When you decided to hit the gym, you focused on the same two things everyone else does at first: getting big and benching a lot of weight. Most people think that means paying special attention to bodybuilding chest workouts. So they use the bench press, doing incline, decline and flat. They do chest dips and dumbbell raises, then add in some pushups for good measure. In the first couple of months this routine will produce some good results. After that, growth will usually slow down or stop altogether. Most people get frustrated and confused by this. Their main solution is to increase weight or reps randomly, hoping that something works. Neither of those things are the problem. The trouble is the focus. When you plateau like that, it’s because your focus has been on your bodybuilding chest workouts, and not on the other muscles that make building a great chest possible.

Your Shoulders Matter Too

Why bother talking about your shoulders? They get worked during your bodybuilding chest workouts, and you do exercises for them on other days. That’s all well and good, but there are three parts to the shoulder. If they don’t all get worked, then shoulder development becomes off balance. This means less power can come through your body during lifts. It’s important to train the anterior, posterior, and middle heads of your deltoids equally. Giving them that proper attention means more hard muscle fibers are available for recruitment on chest days.

Try Out The Triceps

Since the triceps actually make up the majority of our arm muscles, your chest workout is going to suffer if they aren’t as strong as possible. A lot of bodybuilders work the biceps hard and treat the triceps like a chore. If you want to give yourself every chance to have amazing bodybuilding chest workouts, then you can’t afford to think like everyone else. Being hardcore with triceps training every single time is a key to putting your chest above the rest.

Bring It All Together

A well-built chest is the first thing everyone notices about you, but it never comes just from banging out set after set of bench presses. Your triceps, shoulders, and other smaller muscles need to be carefully and intentionally trained. That way, your body develops equally and has more power to give when you work your chest. Constant technique improvement now means getting bigger gains later!