Hi guys, I noticed the forums here just today and decided it would be a great place for tips and advice.

Well, guess it would be good to just start with a quick background.

I started working out about 3 years ago. I was 16, 6'2, 165lbs.

I'm 19 today. I'm 6'3, 200 lbs. I feel like I've made my progress slowly, but thats really alright with me. One of the most important things to me was keeping my integrity and staying away from drugs and steroids.

I'll also admit I wasn't much of a diet nut. I eat plenty of good food, but I definately don't shy away from burgers and fries. This probably has a lot to do with my slow, yet steady progress.

Anyway, I'll start with my first question.

I'm relatively strong in most areas: Curling, military press, pull-downs, etc, but I've just never been able to break through with benching.

I'm currently repping a very mediocre 155, 12-10-8 times. I was repping about 175, but I had a bit of a shoulder injury and had to go back down. I'm frustrated at the fact that I seem to get injured so easily with benching. It has really inhibited my progress, and I've seen an orthopedist about it. All he could really tell me was to go back down and try to build up. I just feel like I'm at a plateu right now, and I need some good tips to break through without hurting my shoulder again. Thanks in advance.

P.S. I think a problem might be my chest. Its not very big, and I think I might be putting to much stress on my shoulders from the lack of help from the chest. I've been working on it for awhile however, with machines and such.

I'm new here too, but have been working out for several years myself.  If you want to increase your bench press, you need to make that your main priority when you lift.  In other words, you should start with bench and put your full effort into it.
Instead of doing 155 12-10-8 times... start putting on some more serious weight and do less reps.
First do a warm-up set, then put on what you think you can do about 8 times.
Then put on what you think you can do about 6 times.
Then 4.
Do that for a week or 2, then try 5 sets of 5.
A week or 2 later, go back to doing around 10 reps per set.
Try to keep your body guessing and not do the same bench routine every time.
Make sure you progressively more weight on the bar as time goes on.  If you think you should be lifting 170, put on 175 or 180 instead.
If you want to focus on working your chest over your arms, try to keep your elbows at a 90 degree angle from your body.  If you want more arm workout, keep your elbows closer to your body.  I recommend somewhere in between.  A wider grip will also work your chest more over your arms.
Try doing bench press on Monday. Then on Friday do a towel bench (lower the bar to a few inches away from your chest, instead of all the way down).
Make sure you work in a few sets of incline bench after flat bench.
 
last but not least, use a spotter so you can put out your max effort (and for safety).
 
Other people may have different opinions on all of this, but this is what has worked for me.

I'm new here too, but have been working out for several years myself. If you want to increase your bench press, you need to make that your main priority when you lift. In other words, you should start with bench and put your full effort into it.
Instead of doing 155 12-10-8 times... start putting on some more serious weight and do less reps.
First do a warm-up set, then put on what you think you can do about 8 times.
Then put on what you think you can do about 6 times.
Then 4.
Do that for a week or 2, then try 5 sets of 5.
A week or 2 later, go back to doing around 10 reps per set.
Try to keep your body guessing and not do the same bench routine every time.
Make sure you progressively more weight on the bar as time goes on. If you think you should be lifting 170, put on 175 or 180 instead.
If you want to focus on working your chest over your arms, try to keep your elbows at a 90 degree angle from your body. If you want more arm workout, keep your elbows closer to your body. I recommend somewhere in between. A wider grip will also work your chest more over your arms.
Try doing bench press on Monday. Then on Friday do a towel bench (lower the bar to a few inches away from your chest, instead of all the way down).
Make sure you work in a few sets of incline bench after flat bench.

last but not least, use a spotter so you can put out your max effort (and for safety).

Other people may have different opinions on all of this, but this is what has worked for me.

Hey thanks a lot man, sounds like great advice. I'd never really thought about arm angles before. I knew about the wide grip, but I'll definately give the arm angles a shot.

Mixing up my set patterns also sounds like a great idea. Just gotta find that valuable spotter though. I usually work out alone...

ORIGINAL: blacky

Instead of doing 155 12-10-8 times... start putting on some more serious weight and do less reps.

 
This is good advice. At the moment you are in quite a high rep range. Try staying between 4-6 reps on a heavier weight. This should help to keep things intensive.