Hi guys, I recently started working out (around 2 or 3 months) and I have increased my bench press from a measly 65 pounds to a pathetic 95…
I recently started doing close grip bench press and noticed I can do 3 full sets of 12 reps with 65 pounds worth of weight (45 bar + 10 each side) this bothers me because as far as I know close grip works mainly tricpes and its nearly as much as my regular flat bench press. Is there something wrong with my chest or is this normal??
I encountered this problem too when i started lifting, probably you haven’t developed any significant muscle yet so i doubt your triceps are overpowering your chest.
If you are really concerned about this i recommend you pre-fatigue your chest muscles so you can feel them at work, or switch your grips and do a limited range of motion to bring up your flat bench press and try to take your triceps out of the equation.
I too weight 160 pounds, 17 since last month. Been training half a year, tho, speaking from personal experience but i’m pretty damn sure the more experienced members can help you out.
It seems like people either have the big triceps small chest small forearms or the big forearms big chest small triceps.
The small tricep people like close grip and complain about shoudler problems on wide grip… That is me. The big tricep people can do wide grip great but narrow grip it hurts their chest and they risk tearing a pec.
When you are making the switch over, take it slow or you will strain something.
It all depends what u want… the big triceps impress the girls … the big forearms/chest just make u look like a big ol’ meaty hoss, but u really cant see the muscle like u can with the arms.
Everyone is different. if it hurts slow down or take a break give your body some time to adjust, it will adjust.
I wouldn’t worry too much about close grip versus regular bench at this point. My personal experience was in the beginning my form was so messy that who knew what muscles were involved in pushing excercises.
My recommendation is to keep going with both the regular bench and the close grip. Focus as much on form as you can (there are plenty of articles regarding bench form in here) and everything else will fall into place over time.
A genuine question: why are you doing the close-grip bench press? If you want to increase your bench, that’s the exercise you should be doing. Eventually you might need assistance exercises, but I doubt that this is the case at your current level. Also, you might want to re-examine your set/rep protocol if you’re interested in strength (as your tone implies)
As for your actual question; as Otep pointed out, everything is normal.
P.S. In my humble opinion, the bench press is not a good chest exercise. In most of the people I’ve trained with people, it seems to work the triceps a lot more.
At this stage, you’d be better off just hammering out the basics. Squat, deadlift, bench, row, shoulder press, pull-ups, and maybe toss in some lunges and anterior chain work.
I’d simply like to know how to take the shoulders out of the equation. My shoulders are fried after benching and I usually still have to do shoulder press…
It could also be that your hands are not spaced out far enough.
Your hands should be spaced out just beyond shoulder width.
Keep your ass on the bench at all times(dont lift it up no matter what).
Tuck your feet back a little bit and dont lift them up either.
This will help to increase your power as well as your stamina in the sets. My suggestion to get your bench higher is to go from light weight to heavy weight back to light.
Do a weight that you can do 10 times. Then a weight that you can do 8…6…4…2…and till you can only do one rep. This will help you build strength as well as get a feel of what it would be like to rep heavier weights. After you go up go back down till you can rep it 8 times. Try this and you will def notice a difference. Also work in wide grip, close grips, incline and decline.
as far as my form, i position my self flat on the bench i keep my ass down and my feet are flat down i think my lower back curves a bit but I think everyone’s back has a slight curve to it no one is straight. My hands i position at the indicators at the bar ( i dont know if every bar has these but on the ones ive used there are 2 strips running along the width of the bench pretty far apart, i make sure my pinkies are on those two bars). I am pretty tall (1’88") so maybe i should be grabbing the bar further apart??
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
I’d simply like to know how to take the shoulders out of the equation. My shoulders are fried after benching and I usually still have to do shoulder press…[/quote]
I wasnt really reading the post but if your question is how to improve yor bench, try tempos. For example: go four seconds down, then hold for three at the bottom, and then shoot up. This will help with yur stabilizers.