Close Bench Compared to Normal Bench

[quote]Tank53 wrote:
sasquatch wrote:
danmaftei wrote:
Most pictures I see have hand placements closer than 14. The way I see it though, the closest you can place your hands without inducing wrist injuries is the best. It wouldn’t seem to me like 8 inches would really hurt, but then again I haven’t done close-grip presses.

So you’ve never done them, but feel the need to give completely baseless reccomendations based on some pictures you have seen.

There is no reason to go closer than 12"
on close grips. It doesn’t help your tri’s at all and could lead to wrist injury. If you’re wider than normal, you may even have to get wider on these.

By the way, the incline version of these are great!

Errr…I think I said close grip in the previous post. I meant narrow. How does your narrow grip compare to the normal or even wide grip bench?

And I’ll keep that in mind to do only 12" for narrow (to work tris).
Thanks -T

[/quote]

Narrow-close it’s all the same to me. I hav no idea what else it could be
What do you mean–closer together than close = narrow. That’s nonsense.

[quote]Tank53 wrote:
sasquatch wrote:
danmaftei wrote:
Most pictures I see have hand placements closer than 14. The way I see it though, the closest you can place your hands without inducing wrist injuries is the best. It wouldn’t seem to me like 8 inches would really hurt, but then again I haven’t done close-grip presses.

So you’ve never done them, but feel the need to give completely baseless reccomendations based on some pictures you have seen.

There is no reason to go closer than 12"
on close grips. It doesn’t help your tri’s at all and could lead to wrist injury. If you’re wider than normal, you may even have to get wider on these.

By the way, the incline version of these are great!

So is there any real reason that a person should ever use a close grip? That helps cause it felt like my wrists were getting wrecked while doing 8".
[/quote]

This is all you need to know about close grips. Take a grip just a shade inside shoulder width. Maybe the outside of your hands is equal to your shoulders. Drop the weight while keeping the elbows tucked to your body. Push it up=close grip. By gfetting the hands much closer than this not only do you risk wrist problems, your elbows begin to flare and you actually take stress away from your tri’s.
So forget about exact inches. You got your normal bench and you have your close grips. That’s it.

“but then again” implies not knowing something 100%, thus to take it with a grain of salt. I was just throwing out an opinion.

Always combatative, sasquatch =P

[quote]danmaftei wrote:
“but then again” implies not knowing something 100%, thus to take it with a grain of salt. I was just throwing out an opinion.

Always combatative, sasquatch =P[/quote]

Not always–

Your original post, which you accidently forgot to reference, said nothing like ‘but then again’ It strictly stated that 14" wasn’t that close that 6" was more appropriate.
I take issue with poor training advice. Opinions on the other hand, I can take or leave.

Point taken.

But for the record your post was referring to my 2nd post, which was advice. Since the first post I’ve changed my evil ways.

You still haven’t responded to the two big arguments though. :wink:

[quote]Nate Green wrote:
A good rule of thumb for close grip bench would be to have your hands on the bar at about the exact width of your torso. It’d minimize unnecessary wrist strain and would insure your triceps would be the primary mover (if you kept your elbows in like you’re supposed to).

-Nate[/quote]

Nate is correct.

For the original poster, it’s normal for close grip to be weaker than wider grip due to leverages and more pec involvements as has already been said.

To whomever said powerlifters don’t bench wide, you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. Powerlifters will bench as wide as the rules in their federation allow; index fingers touching the rings (unless there’s some fringe organization that allows wider).

-Dan

Thanks for all the insights. Goes to show I was misinformed about what a narrow bench meant.

Thanks Nate. That helps with the torso width since obviously I would be different than someone else since I’m fairly wide.

[quote]Tank53 wrote:
Thanks for all the insights. Goes to show I was misinformed about what a narrow bench meant.

Thanks Nate. That helps with the torso width since obviously I would be different than someone else since I’m fairly wide. [/quote]

No problem, man!

-Nate