Was benching this morning with a thumbless grip and made me wonder who uses thumbless grip vs thumbs around in their training.
I use thumbless in any sort of barbell pressing (bench, incline, overhead). I use thumb around with dumbbells, the log and the swiss bar. With an axle, I use thumbless if pressing out of the rack and thumb around if I cleaned it from the floor.
I like thumbless since it allows me to sit the bar lower in my hand, so I can press with the bar more directly in line with my wrist/against the hard edge of my palm, but when my hands face inward it just seems too slippery.
After a lay-off, overhead pressing can be really uncomfortable on my wrists. I’ll use the thumbless grip then because it just feels more natural. But as my wrists and upper back get stronger, I wrap the thumbs around.
IMO False grip is OK for the strict style of pressing, but to really push press or jerk I need to wrap my thumbs around. I’d be worried about the bar jumping out of my hands at the top, and I really need to squeeze everything tight to lock out the big weights overhead. Sometimes I think about supporting the bar with mostly my index/middle fingers and thumb to really keep my forearms vertical. This way I can really drive drive the bar overhead with my hips then lockout with the triceps because my arms are in a really natural, straight up position.
I think pressing kettlebells in the Bottoms Up style is a great exercise for wrist, shoulder and upper back strength and stability. It may even be a way to train for the circus dumbbell with less weight, but more awkwardness.
I switched to thumbless a long while back since I found I was stronger with it both overhead and on the bench, mostly because I could get the bar deeper into my palms. It also seems to help with tucking my elbows better without wrist strain.
However, recently, I’m experimenting with a wider grip and thumbs around on the axle, after reading some stuff on how a death grip on the bar can improve activation and stability via irradiation. I’m still undecided whether I’ll stick with it.
i used to do thumbless Benching, and it’s probably still naturally a stronger position. However, after talking to HeavyTriple I started wrapping my thumbs around the bar again, as it allows my chest to get in on the action more.
I found the grip on the right is a kind of ‘blend’ of thumbless and wrapped grip. I have huge hands, so both that grip and thumbless allow me to keep the bar over my forearms better, as opposed to rolling back in my giant mitts.
I always preferred thumbless pressing. When I involve the thumb, the bar doesn’t sit in the same groove within my hands that allows me to keep it directly above my forearm bones, and not have the ocassional wrist discomfort I used to experience. This is only with barbells though, as thumbless work with DBs seems like you’d be asking for one to slip onto your head eventually.
I switched to a thumbless grip a.k.a. false grip a.k.a. suicide grip a.k.a. monkey grip for any barbell press after watching this video:
Basically, Tate recommends setting up and gripping the bar tightly/securely with the thumb around and then, just before the rep starts, flipping the thumb into thumbless position so you still have tension from the hand to the wrist to the forearm and up through the arm, compared to a relatively-less-firm grip from “just” grabbing the bar thumblessly.
EDIT: Tate does also discuss the “thumb-around:pec activation, thumbless:triceps activation” that Spidey brought up. Interesting.
I don’t mind it when I see experienced people using it, but the problem is that new lifters see more experienced people doing it and mimic the behavior. These new people put themselves at risk for injury imo because they both don’t understand the risks and don’t have the motor skills and discipline (at least on average) to really be safe using the grip. Whether this is an argument against more experienced people using it is up to you: it’s a similar issue how some justify disallowing PEDs for pro athletes–that kids will mimic.
[quote]MinusTheColon wrote:
I don’t mind it when I see experienced people using it, but the problem is that new lifters see more experienced people doing it and mimic the behavior. These new people put themselves at risk for injury imo because they both don’t understand the risks and don’t have the motor skills and discipline (at least on average) to really be safe using the grip. Whether this is an argument against more experienced people using it is up to you: it’s a similar issue how some justify disallowing PEDs for pro athletes–that kids will mimic.[/quote]
I was actually curious what style people used here versus opinions on others using it.
Interesting replies so far. I also make use of the “set-up thumbs around, go thumbless” approach, as it seems to help me maintain tightness in my set up. Also some interesting photos spidey, something for me to consider at least.
I was actually curious what style people used here versus opinions on others using it.
What do you use in your training?[/quote]
That’s fair. Unlike others on here, I actually only use it in my upper back work. Specifically, I like it a lot for lat pulldowns, pullups and barbell bent rows (with straps)
Ah yeah, that’s something I didn’t think to address. All of my deadlifting is performed thumbless with straps. Go thumbless on pull ups, anything with a v-bar, and lat pulldown, while thumb around for any pulling DB work, trap bar, and chins/NG chins.
it’s funny that many of ya’ll seem to set up your thumbless grip by wrapping the thumb around, then simply removing it when you’re ready to press. I do the exact opposite, set-up like I would thumbless, and at the last moment move my thumb just enough to wrap it around the bar.
I use a thumbless grip for strict overhead pressing with a barbell; sometimes I may also use a thumbless grip on rows or pull ups. Everything else is thumbs around.
I use thumbs around in everything, tried thumbless when millitary pressing to see if it helped my elbow tendinitis out but didn’t seem to do much and just didn’t feel right. Maybe lack of practice with it but who knows.
As it happens I lift in GBPF (IPF) which specifies thumb around for bench and as I like to practice how I compete it makes sense to keep doing what I’m doing
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
I don’t feel like dying or getting my chest crushed in, so I use my thumb to its fullest extent. [/quote]
Is that your only reason? Because that can be easily remedied with the right set-up. I use chains as a spotting mechanism for this reason. Give it a try sometime.
[quote]cparker wrote:
On any kind of overhead lifting I do thumbless, and I do thumb around with all styles of benching except close grip[/quote]
samesies.
I’ve played around with thumbless on bench press, and used it for awhile a few years ago. Mentally I can’t make myself do it anymore, for the safety reasons mentioned. If I had a good spotter everytime I lifted, I might use it, but I worry about the lift-off portion of the lift with a thumbless grip. I have enough trouble getting random spotters to lift me off to the right spot.
I have also approached the grip similarly to spidey in the past 6 months or so. I’ve played around with different rotational positions in my palm in an effort to engage different muscle groups more effectively.
Thumbless is pretty much my natural grip for pullups. I prefer it. I deadlift mixed grip… with thumbs.
