PDA

View Full Version : Close Grip Bench Press



Thetasteofink69
04-04-08, 1:21 am
Whenever you do a close grip bench press, how much of your chest is really involved? I know it's nothing like a real bench press, but none the less..

I ask because I'm trying hard to bring up my chest right now, and I don't want to overtrain it..

Or is it possible that it may actually help my chest if it's trained as an assisting muscle?

Matt Dickerson
04-04-08, 1:36 am
Whenever you do a close grip bench press, how much of your chest is really involved? I know it's nothing like a real bench press, but none the less..

I ask because I'm trying hard to bring up my chest right now, and I don't want to overtrain it..

Or is it possible that it may actually help my chest if it's trained as an assisting muscle?

I'm not really a body builder, but I would think that focusing on Fly type movements especially on an incline would be best for bringing up the chest and that doing close grip benching would be something used mostly for tricep work and not using the pecs much at all.

sanga
04-04-08, 4:04 am
I do Close grip presses for triceps and although I can feel it a little in my chest I don`t get a sore chest but my triceps are as sore as hell the next day, proves I`m doing the exercise correctly, as long as you keep the triceps training either on the same day as chest or a few days spaced out you should be fine, quality sets rather than volumne I say.

Dozer
04-04-08, 4:06 am
I always make sure to keep my elbows in toward my body to cut out chest involvement and increase tricep work.

sanga
04-04-08, 4:47 am
Yep, I agree.

born0withno0soul
04-04-08, 4:56 am
dozer has it down right. i have found that putting your hands really close on the bar will cause nothing but wrist pain. you can space your hands a decent amount apart, as long as you keep the elbows tucked in close to the body you will hit mostly tris. or atleast thats the way it works for me

Carpe Diem P.T
04-04-08, 4:57 am
I always make sure to keep my elbows in toward my body to cut out chest involvement and increase tricep work.

I have got a lot of my clients to do CGBP lately and i assumed that a elbows in approach would recruit more triceps but for them it seems to be with elbows going out as much as possible that works for them.

if you keep your elbows in i believe that shoulders will come in to play taking away form triceps. do the movement right now and see how much more shoulders are involved in a close elbow approach. your elbows will go down past the body during an elbows in approach.

the elbows are all over the place with elbows in. during tri exercises elbows dont usually move.

could be wrong though. just goin on recent findings.

sanga
04-04-08, 5:08 am
dozer has it down right. i have found that putting your hands really close on the bar will cause nothing but wrist pain. you can space your hands a decent amount apart, as long as you keep the elbows tucked in close to the body you will hit mostly tris. or atleast thats the way it works for me

This is the correct way to perform the exercise but when you start getting to the wights Wrath uses then the elbows do start to flare out a little but thats to be expected with such weight.

I close grip press 110kg for 6 reps at present which isn`t bad, I know of others that can do a whole lot more.

Thetasteofink69
04-04-08, 8:54 am
I'm not really a body builder, but I would think that focusing on Fly type movements especially on an incline would be best for bringing up the chest and that doing close grip benching would be something used mostly for tricep work and not using the pecs much at all.

Yeah I wanna use CGBP for triceps.. Sorry I guess I didn't state my question that great.. I train triceps on a different day that i train chest, so i wanted to make sure that a CGBP wouldn't interfere with recovery

I see a lot of guys doing it with an EZ curl bar.. Is this good or is that too close of a grip?

Enforcer
04-04-08, 9:08 am
Whenever you do a close grip bench press, how much of your chest is really involved? I know it's nothing like a real bench press, but none the less..

I ask because I'm trying hard to bring up my chest right now, and I don't want to overtrain it..

Or is it possible that it may actually help my chest if it's trained as an assisting muscle?

Bro ur 16. No shit ur chest isn't fully developed yet. But to answer your question your chest does get worked during close grip bench presses. You are so young that you only should be doing 12-13 sets for chest. Free weights are the way to go. You aren't trying to sculpt shit at ur age- you need to build a chest first. It takes time my freind. Be patient and things will happen for you.

loiacanoa
04-04-08, 9:08 am
so what position would have least shoulder involvement for CGBP????

prowrestler
04-04-08, 9:09 am
I have got a lot of my clients to do CGBP lately and i assumed that a elbows in approach would recruit more triceps but for them it seems to be with elbows going out as much as possible that works for them.

if you keep your elbows in i believe that shoulders will come in to play taking away form triceps. do the movement right now and see how much more shoulders are involved in a close elbow approach. your elbows will go down past the body during an elbows in approach.

the elbows are all over the place with elbows in. during tri exercises elbows dont usually move.

could be wrong though. just goin on recent findings.

yep, shoulder come into play waaay more this way but tha is not bad for me, its a compound exercise for a reason.

what i find give more elbow extension is to lower he bar higher up onto the torso. imagine pressing the bar up and down to your delts.

Phil800101
04-04-08, 10:35 am
so what position would have least shoulder involvement for CGBP????

Play around with arm spacing, and where your elbows are at (generally though, it is commonly accepted that you want to keep your elbows in as much as possible to hit the triceps...ever do a diamond push-up? Same kinda thing here). See where it is that you feel the movement in your triceps more than your shoulders. It's all about feeling...this is true for any exercise. You should be able to feel a lift in the targeted area, that's how you know it's working. You get what I'm saying?

CGBP is a great exercise for blasting your tris, I fucking love it.

Yolo
04-04-08, 10:36 am
what i find give more elbow extension is to lower he bar higher up onto the torso. imagine pressing the bar up and down to your delts.
i hear what you're saying but this is more like a skull-crusher than an actual press...i don't mean any disrespect just my 2 cents...

Toni69
04-04-08, 11:16 am
I think its like anything else..if you think of your chest pushing most of the weight on CGB, then your gonna start contracting your chest in the upward motion. Like dips...you can do em for chest or you can target more tri's, depends how you lean into it really. Like Enforcer said, you need to focus on just building so when you want to contract targeted muscles in a specic movement, you can feel them actuallydoing the work, because you have allowed them to develop and grow. You learn how to use that targeted muscle to do the work its supposed to do in time...the time a muscle needs to develop and grow.

It took me a year to build my lats to the point where finally I know how to "isolate" them in the sense that they do the work when Im performing lat pulldowns or single arm db rows...where before, I would naturally pull with my arms or other muscles cause at first your lats are not strong enough to perform the lift unassisted for the majority of the exercise. I hope that made sense. LOL

NickSP
04-04-08, 12:21 pm
If you're doin CG and tryin to bring up your chest, make sure the day you do tris and day you do chest are separated as much as possible. I think the way you're really gonna maximize the tri work is with moderate form. If you go super strict with your elbows coming down perfectly parallel to your body, pretty much your upper arms right up against your side, your front delts will come in to play big time (this is all true for dips as well) and if you flare your elbows a lot obviously you're gonna be throwing in some chest. I take a grip probably just about shoulder width or so, maybe slightly closer, and come down fairly narrow... may flare out just a bit more on the way up when you're going heavy. If I remember correctly I think Wrath does it the way I would recommend

Gambit
04-04-08, 12:25 pm
I don't usually incorporate decline benching into my chest day, so when it comes around to arm day, I usually hit the decline bench for CGBP, and it feels like I'm not hitting too much chest this way. Awkward at first, but helps out both ways.

prowrestler
04-04-08, 3:14 pm
i hear what you're saying but this is more like a skull-crusher than an actual press...i don't mean any disrespect just my 2 cents...

exactly, thats what the triceps where ment to do. you have your elbow extension and got some movement in the shoulder joint goin, therfor causing a compound movement. you keep the elbows tight to switch stress from the pecs to the ant. deltiods. by lowering the bar maybe not to the delts but like 2-3 inches under them, you will have the triceps really barring most of the load with assistance from the deltiods and minor assistance from the pecs when the arms are tight to the body.

Toni69
04-04-08, 4:44 pm
I wanted to point out too, we know when you hit chest, your tris and front delts are assisting in the pressing movements as well...so if your doin CGB and your tris are weak or fatiguing too early, its only natural other muscles are gonna take over where tri's are lagging or weakening...so lighten the weight, feel the weight and go with form and concentrated movements so your actually working your tri's more and not getting so pumped everywhere else.

BrotherInArms
04-04-08, 8:32 pm
Shoulder width, elbows rubbing up against your lats.

I especially feel the inner chest if I do tris the day following a chest workout.

Thetasteofink69
04-04-08, 11:25 pm
Why is this turning into a discussion about chest building?.. I have a chest routine that's giving me great progress.. It was just a question about tricep training and if it would affect my chest..

Nobody has an answer to my question about EZ curl bars?

Matt Dickerson
04-04-08, 11:42 pm
Why is this turning into a discussion about chest building?.. I have a chest routine that's giving me great progress.. It was just a question about tricep training and if it would affect my chest..

Nobody has an answer to my question about EZ curl bars?

Because it is a thread where many people talk about issues they care about as well and everyone just wants to be helpful. Also you said: "I'm trying hard to bring up my chest right now, and I don't want to overtrain it.."
As for the original question it depends on the technique you use when benching. If you leave your elbows out at 90 degrees, which is the bodybuilding way of benching, you will recruit more chest and front delts. If you tuck your elbows in to 45 degree angle or less, you will primarily be using triceps for pushing and the lats will stabilize the bar more and act as a spring board. The pecs won't be involved very much at all. The EZ curl bar might be a little easier on the wrists and elbows and hit your triceps in a slightly different manner. Try it. That will be 30 U.S. American dollars please ;)

Toni69
04-05-08, 10:21 am
Why is this turning into a discussion about chest building?.. I have a chest routine that's giving me great progress.. It was just a question about tricep training and if it would affect my chest..

Nobody has an answer to my question about EZ curl bars?

The subject of chest came up because you originally asked this:

Close Grip Bench Press

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whenever you do a close grip bench press, how much of your chest is really involved? I know it's nothing like a real bench press, but none the less..

I ask because I'm trying hard to bring up my chest right now, and I don't want to overtrain it..

Or is it possible that it may actually help my chest if it's trained as an assisting muscle?



I was trying to point out how to avoid hitting chest and target more tri's when doin CGB presses. I was also using chest as a prime example on how you can approach an exercise all wrong if you dont concentrate on what your supposed to be doing.

I have seen many guys using the EZ bar for CGB..I have done so as well. Whatever works best for you...as long as your hitting the targeted muscles...choose whatever bar and at whatever angle you want. Its not textbook per se.

Thetasteofink69
04-05-08, 10:43 am
Don't get my wrong.. I appreciate all responses, and people are free to discuss whatever they want of course.. I just didn't want people to think that i'm in search of a good chest routine or something along those lines..

Thanks for all the replies.. I think I'll give CGBP a try when i train arms tomorrow..

Especially thanks to toni and matt for the in-depth answers.. Those helped a lot

krazyassmexican
04-05-08, 10:44 am
if you want a tricep movement with virtually no chest involved
try this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxfzWbEKd6s

Toni69
04-05-08, 10:49 am
No prob man..whatever I can do to try and help. You ever try rack presses for triceps? Great mass builder.

ROC1291
04-05-08, 11:02 am
Did some improvising last night when all the flat bench abusers were at bally's last night.
Remembered an exercise recommended by DC and others called the Reverse Grip Bench Press.
Did it on the Smith and felt it great, triceps are sore today.
You don't have to take a close grip, just a reverse grip to your regular bench press and keep your elbows at your sides like you would for a close grip.
People can usually go heavier on this.
I started with about 145.

sideburnz
09-21-09, 7:34 am
My current routine for tris is :
c-g benches 3sets
dips 3sets
either lying db extensions or kickbacks 3sets
rope pushdowns 3sets.

My previous routine was:
dips 4sets
skull crushers 4sets
lying db extensions 4sets

During my previous routine i felt more sore in my tris & i didnt even do the major mass builder which is the cg bench. But now that i just wanted 2 change things up, the new routine hasnt gotten me really sore as per usual. Im thinkin its cos of the cg bench. When i do em i do feel it in my tris but not as much as my other tris excercises. In fact i feel it more on my front delts. I do it slowly with strict form and I dont place the bar above my chest like how many people do it. I read somewhere that you should place the bar slightly between the upper abs and the lower chest so that you dont let your chest do the work. That's how i do it but i need help on the soreness or if what im doing is wrong. Thanks

BubbyLight
09-21-09, 7:37 am
i would be able to tell if you posted a video...everything u say sounds right. and plus ur gonna up ur bench like that. i promise

mritter3
09-21-09, 8:36 am
i would switch back and forth from cgbp and rev. bench press, both great mass builders for the tri's, in addition skulls and dips and thats it man....in this case less is better.

MightyMouse666
09-21-09, 8:47 am
Make sure to keep your elbows tucked, bring the bar to the lower chest. As long as your form is good, I wouldn't worry much about soreness. At least in my experience, nothing compares to the soreness in yout tri's you get from skullcrushers. Next day soreness can be mostly attributed to the negative phase of the lift, and if you're doing skullcrushers, your tri's are probably getting a full stretch and a slow negative.

BryanSmash!
09-21-09, 8:48 am
Try Decline CGBPs instead of flat bench and see if it helps.