Starting Strength

work.

    Figure 7-18. A comparison of the top and bottom positions of the close-grip (A), standard-grip (B), and wide-grip (C) bench presses. The deepest range of motion around the shoulder joint occurs with the grip that allows the forearms to be vertical at the bottom. Any other forearm alignment causes the bar to touch the chest before the full range of motion is reached.

    The close-grip version is not really just a triceps exercise, though it seems to have that reputation. The large elbow angle the triceps opens provides more stimulation for that muscle group; the pecs and the delts are performing the same function – adducting the humerus – but over a different range of motion, since the humerus is more vertical at lockout but not as deep at the bottom with the closer grip. Less weight can usually be done close-grip than with the standard grip due to the decreased contribution of the pecs and delts out of the bottom, but not much less. Compared with the wide grip, the narrow grip is much harder in terms of total weight that can be used, due to the range of motion and less pec and delt involvement, while the wide-grip bench is a shorter movement that produces less work and permits heavier weights to be used. It omits some of the triceps work while relying much more on pecs and delts. The close-grip version uses lots of triceps, uses the pecs and delts less, and is harder. If your primary interest is in moving the heaviest weight, as a powerlifter needs to do, the widest grip legal for the meet is the one to use. If your interest is in the greatest amount of muscle stressed to cause an adaptation, a medium grip is the most useful. And if you need to get more triceps work, a close grip is useful for that.
    The greatest effect comes from the closest grip you can tolerate, and this will be controlled by your wrist flexibility. On a standard power bar, the knurl has a gap of between 16 and 17 inches, so the edge of the knurl makes a good place to start. After a bench press workout, take about 50% of your 1RM out of the rack with a grip set so that your index fingers are on the lines formed by the edges of the knurl. The exercise is performed the same way as the standard bench press, with the same breathing, back setup, foot position, and chest position. Rack the set, wait a little, and do another set with the grip one finger-width narrower on each side. Continue to narrow each set of five by one finger-width until your wrists begin to complain at the bottom, and then widen back out by one finger-width. You might have to widen your grip a little as the weight goes up, because what doesn’t hurt with light weights may very well be painful at heavier weights.
    Close-grips are usually used at higher reps, but this is merely tradition, and there is no reason that they must be done this way. Since they use a lighter weight than the standard bench press, they can be done after a bench workout, or they can be used as a light-day exercise on a separate day. Care must be taken to hold the bar very tightly; the wrist position makes for a less secure grip than the conventional grip provides, and it has been known to fail on the way up when the wrists twitch inconveniently. Close-grips are also famous for reaching failure rather suddenly, with the last completed rep giving little indication that the next one will get stuck on the way up. As a general rule, exercises that depend on less muscle mass or fewer muscle groups tend to fail more abruptly in their bar path than do exercises that use more muscles.
    Variations in angle
     
    The other way to usefully vary the bench press involves the angle at which the humerus approaches the chest, controlled by the angle of the bench on which the exercise is performed. The back angle thus determines the quality and quantity of pectoral and deltoid involvement in the press. There are two variations from horizontal: the decline, in which the shoulders are lower than the hips; and the incline, in which the shoulders are higher than the hips.
    The decline press is a rather useless exercise because the angle of the back in the decline position shortens the distance the bar can travel, decreasing the amount of work done by decreasing the range of motion. By decreasing the difficulty, the decline press increases the weight that can be used in the exercise, which in turn leads to inflated perceptions of one’s ability – it is essentially masturbation, much like that which is possible with a