BENCH PRESS HAND PLACEMENT

I have been a powerlifter for the past 3 years. In powerlifing there are 3 movements bench, deadlift, and squat. As you can see bench is important being one of the big 3 lifts. One thing I get asked a lot is where do you grab the bar. This is different for everyone. The most frequent thing I notice with new lifters is that their hands are too narrow on the bar. This takes the movement away from your chest and puts most the stress on your triceps (which is a smaller muscle group then chest). So where do you put your hands. Try this little trick. Imagine holding the bar and moving it towards your chest. Your arms should hit a 90 degree angle on the way down and on the way back up. On the way up keep your arms the same distance apart until you lockout this is roughly where you will grab the bar when you bench. Next you should go to the gym and try this with a real bench. Make sure you use the same cues. The bar should be in hands and your arms should be at 90 degrees about half way down and up. This should help you get your hands in better position. Another thing not to forget, you need to feel comfortable with how the bench feels. This means your form may be a little different but that's okay. when I was in high school my lifting coaches said my grip was too narrow and they wanted it changed. This was because in power-lifting traditionally your grab the bar as wide as possible to reduce the range of motion (this also helped them more because they had bench shirts). However I stuck with the form that felt best for me and ended up with the best bench in the nation for the 181 weight class.