The ideal bench press grip width position
Download our free sports training reports. Enter your email address below: (As a bonus, we'll start sending you our free weekly newsletter, Sports Performance Bulletin.)
After reading all the advice, it gets a little confusing on where you should place your hands to bench the most. Still there is pretty slick way of finding out your individual spot on the bar. It was discussed in Pushing for Power by world champion Bill Seno way back in 1984. He was the first official 198 and 220 pound class senior national champion and was also the world champion in his weight class.
This man was one of the early pioneers in the powerlifting sport and he knew a thing or two about moving the heavy iron.
He recommends having the athlete get down on the floor and do several pushups. Have them adjust their arms until they feel comfortable doing the exercise. Once this position is decided upon, measure the distance between each of the index fingers. Make a note and then transfer that distance to the bar.
This will be the ideal, or nearly so, grip width distance for the person at this stage of their lifting career. All things change and so will the width of the grip on the bar.





































Comments
Bench press hand position
radford0222
Reasonable assumption. Relative new to competion BPing. 70-74/198 Missouri state record holder (Sonlight Power Assoc.). Still looking/feeling for the ideal hand position. I seem to have more GO with a narrower grip. Should get the TN state record on 23 Feb - Southern Powerlifting Assoc. Wish me luck.