Close Grip Bench Press

[Josh]

Hi all, I am starting to train my triceps with close grip bench press again, and I have several questions about properly performing it. The way I do it now is by gripping the barbell with close grip so that my elbows are just by my sides (not going outward) and the forearms are perpendicular to the floor. I also keep my forearms upright to the floor when the bar is at the bottom, and then push the bar up from that position. Now my questions: (1) If I use this form, ie, my forearms are upright to the floor at the bottom of the movement, then the bar would rest very low at my upper/mid abs. Consequently when push the bar, at the top of the movement my arms would form some angle towards my feet. Is this form correct? (2) When I push the bar, I found that at times my elbows tend to go a bit outward. Not as outward as when doing normal bench press, nevertheless they are not strictly close to my sides. Is this okay? Should the elbows be strictly kept to the sides? What do I do wrong that causes my elbows to tend to go outward? (3) I know that when doing normal bench press I have to put my chest up and my shoulder blades back, as these would eliminate the roles of delts and triceps and better affect the chest muscle. But how about when doing CG bench press? Should I put my chest up and my shoulder blades back as well? Because I find that it is rather difficult to maintain these positions with the above described form. How should I do this to make it more effective for triceps?

- Josh

 

[Mudge]

Go LOW on the chest, keep arms close to the body, otherwise it will eat elbow joints IMO. I do reverse grip benches to warm up the triceps, sometimes finish with a light set of close grips, but I dont seem to like them much for heavy work.

 

[Josh]

If the bar is only low on the chest, then it would not be very much difference from ordinary bench press (I usually go on or a bit below the nipples on ordinary bench press). This would mean the upper arms are not upright to the floor at the bottom of the movement (but forming an angle towards the head), and the arms would be (almost) upright to the floor at the top of the movement (instead of angled towards the feet like what I described previously). Please kindly confirm that my descriptions above is the correct and proper form for CG bench press.

How about my question #3 regarding chest and shoulder blades?

- Josh

 

[Mudge]

Shoulder blades together, not sure what you mean by up.

http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11158

Alot of people go higher than they should on bench, so if your going nipple or below your already doing ok. For my arm length I go below nipple line. To start the movement I am positioned so that when I bring the bar off the bench, I'm not moving my arms that far, when you start getting into the heavier stuff your body will thank you for this.

This is all for a regular bench, I dont like close grip stuff much, I do heavy reverse stuff which I can do around 90% of my flat bench. Once I do two sets of that or so I move on to the skull crushers. If I do any close grips at all its really a finisher and I use light weights and slow reps, and I keep tension on the muscle.

 

[Josh]

Ok thanks, Mudge, I'll try what you said.

- Josh