do only pushup type exercise (although weighted) then the muscles are both getting different types of stimulation, the shoulder workout probabaly being more effective in breaking down muscle tissue, therefore achieving more growth than the chest program.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly is it suggests you form is off. If you bench and you feel it in your shoulders rather than your chest something is indeed wrong. You're either holding the bar too high over your shoulders/neck areas instead of your chest when laying down, or your grip width is too narrow. This would lead to more of the stress being placed over your shoulders and tri's (and worse your rotator cuffs/shoulder joints). If you don't lower the bar down far enough, that again will hit the delts and tri's more than the chest.

I know this as this is how I trained for ages. My delts ballooned from training them all the time and my chest remained shallow and just toned from my ineffective chest workouts.

I then went wide on my bench grip (comfortable but where I could get the 'feel' or find the 'groove' in the muscle) and lowered down til it hit my chest. Okay, it nearly halved my bench weight but the focus went straight to my chest. The size quickly came and I no longer felt it in my delts and only occasionally in my lower tri's on the last struggling reps etc.

At your age it's best to develop an overall physique as you go. It'll look better, more balanced make all your muscles bigger and stronger, not just the more popular showy muscles. It'll also save you (literally) years when your'e older and are more serious about lifting as you'll have a good foundation to take further as opposed to have to bring up lacking areas or learn how to do certain exercises properly from the start. Do the bread and butter traditional exercies, power lifts etc. This will lead to development. You can chop and change it all up when your body is fully adapted to the usual stuff so is no longer growing, but that'll be a way off as yet.

As for your delts, if the sides and rear delts aren't growing try exercising them first in your shoulder workouts when you're full of energy. Change exercises, check form of the current exercises - make sure your feeling it, not just cheating or swinging the weight. Some days go heavy for low reps then other days go lighter for higher burn out reps.

I found doing rear delt dumbell raises first made them spring into existence, doing seated side dumbell raises instead of standing ones, focused more form into the exercise and simply doing upright rows both WG and CG made rear, side, front delts and traps all tie in nicely.

Whatever you do, good luck and hope you make progress

OMG this is actually longer than Lord of the rings- Films and book.