Straight to question: What grip should I be using for the bench press?
I’m 5’10.5 and currently use a grip which has 19 inch between my hands. I feel the grip would be height dependent. I.e. it wouldnt make sense a 5,10 and 6,4 guy having the same grip?
Whilst at the moment this feels the most comfortable, I realise that initially if I were to change the grip it would decrease my numbers, but I’m thinking of the benefit in the future and want to establish the best option.
I’m 5’8" with short arms but a wide chest, and I find that the raw sweet spot for me is between ring and middle fingers on the rings, which is a fairly wide grip. The wider the better in general because it decreases the range of motion you need to press through, but not everyone’s shoulders and pecs can handle max width benching.
Some of the biggest raw benchers have used a close grip, shoulders-width grip. You just need to experiment and see what’s right for you. Try moving them in or out a finger’s width and stick with it for awhile. You can also change grips in training to shift the stress between the different pressing muscle groups.