Bench: Wide grip vs Close grip

[Blaze]

Well?...What is prefered. Obviously, for most, or at least for me, close grip is harder, because your utilizing a lot more tricep. However, lately I've been seeing most people lifitng using a way closer grip then me. (On an olympic 45 pound bar, i put my pinkies on the groove or lines if u know what Im talking about). But lately, I've tried a lot wider grip and it seems I can get the weight up easier. And I heard this one guy that using to lift in competitions and he was talking about how the trick is to grip wide.
so wut do u guys think?

[Todd]

Wide grip puts more stress on the chest, and less on the triceps, and it also lessens the range of motion. Too wide of a grip is not good, but too narrow a grip isn't either, because you'd be using your triceps and front delts for just about the entire lift. So unless you want to work your triceps intentionally, I wouldn't go too close. Basically, the right width for most is at a grip width where when the bar is touching your chest, your upper and lower arms form right angles to the bar. Experiment with different widths, but realize if you take your widths to any extreme measure your going to feel a major shift of emphasis onto different body parts. More often than not you'll find a grip width that suits your body structure by using a grip that is not too extreme from the norm.

[MostMuscle]

Blaze...realize that bench pressing in competition & bodybuilding are two different animals. Competition is all numbers, whatever it takes to push that bar up.....which is usually finding the perfect combination of chest/tricep/shoulder strength. If you are looking to develop muscle size, specficilly the chest, you would want to limit tricep/shoulder involvement as much as possible.

Lucky enough, I partcipated in a university study that investigated just what you are asking, what is the optimal hand placement for pectoral activation. What we did was place an electromyogram (EMG) which is an instrument that records electrical currents generated in an active muscle, on the chest area. We experiement with different grip and found that in the flat bench press a larger than shoulder width grip activated more pectoral muscle fibers. In the incline press, a closer shoulder width grip activated more of the muscles in the clavicular region.

This was not ground breaking stuff, we just put to the test an experiment that has been done many times before.

Experiment yourself & keep pushing!

[Blaze]

Okay thanks guys. I figured such. And I realize that competition is all about numbers, I was just curious about which one would be the best. But honestly, I like to switch it up. As far as when I am looking to improve certain areas, whether that be my triceps or my chest or whatever, I will switch up the grip a little bit. Much appreciated. thanks

[Cort]

I do mildly wide-grip for my normal bench workout, and then when I finish up with chest and move to tri's I do close-grip bench along with skull crushers and other variations of the skull crusher.

I guess my thinking there is when I'm benching I want to be focusing on chest since its very easy for me to fry my triceps, but difficult to hit my chest hard.

[sooner_ed]

I'm sure I'm repeating the obvious. My understanding is that a regular grip works the outer pecs and outer delts. A wide grip is harder on the shoulders. You can also use more weight with a wide grip because you don't have to push the weight as far. A narrower grip on the bar works more central pecs, frontal delts, and tricepts. Am I in the ballpark?

[MostMuscle]

sooner ed.......targeting different sections of the same muscle fiber (outer chest vs. inner chest) is a gym myth....either the fiber contracts or it does not, you cannot target specific lengths along the same muscle fiber.

[buff151]

Originally Posted by Blaze

Well?...What is prefered. Obviously, for most, or at least for me, close grip is harder, because your utilizing a lot more tricep. However, lately I've been seeing most people lifitng using a way closer grip then me. (On an olympic 45 pound bar, i put my pinkies on the groove or lines if u know what Im talking about). But lately, I've tried a lot wider grip and it seems I can get the weight up easier. And I heard this one guy that using to lift in competitions and he was talking about how the trick is to grip wide.
so wut do u guys think?

You can vary your grip for emphasis on different body parts as Todd has explained.
Close Grip Bench press-One of the best Tricep exersizes out there besides dips. Tris are the sticking point.
Wide Brip Bench-More emphasis on your chest muscles. Chest or delts are the sticking point.
Medium Grip 90 deg bench press-Balance. Tri's, chest, and delts are all used. Delts are the sticking point for most lifters.

[rbuchman]

I switched to a closer grip (about shoulder width keeping my elbow in) because it doesn't hurt my shoulder as much but I don't get as good a chest workout.

Something I just started doing to build your chest is dumbell flyes with you thumbs in (ending position like that of a bench press)

I agree though, except for powerlifters, mix it up and do many different lifts.

[Firehawk]

Powerlifters don't mix it up just to "mix it up". There's a purpose for why they will do sets at wide grip, sets at medium grip, and sets at close grip.

[Griffin]

At taekwon-do we do a mixture of regular, narrow and wide-grip push-ups. If you just do regular grip, you wont be very good at the others. They work different muscles, so you should do them all.