Triceps exercise
Close-Grip Bench PressHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Main muscles
- Triceps
- Also works
- Chest, Front delts
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
How do you do the Close-Grip Bench Press?
- Lie on a flat bench, eyes under the bar, feet flat.
- Grip the bar with hands shoulder-width apart, thumbs round.
- Lower the bar to the bottom of your breastbone, elbows close to your sides.
- Touch lightly, then press up until your arms are straight over your shoulders.
Cues
- Hands shoulder-width, not touching
- Elbows tucked to your ribs
- Forearms vertical at the bottom
Common mistakes
- Hands too close: wrists bend; keep hands about shoulder-width apart.
- Elbows flaring wide: tuck them in towards your ribs as you lower.
- Bouncing the bar off your chest: lower slowly and touch lightly.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
Starting position
Lying flat on a flat bench (pad top about 45 cm high). Head, upper back and hips stay on the pad; feet flat on the floor, about hip- to shoulder-width apart, knees about 90°. Shoulder blades pulled down and back; natural low-back curve, no big arch. Pronated grip (palms towards the feet), thumbs wrapped round the bar, wrists straight over the forearms. Hands about shoulder-width apart: about 1.0× biacromial width (Lockie et al. use 95%), which is roughly 30–40 cm between the hands. The hands never touch each other. Bar taken from the rack with straight arms.
The movement
A shallow J. The elbows stay under the bar and close to the body all the way. Head, hips and feet do not move. The bar stays level.
End position
(turnaround point): bar lightly touches the lower chest, at the bottom of the breastbone (just above the xiphoid). Forearms vertical when seen from the side. Upper arms tucked about 30° out from the torso (accept 20–45°), never flared to 90°. Elbows end a few centimetres below the level of the bench top, close to the ribs.
Tempo
About 2 s down, a touch with no bounce (about 0.2 s), about 1.2–1.5 s up, a short pause at the top.
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
| Measure | Target | Good range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grip width (between hands) | 1.0× biacromial width | 0.9–1.1× (about 30–40 cm) | |
| Upper arm from torso at the touch (seen from above) | 30° | 20–45° | |
| Forearm from vertical at the touch (side view) | 0° | 0–10° | |
| Touch point | bottom of the sternum | lower chest band, never the neck or belly | |
| Elbow at the top | 175° | 170–180°, no snap | |
| Bar to chest at the touch | 0 cm (light touch) | 0–2 cm |
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Close-Grip Bench Press is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
