I am getting quite strong all over after significantly increasing my weights & reps thanks to a full body workout.

However I feel that I fail on my bench press & shoulder press (and similar 'larger' muscle excerices) more because my arms give way, rather than my chest / shoulder muscles struggling.

Is this normal, or should I be trying to do a few excercises focusing on my bi's & Tri's to get them stronger?

Or is there something wrong with my technique?

I very rarely do any special 'isolation' work on my arms, but maybe I should?

Help.

There's nothing wrong with doing a bit of isolation at the end of your workout but I think the best way to strengthen the areas that are weak when benching is to keep benching. Eventually the weak areas will catch up

Often times you will fail at benching not because your chest is fatigued, but because your triceps are fatigued. You may want to do a little tricep work, but I agree with CCR, keep benching. It will come around.

You might want ot try some triceps isolation exercises at the end of your routine. It doesn't take a lot, say just 2 sets of 12 reps to failure. I like lying triceps extensions with an easy curl bar (sometimes called nose breakers?).

Alternately here are a couple of other options you might want to try for a few weeks in place of your regular bench press routine to break through a plateau:
1. pec pre-exhaustion: do a set of 12 reps lying flyes to failure and then immediately start a set of bench presses with a weight you could normally do 12 reps with. Yuo should fail at 6-10 reps and your pecs will be fully pumped after 1 set. Rest 2-3 minutes and do another set. 2 sets should be all you need.
2. Start with a weight you can do around 12 reps with and go to complete failure. Reduce the weight by about 25% and rest 30 seconds. Do another set to failure (12-15 reps). Add the 25% weight back on, rest 30 seconds and do a final set to failure (6-10 reps). Your pecs and triceps should both be burning and pumped. You only need this one tri-set for a complete chest workout.
With either of these try to add weight every workout. Do this 3 times a week for 2-8 weeks and then go back to your more traditional bench press routine.

You should probably try to build some muscular endurance in your triceps by doing more reps of less weight. Do that 2 times a week for 6 weeks and then try going back to the heavier stuff.

if you haven't already try doing dumbells instead of barbell!


low weight high rep


it'll work your stabilizers

Could you post a few sample workouts? How often do you work your chest?

well if ur doing nothing but full body workouts, id imagine by the time ur done with ur shoulder and tricep workouts, that ur arms are too dead to bench press. (if i do triceps with chest, and i do triceps before the chest workout, my bench press weight is extremely hindered, which is why i choose to workout chest on a day, all by itself)

On a side note, how often are u doing this full body work outs?

thats why you shouldnt do triceps isolation before bench press. And usually, you dont do military and bench on the same day with a total body plan.

it could be that you are plateuing (sp?)
it could be that your diet is off
it could be you arent getting enough rest
it might be that you are doing too much. if you are going to failure every workout on tricep exercises, you should either take a break from weight training(if you have been lifting for around 8+weeks consistantly) or try a deload.
it could be that you lack periodization

if you are a typical beginner or noob, you dont need isolation. just compounds. dont start getting into pre exhaustion and all the tricky stuff. thats for the advanced guys.

true, but it just depends on how well you can perform press after bench...or bench after press. i dont think its too hard
we have to know your routine & diet