The pectoral muscles of the chest and the muscles of the shoulders are used mainly when pushing and lifting. There are a wide variety of exercises that target these muscle groups. One advantage to some of these exercises is that they cross train the muscles of the chest and the shoulders, so one exercise can target multiple muscle groups.
Bench Press
The bench press targets both your shoulder muscles and your chest, or pectoral, muscles. You can perform the bench press using either a barbell or dumbbells. Lie on your back on a flat bench with your feet on the floor. Place a barbell in the rack over the bench so it is at chest to neck level.
Grip the barbell and extend your elbows to lift it off the rack. Bend your elbows to bring the bar to your chest. If you have shoulder problems, stop when your elbows are on the same plane as your shoulders to avoid injury. Extend your elbows to push the barbell back up to the starting position. Dumbbells make this exercise more challenging since you must stabilize each arm individually throughout the exercise.
Pushups
Pushups target your shoulders, chest and triceps. Place your hands flat on the floor approximately shoulder-width apart. Your legs should be extended behind you and your weight should be supported on your toes. Your head, back, hips and legs should all be in a straight line to ensure you activate your core muscles and perform the pushup correctly.
Bend your elbows and lower your body toward the floor, touching your chin or chest before pressing into the floor, straightening your elbows and returning to the starting position. To make this move more difficult, support your feet on an elevated object like a couch or chair and perform decline pushups. To make the pushups easier, place your weight on your knees instead of your toes.
Flys
Flys can be performed with either dumbbells or on a machine and mainly target the pectorals. Sit on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Place your feet flat on the floor, and extend your arms out to your sides, keeping your elbows slightly bent. Squeeze your pectoral muscles to bring your arms together in front of your body, then extend them out to the sides again. Make this a little easier by performing flys on the fly machine, since it does not require as much muscle stabilization to go through the movement.
Dumbbell Raises
Dumbbell raises target all three heads of the deltoid, or shoulder, muscle depending on the grip you use. Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand and raise your arms straight up in front of you, stopping when your arm is in line with your shoulder. Lower the weights and repeat.
Raising the dumbbells to the front works the anterior head of the deltoid. Rotate your arms slightly outward and lift your arms at a 45-degree angle from the front midline of your body to target your medial deltoids. Sit at an incline bench, facing the bench, with the dumbbells in front of you. Lift your arms out to the sides, squeezing your shoulder blades together, to target your posterior deltoids.
