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bench, does wider grip make it easy?

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4.7K views 28 replies 17 participants last post by  .12314  
#1 ·
saw a guy today benching 4 plates, and to be honest he was over big, so i really watched his technique and form because im trying to imrove my bench, and noticed his grip was quite wide, i always thought a wider grip put more stress on shoulder joint?

also may be wrong but does a wider grip shorten the the range of the movement to the chest?
 
#4 ·
Arm length can make a difference as to which grip works best, but generally its accepted that the optimum grip width to hit the pecs (on flat benching) is where your forearms point directly straight up (forearms are perpendicular to the ground) when the bar is just resting on your nipple line.
 
#7 ·
ash1981 said:
imo if you have long arms like me then narrower grip is better.

big barrell chested lads with short levers will be able to go wider with there grip
Complete opposite in my opinion. Longer arms should go wider, shorter should go narrower, just makes more sense. If you have long arms and are going narrower than someone with short arms then you're going to be using a lot more triceps.
 
#8 ·
Barker said:
Complete opposite in my opinion. Longer arms should go wider, shorter should go narrower, just makes more sense. If you have long arms and are going narrower than someone with short arms then you're going to be using a lot more triceps.
thats exactly the reason why :)

narrow grip = more triceps = more weight pushed = ego bench press lol
 
G
#9 ·
A wider grip decreases the rom of the bar. But! it also increases the ROM of shoulder rotation which can hinder the lift. It also depends how you bench, ie, arched, PL style to sterum/to nips/neck with flared elbows, Or wrong as i like to call it.

If your wide with short arms, a wide grip could put significant Lbs on a bench. Skinny with long arms, it may reduce it. People will say long arms = go wider. But its not as simple as that.
 
#15 ·
Barker said:
How does narrow grip mean you can push more weight?

Its a longer range of motion to start off with... and pretty sure when ive done close grip bench i couldnt do anywhere near what i do with normal bench...
Well a lot of powerlifters favour a close grip when benching mate. When the goal is to move the weight from point A to point B, a closer grip gets more triceps involvement which means you can move more weight. It might be a longer range of motion but see how much you can bench press with a stupidly wide grip which is predominantly front delts. Answer = not a lot!
 
#17 ·
AlasTTTair said:
Well a lot of powerlifters favour a close grip when benching mate. When the goal is to move the weight from point A to point B, a closer grip gets more triceps involvement which means you can move more weight. It might be a longer range of motion but see how much you can bench press with a stupidly wide grip which is predominantly front delts. Answer = not a lot!
a powerlifting bench press is different to that of a person benching for chest growth - completely different movement entirely.
 
#22 ·
fatmanstan! said:
a powerlifting bench press is different to that of a person benching for chest growth - completely different movement entirely.
How does that contradict what I said? Yes it's a different movement in that the weight is brought down much lower (i.e. below the pectoral) and usually the grip is closer. I really don't understand why you're mentioning it - like I said, closer grip = more tricep = more weight pushed.
 
#23 ·
rippedgreg said:
wider grip is hitting the outer pec more, whereas narrow grip is hitting the inner pec more, it depends on what your looking to see results wise.
There's no such thing as an inner and outer pec; there's only pec major and pec minor. Please stop perpetuating myths because a newbie will end up reading it and repeating it to his friends; then we'll just have more misinformed people.