Shoulder Dominant

[Doom44]

i just found out why my chest are lagging.
when i do press movement my shoulders are dominant.
i hear some said you should pre-exhaust you sholders before you train chest, some said do fly movement pre-exhaust your chest before you do press movement. so which is right?

[RipOwens]

This sounds unnecessarily complicated to me. When you do a press movement (or any movement) really focus on working the muscle you want. Don't just go through the motions. For me, it's about that mind/muscle connection.

Also for something like bench press, really squeezing those shoulder blades together throughout the exercise helps me target chest.

[Turkish Juicer]

Pre-exhausting shoulders before working out chest is by the far the worst training advice I've ever heard! There has to be a misunderstanding or something, otherwise it is a pretty retarded thing to say.

Pre-exhausting your chest with a number of isolation exercises, on the other hand, can work really well for you, which is something you are going to have to try and see it for yourself.

[Doom44]

Pre-exhausting shoulders before working out chest is by the far the worst training advice I've ever heard! There has to be a misunderstanding or something, otherwise it is a pretty retarded thing to say.

Pre-exhausting your chest with a number of isolation exercises, on the other hand, can work really well for you, which is something you are going to have to try and see it for yourself.

alright thanks for the usefull advise

[MajorPectorial]

agree with both above. Sone times usin a pec deck but holding onto the outter bar (if possible), will teach u to lock your arms n use only your chest. Try n keep your elbows back away from weist n dont try to straighten your arms but more pull your upper arms in above shoulder forcing your arm to straighten. U get this mastered and youll hardly use your triceps too meaning you can use lighter weight. Also try bringing the bar down to the top of your pectorial minor/collar bone area n go straight up. Try with a lighter weight and up it as you master it. ;-)

Hope this helps

[bigsiv]

I always find my shoulder dominates when the beck is inclined. My shoulders take over so to compensate I only do decline and flat bench for chest. I am starting to convert to the mind/muscle connection idea it has been working for me lately

[bigsiv]

I always find my shoulder dominates when the beck is inclined. My shoulders take over so to compensate I only do decline and flat bench for chest. I am starting to convert to the mind/muscle connection idea it has been working for me lately

*beck meant bench

[MajorPectorial]

Yeh bigsiv its a great changer for ppl once you 'get it'

i hit more incline than flat so im getting a much 'fuller' look in my pectorial minor area. Better look.i think.

[tdoe11]

When I do and bench exercise I try and only touch my butt and shoulders on the bench. Give my back a good arch. Keep your shoulders behind your chest always, keep your shoulder blades pinched together tightly the whole movement. As soon as you round your shoulders forward your chest is de-activated and your front delts kick in. Close your eyes and FOCUS on the muscle you are targeting. Maybe try lighter weight and real high reps. Up to 20 reps a set to get a serious burn in the muscle. That helped me really get a feel for hitting the right muscle every time with heavier weight and regular rep ranges. ALWAYS flex the muscle you are targeting as hard as you can EVERY rep. Hope that helps broseph

[tdoe11]

Also your grip will determine where it hits you. I find on flat bench especially, real wide grip I get more shoulder activation. So I go with a slightly wider than shoulder grip. Works for me

[M302_Imola]

I always find my shoulder dominates when the beck is inclined. My shoulders take over so to compensate I only do decline and flat bench for chest. I am starting to convert to the mind/muscle connection idea it has been working for me lately

You shouldn't throw of incline bench all together...try reducing the angle of incline this should take some of your shoulders out of the equation.

[auswest]

Drop the weight, use more dumbbells and focus on using and squeezing your chest, perform the movements thinking about using your chest to pull your arms together take the focus off the weight...
This is what helped me to grow my chest, you start throwing around heavy weight on the bench shoulders and tris will do more work, IMO swap the bar for the dumbbell and reduce your weight and get that connection going with your chest, stretch it out at the bottom and squeeze your chest the whole way up..press with more of an arc than vertical up down push this should allow you to keep tension on your chest

[Turkish Juicer]

Drop the weight, use more dumbbells and focus on using and squeezing your chest, perform the movements thinking about using your chest to pull your arms together take the focus off the weight...
This is what helped me to grow my chest, you start throwing around heavy weight on the bench shoulders and tris will do more work, IMO swap the bar for the dumbbell and reduce your weight and get that connection going with your chest, stretch it out at the bottom and squeeze your chest the whole way up..press with more of an arc than vertical up down push this should allow you to keep tension on your chest

Good advice indeed!

[bigsiv]

You shouldn't throw of incline bench all together...try reducing the angle of incline this should take some of your shoulders out of the equation.

Not only do my shoulders slightly dominate with incline I have a small twinge in my left shoulder, em really old injury from boxing years ago. I can do everything I need for chest on flat and decline. I keep incline for when I'm actually doing shoulders.

Do you think incline bench is a must for growth in the pictorials ?

[tigerspawn]

Drop the weight, use more dumbbells and focus on using and squeezing your chest, perform the movements thinking about using your chest to pull your arms together take the focus off the weight...
This is what helped me to grow my chest, you start throwing around heavy weight on the bench shoulders and tris will do more work, IMO swap the bar for the dumbbell and reduce your weight and get that connection going with your chest, stretch it out at the bottom and squeeze your chest the whole way up..press with more of an arc than vertical up down push this should allow you to keep tension on your chest

What auwest suggested will help a lot. Turn weight at top of arc palm facing in. This ensures that you get max contraction.

[tigerspawn]

The angle that your elbow is from your body also influences the degree that your shoulders and chest are engaged. I try to always keep mine at 45 degree angle. This ensures chest engagement with slight shoulder engagement with traps retracted and places low stress on rotator.

[M302_Imola]

I attribute most of my upper chest development to both barbell and dumbbell incline.

Not only do my shoulders slightly dominate with incline I have a small twinge in my left shoulder, em really old injury from boxing years ago. I can do everything I need for chest on flat and decline. I keep incline for when I'm actually doing shoulders.

Do you think incline bench is a must for growth in the pictorials ?

[ghettoboyd]

This sounds unnecessarily complicated to me. When you do a press movement (or any movement) really focus on working the muscle you want. Don't just go through the motions. For me, it's about that mind/muscle connection.

Also for something like bench press, really squeezing those shoulder blades together throughout the exercise helps me target chest.

this is how I approach working the chest as well(mind muscle connection) but I concentrate on pushing my shoulder blades into the bench for max power...

[ghettoboyd]

OP another thing I find because I have dominant shoulders as well is to try decline bench because its a smaller range of motion but enables you to work chest with less shoulder involvement and really concentrate on contracting the pecs...just a thought...good luck...

[jackman22]

i just found out why my chest are lagging.
when i do press movement my shoulders are dominant.
i hear some said you should pre-exhaust you sholders before you train chest, some said do fly movement pre-exhaust your chest before you do press movement. so which is right?

Right when i saw your post i was going to suggest same thing as i had the same problem. My shoulders always felt it before my chest did during pressing movements! Doing a few sets of flies first really made a big difference. I would switch it up every week. One week doing fly movement first next pressing. Also during my pressing movements i droped the weight and really concentrated on my mind-pec connection. I Found i was going to heavy so my delts took over more.

[bigsiv]

I attribute most of my upper chest development to both barbell and dumbbell incline.

<img src="http://forums.steroid.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=139518"/>

I will try slight incline. Maybe my form when doing this is the reason my shoulders are dominant. Maybe the use if the smith machine may help what do you think?

[626Cuda]

I got the same dam problem, tried presses with low weight today and my chest failed before my shoulders did.

[Doom44]

OP another thing I find because I have dominant shoulders as well is to try decline bench because its a smaller range of motion but enables you to work chest with less shoulder involvement and really concentrate on contracting the pecs...just a thought...good luck...

Decline bench press is one of my favorite chest exercise

[Doom44]

I found a way to really hit my chest harder feel less on my shoulders and at the same time still can go heavy.
Is time under tension. Normally I use 1-0-3 . And now I go even slower . 3-0-5-1.
At least it work for me now .

[M302_Imola]

I will try slight incline. Maybe my form when doing this is the reason my shoulders are dominant. Maybe the use if the smith machine may help what do you think?

Yes the smith machine (if you get your elbows lined up correctly) can be very effective, as well as lowering the incline angle. Another technique I use to really feel my pecs contract (I use this in more of a superset burn fashion) is grab 2 db's and line down on the incline bench. Move the db's to the center of your chest and press the two db together and perform sort of a close-grip incline press. Make sure the db's stay pressed together during the whole movement and really squeeze up top. I normally do a light set of these after a heavy barbell incline set.

[bigsiv]

Yes the smith machine (if you get your elbows lined up correctly) can be very effective, as well as lowering the incline angle. Another technique I use to really feel my pecs contract (I use this in more of a superset burn fashion) is grab 2 db's and line down on the incline bench. Move the db's to the center of your chest and press the two db ends together and perform sort of a close-grip incline press. Make sure the db's stay pressed together during the whole movement and really squeeze up top. I normally do a light set of these after a heavy barbell incline set.

I will try that cheers buddy

[M302_Imola]

I will try that cheers buddy

Cool, let me know what you think. I had to edit my post because it was confusing...you press the db's together in the center of your chest (I originally send press the end of the db's together, which isn't correct). So when you press the db's together your palms will be facing inward, facing each other. Don't forget to really squeeze up top!

[bigsiv]

Gotcha.....chest day tomorrow will let you know

[bigsiv]

Tried the dumbells together exercise after a dumbell bench press (superset) and found it killed the last part of my chest right off. Great way to finish a set. Thank buddy I will incorporate this on chest day

[M302_Imola]

Tried the dumbells together exercise after a dumbell bench press (superset) and found it killed the last part of my chest right off. Great way to finish a set. Thank buddy I will incorporate this on chest day

Awesome! Usually when I throw in this exercise I can always feel my pecs filling up with blood...the muscle contractions are intense!

[RyanDillon]

OP is had this problem, while bench pressing i would feel my triceps burn and even to this day i still feel my shoulders slightly, also on back exercises i would feel my biceps but over time i developed a mind-muscle connection and i can target and squeeze any muscle i want to now. how i overcame your problem is just keep doing your excercise and over time you'll get it.