Close grip bench press. We study all the subtleties and secrets

15.05.202027.05.2017

If you like to admire your own hands, and one of the main goals of training is to increase their size, then the bench press narrow grip must be present in your program. By the way, for some reason, many athletes, even those who already have serious experience in such a sport as, neglect this exercise, mistakenly believing that it is not much different from the classic bench press. In fact, there is a difference, and it is very significant.

To whom and why?

If the classic bench press primarily loads the pectoral muscles, then the narrow grip emphasizes the main stress on triceps shoulder - triceps. At the same time, the pectoral muscles, although they do the work, are much less, and basically only their muscles are involved. top part. In addition, the front beam receives a partial load deltoid muscles.

The exercise is multi-joint (or basic), and is equally well suited for both athletes with many years of experience and beginners who bought their first subscription a week ago. In both cases, the bench press with a narrow grip not only increases the volume of the triceps, but also increases their strength.

Correct execution technique

Performing any exercise, first of all, requires the correct and proven technique. Even if you lift a solid weight, but at the same time perform the movement incorrectly, the efficiency and speed of progress suffer first of all, not to mention possible injuries. Therefore, carefully read the description below and take the time to practice the exercise.

To begin with, we take the original. It is the same as for the classic bench press: we lie down on horizontal bench, while our nape, buttocks and upper back must be firmly pressed to its surface, and our legs must be firmly and steadily on the floor. In this case, it is necessary to lie down in such a way that the neck of the bar is approximately above the bottom chest.

Grasp the bar firmly with both hands, placing them narrower than shoulder width apart. The closer your wrists are to each other, the more the load will be focused on the triceps.

Remove the bar from the racks and stretch your arms up. In this case, the neck should not be at eye level, but slightly lower - approximately at the level of the neck.

As you inhale, begin to slowly lower the barbell down, while not spreading your elbows to the sides - they should be pressed against the body as tightly as possible. Otherwise, the load will be shifted to the pectoral muscles.

Touch the bar to the lower part of the chest, linger a little in this position, then gently squeeze the bar as you exhale. Again, keep your elbows out to the sides.

Perform the required number of approaches.

It is very easy to make a mistake in this exercise. Therefore, do not limit yourself to reading the points described above - it is best to additionally watch the training video, or ask the trainer to check the correct execution.

Use less working weight than with a regular bench press - bench press with a narrow grip almost completely eliminates the pectoral muscles from work, and it is much more difficult to squeeze the same weight with triceps only.

Choose your own comfortable grip. The main rule of the exercise is that it should be narrower than the width of the shoulders, but this does not mean at all that the palms should be placed close to each other. The narrower the grip, the easier it is to lose balance.

Be sure to carefully monitor the position of the elbows - the slightest deviation to the sides of the body dramatically reduces the effectiveness of the exercise - a direct emphasis on the triceps. Taking the elbows to the sides, the load goes to the middle of the pectoral muscles.

Alternatively, you can perform the exercise with a shortened neck.

Now you know with close grip bench press. The triceps give the bulk of the arms, and this muscle group is worth paying attention to if you want big arms.

The military press is just a regular bench press. And the army - bench press on the shoulders, he is a chest press, he is a barbell bench press. Basic exercise, used not only in bodybuilding, but also in the training of weightlifters and powerlifters. Popular enough, but considered controversial, many athletes believe that it is the cause of spinal injuries, hernias and protrusions. When done correctly, this is not the case. On the contrary, the movement teaches to stabilize the spine under load, and is very useful for anyone who wants to find a balance between development physical qualities and beauty of the body.

The movement is carried out due to the triceps, the anterior and middle heads of the deltoid muscles and, in part, rear delta. The muscles of the legs, buttocks, and core work as stabilizers. It is wrong to assume that army press is an exercise involving work calf muscles. It is a technical error if the lifter pushes the weight up with their feet. If performed correctly, a shvung will turn out, if it is done incorrectly, its mediocre imitation.

Some articles directly claim that this movement helps to pump up the chest. In fact, the pectoral muscles contract to act as a stabilizer for the shoulders, and gradually stretch as the lifter brings the bar over the head. But the load cannot be considered sufficient for their hypertrophy. Considerable confusion has also arisen because many article authors confuse the military-style press with the army. The military-style bench press is commonly called the bench press without resting the legs, and the military-style bench press is standing.

The stabilizers cannot be turned off while standing. Therefore, ideas about the implementation of this movement in Smith are best left without implementation. The Smith machine is a fixed trajectory barbell that is only suitable for seated overhead presses, not chest presses. Some machines simulate an elliptical trajectory to make pressing movements more natural, but not every shoulder can work in this trajectory. Therefore, it is better not to use the Smith machine option.

Turn off stabilizers from work in basic exercises- a very irrational occupation. Athletes make the base to develop all the muscles of the body and activate the neuromuscular connections, and not to think about how to adapt it later so that the base is not the base.

For starters, this movement did not come from the training of US Navy SEALs, as is customary to write everywhere in RuNet, but as a traditional element of weightlifting training. The SEALs really do it, as a good military press will help you both throw the bag on the support and pull out the wounded comrade if something happens. But who "invented" the exercise, it is impossible to say for sure. Lifting weights overhead was known to the ancient Greeks, judging by the frescoes, and has always been considered a good developmental exercise.

The military bench press allows you to develop not so much the strength of the shoulders and triceps themselves, but synergism in the movement of the legs, body, and arms. In addition, it allows you to increase the strength of the entire upper body just due to stabilization. And it also serves as an excellent special-preparatory movement for a good half of the bench press exercises, and partly for strength-speed exercises, like jerks and jerks.

All this has led to the high popularity of the exercise in modern times. In fact, it was not powerlifting or bodybuilding that “infected” the masses with this movement, but CrossFit. When many people came to CrossFit boxing to be as cool as the guys in the video, they found that not only were they lacking strength, but also stamina, as well as banal amplitude in the joints. Military bench press helps to earn everything necessary movements in CrossFit, from throwing medicine balls from the chest to weightlifting pushes. And it also serves to stabilize the shoulder joint in movements that are performed on the crossbar.

The military press was also respected by old-school bodybuilders. Most of them trained in one way or another with trainers who came out of Soviet weightlifting. In this form, lifting weights over your head is the basic movement.

The benefits of the exercise are not limited to its applied value for different disciplines. Being basic, it involves most of the muscles of the upper body. This allows the athlete to effectively build up muscle mass, and activate neuromuscular connections, as a result, the set will really happen faster than if you only do isolation in simulators.

In addition to the shoulders, the movement perfectly works out the triceps. It allows you to change the shape of the hands. Therefore, it is often the army bench that is given to girls who want to quickly tone their hands, no matter how paradoxical it may sound.

In the right technique, the movement serves as an excellent prevention of problems arising from insufficiently active blood circulation in the cervical-collar zone. A number of sources mention that the military press is the prevention of trapezoid hypertonicity in security officials, and headaches associated with muscle spasms.

Important: all the benefits of the military bench press are revealed only when the exercise is performed in the correct technique

For beginners, the movement has two serious disadvantages:

The possibility of injury due to technical violations;
Fall risk

Some athletes simply do not have time to “unhook” their hands from the projectile and therefore fall back along with the barbell. This usually happens if the weight taken is too large. For beginner athletes, movement carries many dangers, especially if the individual cannot adequately assess training volume. We are not talking about injuries and falls. Many athletes really want to build their shoulders faster, so they do a monstrous amount of work on them. This causes inflammation in the soft tissues, and pain.

They say that the reason is the military bench itself, and it is forbidden to do it. But in fact, the reason is the abundance of different bench presses, and insufficient time and body resources for recovery.

A beginner, whose strength is not yet enough to adequately stabilize the lower back in the exercise, may also experience a back injury. Usually this is a displacement of the vertebra, protrusion or hernia. It is impossible to assume that the cause is only this movement. In practice, there are many more reasons, and one of them is the weakness of the front abdominal wall. Until the press is strengthened, it is recommended to wear an athletic belt. But this is not a panacea. You still have to develop the skill of keeping your back neutral, no matter how much you want to do it safely all your life only at the expense of the belt.

Often there are injuries of the hands due to improper technique. Many people don't place the bar in the middle of their hand, and don't provide even pressure, but simply try to redistribute the weight so that it is comfortable to lift. This is not always optimal for the wrists. Wrist bandages partly solve the problem of such athletes.

Technically, this is a difficult exercise. Before its implementation, a complete joint warm-up, and you just need to activate the entire shoulder girdle. During the warm-up, you need to complete several series circular rotations back and forth.

The movement is performed in this way:

you need to set the racks to a height that is suitable for a front squat. The neck should lie freely on the chest;
grip - shoulder width apart, the athlete grabs the barbell from both sides, the grip is tight enough, then the chest is brought under the bar and the athlete unbends his legs, removing the barbell from the racks;
the departure from the racks looks like in a classic squat. After that, the athlete tightens the press, stabilizes the lower back, rests his feet on the platform, and with one movement along an elliptical trajectory squeezes the bar up;
the correct trajectory of the projectile is up in an arc behind the head, and not directly in front of you;
lowering also occurs smoothly;
touching the chest in each movement is required only if the athlete works without pain and discomfort. In itself, lowering is not a necessary element of the exercise.

After the end of the approach, the bar returns to the racks.

Wrong trajectory

Some people manage to portray this movement as a parody of the bench press. They press straight up at the highest point, pushing the bar off the body. It turns out a rather traumatic variation for the shoulders, which, with an increase in weight, also becomes the cause of falls. Another error in the trajectory is the introduction of the bar sharply behind the head, this option is not acceptable because it contributes to unnatural overload. cervical spine. The third error of the trajectory is the “nose press”, that is, doing the exercise in a half-amplitude.

A mix of styles and exercises

Some athletes confuse this movement with the barbell overhead press technique. They do not press the forearms to the body, but do all the work by pushing the weight away from themselves and bringing it behind the head. At the same time, the elbows are spread apart, and the shoulders at the start are parallel to the floor. Everything would be fine if this initial position would not cause subacromial syndrome. Using this technique is fraught with pain in the joints.

big ego

Huge weights lifted up look cool. But then treating inflammation of the ligaments and muscle tears is not at all as cool. Working weights should increase only when the technique of movement will allow them to be increased. Everything else is redundant for now.

Inclusion in the work of the legs, back, and body

Some lifters do a half push, a push, anything to push the weight with their feet instead of the bench press. If you can’t squeeze the barbell smoothly and with your hands, you just need to reduce the weight of the burden. It is not necessary to work with the help of the body and legs.

Rolls from heel to toe

Many people find it difficult to maintain weight so as not to lose balance during exercise. Such people should try to keep their balance carefully, transferring the weight to the middle of the arch of the foot. If it doesn’t work out, and it only comes out to roll, it’s worth switching to the bench press, and work along the way on the development of the muscles of the legs and the cortex.

Excess training volume

This is true for all beginners. It seems to them that the program is for hacks, and they train the least in the gym. So a person begins to perform all the approaches that, in principle, he can perform. The volume increases many times, but the intensity stops growing. The athlete experiences pain in the ligaments and joints, he does not become stronger, and his training simply becomes another attempt to overcome himself. Over time, cumulative injuries appear, and a person refuses to exercise.

Lack of mobility in the joints

Sometimes they write that the movement cannot be performed only with arthrosis and osteochondrosis, but the problem is that a perfectly healthy person may be unable to make just such an amplitude of movement due to “office posture”, that is, weakness of the back muscles when overloading the trapezium and chest. Over time, as your back gets stronger, you will be able to lift the weight over your head more effectively. Up to this point, work with dumbbells is recommended.

For a good study of the triceps, the trainer recommends using the bench press with a narrow grip. This exercise is easy for an inexperienced eye to confuse with or the classic bench press. But the differences are enormous, let's see for ourselves.

Muscle work

When using a narrow grip, the load on the muscles is distributed as follows:

Triceps (lateral, medial and long bundles) - do the bulk of the work.
Large pectoral muscles - work in synergy with the triceps. When changing the grip to a wider one and moving the elbows to the sides, they take the load on themselves.
Deltoid muscles (anterior bundle).

It all depends on your training goals:

Usually, a triceps press is done on the day of the muscles of the same name (chest and triceps) after the classic bench press, press on incline bench or push-ups on the uneven bars.
If you decide to set aside a separate day for triceps, reducing the load on the chest, then you can start the whole workout with this exercise. By first performing a bench press with a narrow grip, you can do french press and extension of the arms on the block, and then finish off the muscle by bending the arms with dumbbells behind the head.

The technique is very simple, but still requires attention. As with everything, there are nuances.

Of the restrictions, the following can be mentioned:

You should not do close-grip barbell lifts on shoulder day, as this can lead to shoulder injury.
It is also not recommended to do such presses on an incline bench at an upward angle. Use only a horizontal surface or a slight negative slope.

Close Grip Press Techniques

IN gyms you can observe the bench press with a narrow grip in different designs. Below are two options, the technique of which differs.

First of all, you need to prepare a place for the bench press: put the racks on desired height, hang up an empty bar to warm up.

Lie down correctly on the bench: the pelvis, back of the head and shoulder blades should be pressed against its surface.
Grab the bar so that there are 25-30 cm between your hands, the grip is straight.
Straighten your arms, removing the bar from the racks. Take him to such a position that he was opposite the middle of the chest.
As you begin to lower the weight onto your chest, your elbows should be close to your body. If you spread them to the sides, the load from the triceps goes to the pectoral muscles. When lifting, we unbend our arms completely.

Doing warm-up approach in 10-15 repetitions. We hang working weights and start exercising: 3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Not only the work of the triceps, but also the degree of load on the anterior bundles of the deltoid muscles will depend on where you lower the weight. The nuances here are as follows: lowering the bar to the bottom of the chest, you maximize the use of both triceps and shoulders. There are damage to the latter. The surest technique in this case is lifting the barbell from the middle of the chest. Try to put it down there.

If you experience pain in your shoulders, stop immediately. this exercise.

Press on the inside of the chest

We originally talked about the close grip bench press in relation to triceps training. The same option is designed to emphasize the load on the inside of the pectoral muscles.

The bar will need to be taken with an even narrower grip than in the previous case.

Lie down so that the back of your head, pelvis and shoulder blades are pressed against the bench.
Spread your legs so that your position on the bench is stable.
Now grab the bar so that your hands are 8–10 cm apart from each other.
Extend your elbows to opposite sides. Remove the bar by straightening your arms.
Lower the weight to the chest (between the diaphragm and collarbones).

Do 10-15 warm-up reps. Hang a working weight (small) and do 3 sets of 12 reps. Thus, you will work inner part chest muscles.

One of the common problems when doing such a press is that the bar is difficult to hold when grasping the neck with such a grip. In addition, your wrists are in a rather uncomfortable position. These are perhaps the only serious drawbacks of the exercise.

This version of the bench press should not be performed on an incline bench at different angles - only lying in a horizontal position.

Mistakes

In any exercise, there is one way to get the movement right and many ways to get it wrong. Pay attention to popular mistakes and try to avoid them.

Big weight

When a man took too big weight, from the side it looks like this:

The lifting of the bar is not carried out smoothly, but with the help of a jerk and bending of the whole body.
The neck swings and walks not along a given trajectory, but at random.
Lowering the weight occurs very quickly, the bar falls on the chest and absorbs from it.

Naturally, in this case, the technique will be dangerous for the muscles, joints and ligaments. You can easily dislocate your shoulder. And the lower you lower the bar, down to the stomach, the greater the load on the shoulders. And triceps, on the contrary, will lose it.

Incorrect position of the elbows

The degree of load on the triceps depends on the position in which your elbows will be. The elbows should be pressed to the body and move strictly up and down, but not to the sides.

In this case, you will achieve the maximum load on them.

Using an incline bench

It makes no sense to work at positive angles. This will not change the load on different parts of the triceps. Therefore, you do not need to work on an incline bench. Just move it to a horizontal position. Or, alternatively, use a bench with a slight negative slope.

Use of locks of different weights

This subtlety is not entirely obvious, but still.

It is important that the locks on the bar weigh the same. A difference of 200-300 grams is enough to make it possible to lose balance, especially on the last repetitions, when there is practically no strength.

When you do a barbell lift, this difference will cause one hand to be able to press the weight and the other not. As a result, the bar will go to the right or left. Be careful and select the same locks on both ends of the neck.

Breath

Do not complicate your life - breathe correctly.

The rise is carried out on the exhale, lowering the weight - on the inhale.

Exhalation occurs through the mouth, and inhalation through the nose. This is because you can exhale more through your mouth than through your nose. This means you can lift more weight.

Too light weight

Pick up the weight so that the last 2-3 repetitions in each approach are given to you hard. If you have strength left, then the weight is too light. This is acceptable only at first, when you start training. After a month of introductory training, you need to gradually increase the weight to failure in order to effectively spend time in the gym.

What not to do

First, it is to check how much you can squeeze out at a time. The close grip barbell bench press can be hazardous to the elbows and shoulders if used maximum weights. The triceps press is for pumping muscles, not for exhibition performances.

Secondly, work without a good warm-up. Always warm up your muscles first.

Take a special bench and place it under the barbell racks. Position it so that, after you lie down on it, the neck should be located in front of your eyes.
Take a starting position. The back, shoulders, buttocks and head should lie firmly on the bench, the lower back is slightly bent. In the event that there are no racks for the barbell, one or two assistants can replace them. With their help, a heavy projectile will be fed and received.
Consider the case where you have everything. Place your hands on the bar with an overhand grip. Try to narrow the distance between the palms a little so that it is slightly less than the width of the shoulders. There are no specific recommendations on how far to narrow your hands. Just take it so that it is convenient for you to maintain the balance of the projectile during the exercise.
To remove the bar from the stand, squeeze it up and slide it so that the bar is above the neck. Notice it used to be overhead.
Lower the bar while inhaling and holding your breath. It should not touch the chest, but at the same time be in the maximum close distance with it.
As soon as the bar reaches the chest, but does not touch it, press up on the exhale. Almost at the very top, the exhalation should end and the last centimeters you need to press the bar while holding your breath.
At the very top, take a short second's rest and at this time tighten the triceps as much as possible.
During flexion and extension of the arms, try to make sure that the elbows do not diverge to the sides.
You need to perform this exercise at a moderate pace.

Wishes

The bench press with a narrow grip is considered a rather difficult exercise and requires a lot of effort from the athlete. By the way, the weight that is set on the projectile is also one of the maximum, among other exercises for training triceps. Therefore, you need to do this type of training at the very beginning, when your body is still fresh.

At first, when there is not much experience yet, you will have to spend additional efforts to maintain the balance of the bar. By the way, there is a special curved necks, which are designed to facilitate this task.

When you want to train only triceps, then you do not need to stop the barbell on your chest. As soon as this happens, other muscles are immediately included in the work. Few people know this nuance and therefore often makes a characteristic mistake.

Another mistake that you can make out of ignorance. It would seem logical to push the bar due to the springy action from the chest. Just don't do it. It is better to reduce the weight if it is otherwise difficult to lift it or reduce the number of repetitions.

It is very important to hold your breath almost at the highest point of the projectile. In general, this happens automatically even for inexperienced athletes, but still, follow this moment.

Do not arch your back during the lift, this is also a mistake.

Do not hold the bar with hands that are too close to each other. During the movement of the bar, the elbows will necessarily diverge to the sides and the right muscles will not receive the load that you planned.

And the last parting word, when you do the bench press with a narrow grip, ask an assistant to follow the trajectory of its movement from the side. It should look like a wide arc. It will begin in the region of the neck, and end in the region of the lower ribs of the chest.

That seems to be all the wishes. Good luck to you Friends in mastering the bench press exercise with a narrow grip!

Today we'll talk about narrow grip press, this exercise is designed to develop triceps. In my opinion, for the development of triceps, there are two most effective basic exercises:

1. Push-ups from the bars (I already wrote about this exercise, who are interested in reading).

2. Close grip bench press.

Triceps Close Grip Press Technique

In order for the triceps, and not the pectorals, to work in the bench press with a narrow grip, you need to know correct technique execution.

Many people know that the narrower the grip, during the bench press, the more our triceps work, the wider the grip, the more they work. Accordingly, people conclude that the already we take, the better the triceps will work for us, but this is not entirely true. After all, you can shake narrowly and work out the inside of the chest, and not the triceps.

For the work of the triceps, the grip is not so important as the manner in which the exercise is performed, namely, it is important for us to perform extension in the elbow joint. To train the pectoral muscle, you need the movement to occur in the shoulder joint. That's the whole difference.

A grip narrower or wider is by and large for amateurs. An experienced athlete who has been practicing for a long time, he is well aware that if he eliminates shoulder joint, but will be able to shift work to elbow joint, then the triceps will work. This is the main point that you must constantly remember, but then the technical implementation of this moment begins.

1. As you understand, the width of the grip is not so important. I would recommend a grip slightly narrower than shoulder width. If you take the bar too narrow, then this will create a breaking load on the hands, you will be hurt and uncomfortable, and this will force you to work with less weight.

2. Where to lower the bar? The bar should move not at the level of the top of the chest, but as far away from itself as possible ( great option lower under the chest, into the area solar plexus). The further the bar is away from you, the less the shoulder joint works.

3. The position of the elbows. In order to minimize the work of the shoulder joint, you need to keep your elbows as close to the body as possible.

4. Amplitude of movement. In order not to facilitate the work of the triceps, it is necessary to minimize the help pectoral muscles. To do this, you should not touch your chest when lowering the bar, you need to stop about 15 cm from the chest and press up from this position. Thus, we do not help with the chest, and we press from a dead center, only thanks to the triceps.

little secret

In order to further concentrate the load on your triceps, then use a bench with a negative slope (this is when the head is lower than the legs). The lower the slope, the easier it is to exclude the shoulder joint from work, that’s basically the whole secret, but personally I don’t see anyone in the halls stinging like that, but you try it! If you do not have a negative bench in your gym, then you can put a bar or a couple of discs from the barbell under the bench, thereby creating an inclination.

Since this exercise is basic, you need to work in it with decent weights (about 80% of the usual bench press). Triceps strong muscle group and she loves big weights and the average number of repetitions is 6-10.