Shoulders are extremely Weak....

[mcmanus1806]

So ive been going to the gym for about 2 years now, and although they are reasonably sized, my delts just arent strong, and I cant really ever go any heavier, and im blaming this as to why my bench has stopped raising...

Im pretty tall and I just cant seem to push doing the military press, I can raise the weight effortlessly pretty much until fatigued but then once I fatigue I cant push at all...

Ive tried pretty much everything, drop sets, going really heavy, standing bar, standing dumbbell, different ways of pushing them up...

before Im pretty sure i was overtraining them, doing a crazy amount of sets, twice a week for delts, and now I only do them once as my friend said they are tiny muscles.. and still no difference, just my bench has stopped and my shoulders ache badly when going heavy on chest (im thinking making they cant cope as they are too small)

Any ideas would be great, thanks!

[DontTaseMeBro]

I have long arms and relatively weak shoulders after several surgeries. Military press was always a problem. I now train delts HIT once a week and have seen a lot of improvement. I pretty much follow the dorian yates blood and guts video for delts and triceps. It has worked well for me. Good luck.

[jdc91gt]

Delts are a challenge whether you're gifted or not. As you have already figured out, they are relatively small muscles and easy to overtrain. You have to remember that when you do back, you're hitting the back delts; when you're doing chest, you're hitting your front delts; etc. So, if you're not careful, you're working your delts too much. How to correct that is the challenge. I was frustrated too, so I went to a physical therapist friend of mine and chatted about delts and the shoulder joint. He showed me some rehab exercises that he prescribed for those coming out of rotator cuff surgery. They are these light db exercises with high reps and also use some bands. The exercises are not for bulking but instead they focus on strengthening the tiny supporting muscles. I worked at that twice a week for 4 months without any other specific shoulder exercises. It worked. Finally, I built up the supporting muscles so that I could then train the delts properly. But, to this day I only do shoulders, at most, once a week. I'm no hulk, but they have definitely grown. FYI, I also still do several of the rehab exercises as warm ups before benches or rows. Best of luck!

[bartman314]

+1 on jdc91gt's response. i also use the PT rotator cuff exercises as part of my regular shoulder routine. i do NOT do military's or anything over head due to multiple shoulder injuries. i do HEAVY anterior, lateral and posterior raise. i hit shoulders directly once every 5 days (and indirectly as above) and have seen good results.

[Tanner Chambers]

Personally, I have noticed my delts growing in strength the past 4 weeks from holding my lateral raises at the top for 3-7 seconds, raising and lowering slowly and controlled. A lot of good suggestions above, but this has worked well for building my delts.