How Wide Should Your Hands Be On Bench Press?

Tonight in one of my classes we focused on bench press.

I was asked how wide should your hands go on bench press?

The answer is “it depends”.

In Power Lifting you will see a lot of Female competitors with their hands as wide as possible. This is for one reason, to reduce the distance that the bar has to travel. The wider the hands and the more you pull your shoulders back the less distance the bar has to travel.

If you are not a PowerLifter there is still no right or wrong answer to this question. You should start with your hands about shoulder width apart and from here you should play around with your hand width distance to find a distance that is comfortable for you.

Depending on your mobility, flexibility, injuries and more there is no perfect width.

Try different grip widths until you find one that feels good for you.

As well it’s a great idea to train your bench press with varying grips. This will help reduce your chance of overuse injury and also help get you stronger in all ranges.

READ 5 Bench Press Tips For Women

Summary :

– Find a grip that is comfortable, generally about shoulder width apart.

– Train most of your training in this grip width, but be sure to also do some closer and wider grip training to reduce injury and get stronger in all ranges.

– Play around with a grip width that feels comfortable for you.

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Thanks.

Coach Rob