What is the best grip width for the bench press? The quick answer is chest-width. The long answer is it depends on your goals and anatomy… but will still probably be close to chest-width. Let’s look at why.
The bench press is a basic exercise that has a place in most strength & conditioning programmes. It can be used to improve hypertrophy, strength, power, speed or even conditioning. Each outcome is achievable by manipulating the loads, velocities, and work:rest ratios (sets, reps, cadence) to the meet the desired training adaptations. Likewise, the technique can be manipulated —within limits1— to facilitate the goals.
The two most common manipulations are grip width, and the bottom position of the bar. Powerlifters2 tend to adopt a wide grip and lower the bar to the high-point of the chest. Such a strategy minimizes the bar displacement, therefore the mechanical work3 necessary to do a rep. An elite powerlifter typically has a barrel chest and proportionally short arms, so they suffer minimal to no biomechanical disadvantage with this technique4.
Interestingly, Matt Wenning, who has held multiple powerlifting titles, also advocates a chest-width grip. He argues that the key to powerlifting success is longevity, and that a chest-width grip eliminates the training injuries from other bench press techniques. Not losing training time, and being pain-free overcomes the initial weakness (light loads) from adopting this narrower grip.
Bodybuilders, on the other hand, are more likely to choose combinations that are biomechanically inefficient in an effort to target specific muscles for hypertrophy: a very narrow grip for triceps, for example, or a wide grip for pecs. The latter could also combined with a clavicular bottom position to stress the the biceps.
Varying bench press technique to correspond with the short-term training goal is a sensible approach for athlete development. An individualized version to address the weak-link during the hypertrophy phase, followed by a wide grip in strength phase. Next, for power, a shoulder-width grip would be used as it is a good middle-ground for handling heavy loads without being too slow. Then for speed, a barbell is usually swapped out for something that can be thrown, such as a medicine ball (whose diameter is less than that of the chest). Early in my career, I bought into this approach, and achieved respectable results doing so. Under rare circumstances, I may still utilize this sequence with one of my athletes. At all other times and with all other athletes, we only employ a chest-width grip for the bench press. And the resultant improvement in sport performance are exceptional.
Compared to most other techniques, using a chest-width grip increases the vertical displacement of the bar, and places more load on the biceps and the triceps concurrently. More displacement equals more work3.
The biceps and triceps are weaker than the pectorialis major and anterior deltoid (especially in the bench press). They are also generally considered antagonist to each other, so intuitively it seems inefficient to have them both working hard simultaneously. Consequently, when switching to this technique everyone feels weak and is, in fact, weaker. Get over it. The goal of training is to improve sports performance. Getting stronger or increasing lean mass may help along the way, but we know that speed is the single most important determinant of sporting success. We need to be working towards the goal of maximizing speed. This might mean the highest acceleration, quickest movement time, or maximum hand velocity.
For the bench press, all three are achieved with the same grip-width and bottom bar position. This is the technique to be used in all training phases. The relative load lifted is more important than the absolute load because resistance training is not just about increasing the capabilities of muscles. It is learning to coordinate optimal movement patterns.
From a functional anatomy and biomechanics perspective, chest-width is optimal and can produce the fastest and most powerful horizontal push. Good examples include a lineman delivering a block, or a fighter throwing a jab. (The latter often getting an additional boost from trunk rotation.) Flip the athlete 90 degrees onto a bench, and the speed advantage of chest-width grip remains.
As with other grips the medial and lateral heads of the triceps play a major role in the bench press by extending the elbow joints. The long head, as well as the biceps undergo an isometric contraction since the muscle length remains nearly constant5.
The lower extremity analogue is the hamstrings muscle group, and rectus femoris when squatting. The isometric biceps and long-head triceps contraction allows force produced in the large pennated pectoralis major (pec) to instantaneously transfer to the radius and ulna. A few centimetres of contraction in muscle length thereby results in many decimetres of distal movement in the bar.
The forearms should be kept vertical throughout the movement, otherwise the long heads of biceps and/or triceps will be required to contract eccentrically at some point and concentrically at another. Any eccentric action represents a loss of force transfer from the pec and ant. deltoid, and a loss of motion. This means slower and weaker pressing. We’ve already established that the pecs are stronger than the arm muscles (especially across the gleno-humeral joint) and since maximum isometric strength is greater than maximum concentric strength, eschewing extraneous concentric contraction allows greater force to be produced by the pecs. Similarly the many muscles crossing the wrist can just work on holding the bar and should not flex or extend6.
The resultant bar path will be an arc. The top position is directly anterior to the shoulders (arms and forearms vertical). The bottom position varies somewhat based on individual proportions, but is probably more inferior than you are accustomed to. Influential skeletal factors include the relationships between shoulder width, rib cage shape, carrying angle of the elbow, and the lengths of the humerus, radius and ulna. The volume of muscle, fat, and breast tissue atop the ribs also plays a role. The net result often brings the bar inferior to the nipple line in males, with the first metacarpal, and the bar simultaneously brushing the 7th. Maintaining a stable base with the spine, ribs and scapulae along with the aforementioned vertical forearms are more important than the specific chest contact point, and those will dictate the appropriate bottom position for each individual.
Part 2 of this article will describe the intricate roll, spin and glide that occurs at the gleno-humeral joint and discuss how that affects the wrists. Exercises and technique tips for improving bench press performance and transferring that to high-speed sport-specific tasks will also be presented. Stay tuned.
—CG
1Beyond which it becomes something other than a bench press. An hour of observation in a busy self-serve fitness studio will provide plenty of dangerous and injurious examples of what a bench press should not look like.
2Powerlifting is actually strength, not power
3Work= force x displacement
4Most athletes that gravitate to team, racquet and combat sports have a positive ape index —that is, their arm span exceeds their height— so they are at a significant disadvantage with a wide grip due to long levers and antero-posteriorly flatter chest.
5The biceps appears to shortens across shoulder joint as it is lengthening at the elbow, and vice versa for the long head of the triceps.
6There may be some ulnar and radial deviation along with rotation, which we will discuss in part 2.