I'm a novice weight trainer, with basic/adequate knowledge of weight training/posture/hypertrophy. I train from home and have a little over 50kg worth of weights to play around with: 4x 5kg, 10x 2.5kg, 4x 1.5kg, 4x 1.25kg discs. I'm doing 40kg bench press at the moment which I'm very happy with, considering there was a time when i was 'plateaued' at 35kg.

My concern is for my shoulders and increasing the weight. Currently I am doing alternating db front and side raise's, lifting 7.5kg for front and 7kg for sides (I can do 7.5kg but I'm slightly limited to reps as compared with my front raises).

I'm comfortable doing reps of 12,10,8,6 for my front raises and I'm looking to increase the weight. With the weight discs I have available, the next increase is 9.5kg. I've tried doing a few reps but I can't really keep good form and I struggle and burn out after not many.

How can i improve my strength so that I can hope to lift the 9.5kg db's so that I may work towards yet another feat?

Thank you

P.S. Joining a gym is on my things to do list, but I only want to join when I've successfully gotten the most out of my available weights, e.g. bench press 50kg and curl 35kg+

well i dont no about any of that as im more of a cardio person but if you can bench press 50kg then you're bench pressing me effecively

Intense training ...do as many sets as you can in one minute without dropping the weight but posture needs to be correct and as fast as you can....soon that'll feel too light and you would want to lift more...other than that drink enough water and eat healthy (normal stuff)

So what you're essentially doing is basing your workout program on the availability of your weights, don't do that, if you want to achieve something or anything the least of your concerns should be "getting the most out of your weights". "I struggle and burn out after not many", what's "not many"? How many? If you're lifting not many of the 9.5s the most I can recommend is just keep lifting it and eventually you'll be able to lift more. Don't forget to fully recover between these workouts.

Or, as an alternative, try doing the "Incline B press" (if you can somehow do that at home). It's harder than a bench press and it works the upper part of your pecs and your delts.

I have an incline/decline bench, so this exercise is available to me. How many? i can do probably 3 per arm of the 9.5kg db's before i can't lift it horizontal.

I stretch before and after each workout and fully recover by consuming 140+g of protein each day, though i know that for good muscle building you need 2g per kilo of bodyweight so essentially i need 160g bare minimum.

I'm a vegetarian so naturally i eat healthy, the only thing i'm lacking in, is high amounts of protein but i supplement that with shakes.

Thanks for your helpful input, I'm keen to give the incline bench press a go next week, but i might go with a lighter weight initially, say perhaps 30kg, then work into higher weights.