Exactly how close do your hands have to be to each other on the bar when you are doing this exercise?
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Close-Grip Bench Press
- Thread starter Fit_Dude 101
- Start date
not too close. The normal benchpress is wide grip, which is wider than shoulder width. Therefore, for closegrip, it should be relatively a shorter width than wide grip. Not too close, because than you won't be able to stabilize it.
yep, thumbs touching is about as close as you can get while maintaining stabilty, expecially as weight increases. 9" wide is as wide as I get.
another way to look at is, is most olympic bars have smooth areas, and textured/cross-hatched areas. at my gym they look like this ( |||| = smooth, XXX = texture)
|||||||||XXXXXXXX||||||XXXXX||||||XXXXXXXX|||||||||
I'll grab right on either side of the center area, putting my pointy fingers right on the line where the bar goes smooth. its about 5-6" apart.
remember to keep the elbows close to the body on this move too.
another way to look at is, is most olympic bars have smooth areas, and textured/cross-hatched areas. at my gym they look like this ( |||| = smooth, XXX = texture)
|||||||||XXXXXXXX||||||XXXXX||||||XXXXXXXX|||||||||
I'll grab right on either side of the center area, putting my pointy fingers right on the line where the bar goes smooth. its about 5-6" apart.
remember to keep the elbows close to the body on this move too.
I use two techniques.
to train your ballence, use a barbell as described above,
and for the martial artists out there you may like to try it with a heavy dumbbell and hold the actuall weights with your fingertips, not the bar.
To really isolate the triceps, the weight should go down over your stomach, not the chest, keeping your elbows tucked right in.
to train your ballence, use a barbell as described above,
and for the martial artists out there you may like to try it with a heavy dumbbell and hold the actuall weights with your fingertips, not the bar.
To really isolate the triceps, the weight should go down over your stomach, not the chest, keeping your elbows tucked right in.