Bench press grip width

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hey BBM,

A few months ago I had a form review for my bench press where I was told to slightly widen my grip, where I now have my pinky fingers on the ring of a standard olympic barbell that you see in commercial gyms. I was thinking of moving back to a slightly narrower bench grip (say an inch or two narrower than my current grip) for a couple of reasons and I would like to get a second opinion whether I should make this change or if I should stick with a wider grip for it’s benifits in terms of powerlifting (such as a shortened ROM):

  1. I’m currently recovering from a shoulder injury from a couple of months ago, and I feel that a narrower grip puts less strain on my shoulder, though i’m thinking of a long-term technique change so this is only a minor factor.
  2. My shoulders have always been a weak point for me (both visually and strength wise), and I feel like using a narrower grip width will take some of the load during the bench press off of the shoulders. Interestingly, Before my injury my close grip bench was 100 kg for 5 reps @ RPE 8, and my comp bench (1ct pause) was 112.5 kg for 1 rep @ RPE 8, so they were not that far off each other, even though that last training block before the injury was the first time i’ve ever trained close-grip bench in a sub-10 rep range. Also, a wide grip bench never really felt comfortable for me, and I always felt some strain on my shoulders (and my shoulder injury is actually from my final warm-up set on the bench press at the time).

Just a note - I use a soft pause while benching rather than sinking the bar into my chest like some bigger powerlifters do (for context I currently weigh ~81kg @ ~18% bf according to my scale, and my height is ~180cm). I often hear that on average lighter powerlifters have a better time using a wider grip and a soft pause, while bigger powerlifters have a better time using a slightly closer grip and sinking the bar into their chest to take advantage of their size. Is this something that you would consider true, or is it more important just to find what feels best for me rather than to follow these general guidelines?

2

Hey Ben,

I don’t think a 1-2" narrower grip is going to make any difference from a hypertrophy standpoint. I also expect those using a closer grip to have similar performance on a close grip bench press. I don’t think that means much other than identifying they’re similar movement paterns.

I don’t think a narrower or wider bench grip is uniquely better or worse for shoulder sensitivity, but like most things, is training load related. I have little concerns over you moving it narrower if you prefer, but I don’t think it’s going to make much difference either way.

This video pretty much summarizes my thoughts on bench press technique:

I do not think most people do better with sinking the bar in competition.

-Jordan