Close-Grip Bench Press Guide | 3 Mistakes to AVOID
Today We're Going To Be Focusing On The Close Grip Bench Press And More Specifically We're Going To Talk About Three Mistakes That People Get Wrong With This Movement Now The Close Grip Bench Press Is Pretty Simple It's A Variation Of The Bench Press We're Just Bringing The Hands In A Little Bit Closer People Use This Movement To Train And Overload And Strengthen The Triceps, Especially When Wanting To Work With The Pressing Mechanics That Come Along With The Bench Press But Where Does It Go Wrong So Let's Dive Into The First And Most Common Mistake Your Grip With The First And Most Common Mistake With The Close Grip Bench Press Is Bringing Your Hands To Narrow Now This Is Problematic For Two Reasons Especially To Start To Load The Weight Number One At The Contact Point You're Bringing That Risk To A Very Sharp Angle Which Is This Not Only Discomfortable But It's Also Not The Most Efficient When Trying To Press Especially When Trying To Target The Triceps.

The Second Mistake I Want To Cover Is Trying To Force The Same Point Of Contact And Bar Path That You Have With Your Normal Benchpress With The Close Grip Bench Press We're Bringing The Hands More Narrow Which Is Going To Change Up Our Tracking Mechanics With Our Elbow Our Shoulder And How We're Bringing The Bar Down So More Than Likely Your Point Of Contact On The Chest Is Going To Drop Just A Little Bit Now Don't Get Me Wrong Some Lifters Do Have The Same Contact Point With Their Regular And Close Grip Bench Press But More Than Likely You're Going To Realize That It Feels A Little Bit More Comfortable To Go Lower If You're Trying To Stack That Wrist Over The Elbow Joint And That Is Okay So The Rule Of Thumb Here And The Common Mistake I Often See Is Lifters Trying To Force That Same Point Of Contact When In Reality Going Maybe An Inch Or Two Lower Is A Lot Better For Just Their Overall Form And Comfort When Performing The Close Grip Bench Press.
The Third Mistake I Want To Go Over Is Just Your Overall Positioning At The Bottom With The Elbow Now You Will See Some Lifters Tuck Their Elbows Into The Side Of Their Body Now Is That Necessarily Wrong For Them Not Always But Generally What Ends Up Happening With Just More Of Your Recreational Lifter Is When They Tuck Those Elbows So Much It Pulls That Shoulder And Do Internal Rotation Which Puts A Lot Of Stress On The Ac Joint And The Shoulder Girdles So A Good Rule Of Thumb Is When Bringing Down The Close Grip Bench Press Think About A Similar Mindset As You Have In The Close Grip Bench Press You Don't Want To Flare Your Elbows Out But If You Tucked Them Into The Body To An Incredible Degree You Might Have A Little Bit More Discomfort A Good Rule Of Thumb Go With What Feels Comfortable That Allows You To Kind Of Keep That Chest Nice Open And Proud And Allows You To Contract Thoughtfully And Meaningfully Through The Pec And The Tricep.

When Setting Up For The Close Grip Bench Press You're Gonna Think About Repurposing Your Standard Bench Press Set Up Now You Might Need To Be A Little Bit More Mindful Of Your Lat Contraction But The Same Bench Press Setup Is Generally Gonna Carry Over To Your Close Grip Bench Press Setup Now When It Comes To Grip With Generally Shoulder Width Is Gonna Be A Good Starting Point For Most Athletes There Can Be A Little Bit Of Variance Based On Coach And Athlete Preference But Shoulder Width Is A Good Bet For Just Starting Out For Close Grip Bench Press When He's Centrically Loading Any Control That Weight Think About Really Grounding Those Lats Into The Bench And You're Gonna Let Those Elbows Fall And What Feels Most Natural And Comfortable When Locking Out V Weight One Thing To Think About Is As The Press Through Think About Really Contracting Those Triceps And Finishing That Bar Path Right Where It Started So Whether That Was Over Your Chin Or Neck Area You're Gonna Press Out And Think About Locking It Out There That Way You're Not Front-loading Weight Into The Anterior Delt By Pushing Out And Away From You.y from you.
