Close-Grip for Pecs?

Are close-grip bench presses supposed to work your pecs at all? I never thought so but i’ve seen some stuff lately that suggests otherwise…

It depends on how you place your arms. If you keep them close to the sides, then not much. If you let them go out and back, then yes. Regardless, the close grip bench does not focus on the pecs to a high degree.

Mike Mahler

hits the pecs to a degree,but more of a tricep movement

Invincible, in the past I used the close grip b.p. with the arms position suggested by Mike Mahler. I felt a certain result for the inner pecs. Anyway personally I find this exercise unnatural and not so productive for pecs. Much better for pecs are the V-bar dips with the body inclined using a full range of motion.

Pressing on an incline with a relatively close grip can hit the pec minor (I believe there was some mention of this in an article called “Pop 'Em Out Muscles”).

I can think of one movement that the pecs will be used to a significant degree…

With a grip about equal to your bi-acrominal breadth, lower the bar to the top of your sternum, with the elbows flared out to the side and the shoulder at approximately 90 degrees of abduction.

I don’t have any EMG analysis of this variation on the bench press, but anecdotal eveidence as well as what Ian King has suggested in Columns on T-Mag has said suggests the pecs are effectively overloaded.

Feedback would be appreciated.