How Grip Width Affects the Barbell Bench Press: Muscles, Strength, and Load
If you’ve been in my Wednesday LIFTHER Push/pull classes you most likely have experienced me asking you to change your grip when holding the barbell. This is simply because many of you grip it too narrow for your shoulder width and arm length.
Many of you tried with the first reaction being “it feels weird”. Anytime we change position the first couple times will take time and feel to adjust. So it’s important to know you aren’t being asked to do this without intention.
The barbell bench press is a popular and effective exercise for developing upper body strength, targeting chest, shoulders and triceps. (Pushing movements loads the anterior/front part of the upper body while pulling targets the posterior/back of the upper body.) refers to the movement mechanics here.
Adjusting your grip width can significantly alter the muscles emphasized, the strength gains achieved, and the load you can handle. Here’s a breakdown of how widening and narrowing your grip impacts these factors.
1. Muscles Used
Wide Grip Bench Press: A wider grip (hands placed farther out on the barbell) places more emphasis on the pectoral muscles (chest). This grip decreases the range of motion, but because it targets the chest more directly, it's an effective way to maximize chest activation. The shoulders and triceps are still involved but to a lesser extent compared to the standard or narrow grip.
Narrow Grip Bench Press: Bringing your hands closer together shifts the focus from the chest to the triceps and shoulders. The narrow grip activates the triceps more because of the increased elbow flexion required during the movement. Additionally, the anterior deltoids (front of the shoulders) play a more prominent role. The chest is still engaged but less than with a wide grip.
2. Strength Improved
Wide Grip Strength Gains: A wide grip allows you to target your chest more effectively, which can help improve chest strength and size. The wider grip reduces the range of motion, limiting the development of triceps and shoulder strength relative to the chest. If your goal is to maximize chest power, this is the grip to use.
Narrow Grip Strength Gains: The narrow grip promotes more balanced strength development across the chest, triceps, and shoulders. This makes it a great option for those aiming to improve pressing strength, particularly for exercises that rely heavily on triceps, like overhead presses or dips.
3. Load Increased
Wide Grip Load Capacity: Lifters often find they can bench heavier loads with a wide grip due to the shortened range of motion and greater involvement of the large chest muscles. This is beneficial if you're aiming for maximum strength in your bench press, especially for one-rep max attempts.
Narrow Grip Load Capacity: While you may not be able to press as much weight with a narrow grip initially, over time, this grip can increase your triceps strength and contribute to overall pressing power. The longer range of motion and increased triceps activation often mean that lifters will need to start with lighter loads compared to the wide grip.
So what does this mean to you?
Changing your grip width on the barbell bench press is a simple yet effective way to adjust the muscles targeted, the strength gains you make, and the load you can lift. A wider grip emphasizes chest development and allows for heavier loads, while a narrower grip builds stronger triceps and shoulders, contributing to more balanced upper body strength.
Keep in mind the above grips are holding a barbell, which is in a pronate position. If you are holding dumbbells in either a neutral (palms facing inward) or supinate (palms facing upward) it will change the muscle recruitment slightly.
When it comes to FST programming classes like Lifther allows us to focus on maximal load in compound movements to build strength and load where a Sculpther is focused on muscle size.
In Powher classes you will always see a push movement but with a direction/plane change or grip change. For example: Bar dip and db strict press are both vertical presses, but bar dip is closed-chain body weight exercise and strict is open-chain. Change the grip on a strict press and it changes the muscles being recruited.
If you are looking to improve your overall bench press performance (measuring load and strength) then play around with your grip.