Why You Should Vary Your Grip When Training Bench

Varied grip bench training has been the key to progression in my bench around my extensive injury history.

After a tragic board press accident in 2018 that the doctor labeled as “a torn internal rotator” (there’s still an indent in my left upper pec to this day) I have been plagued with overuse injuries/muscles pulls that have limited my ability to progress my bench press.

While not uncommon among athletes I coach I have been the most extreme example of this I have seen. By using varied bench grip widths throughout a training week you are able to disperse the fatigue more evenly among muscle groups to minimize the risk of overuse injuries. 

Bench press no matter the grip you use is going to use the same muscle groups; however the degree of which you use those muscles will change. 

When I exclusively bench with my index fingers on the marked width line on a bar I accumulate upper pec fatigue that leads to some small pulls in the upper pecs over time.

When I bench with my ring finger in that line with a slightly closer grip I accumulate front delt fatigue that leads to small pulls in the front or mid delts over time. 

However when I vary these grips over a week and do not use one exclusively I almost never deal with these small pulls or injuries happening. 

Examples 

Here is a breakdown of my current weekly setup for the bench for how the breakdown of sets works out.

I have also been using this strategy with my Athlete Curtis. We have had some pretty promising results thus far.

Like myself Curtis has had some recurring shoulder injuries and pain. Alongside other load management strategies we have used varied bench grip training to help manage shoulder pain in his bench press.

Curtis puts his pinky’s on the line for his main competition style bench press, he uses a grip two fingers in from this and we use close grip and underhand bench variations to vary grips as well.

Who Should Use This & Why It Works

Should you vary your bench grips? Well it depends.

Varied bench grips could be a good strategy for anyone that experiences constant overuse injuries or wide grip benchers looking to get a little more out of their bench training.

While varied bench training is not a substitute for working with a good physiotherapist or anyone dealing with substantial upper body injuries. What it is; is a great load management strategy for anyone looking to avoid the tiny overuse injuries that can arise in training (especially when you have past injury history).

By varying bench grips the degree of which certain muscles are being used while benching changes slightly. This can be good if; for example you bench with a closer grip typically and you run into constant mid delt pulls from overuse. Then you use a wider grip for some of your sets reducing how much work you feel your mid delts working and in turn how often you may run into these overuse injuries.

Additionally very wide grip benchers (especially ones with big arches) that have optimized their range of motion to be as small as they can get may run into issues of reduced hypertrophy and stimulus from their primary bench holding back their bench press.

Greater range of motion leads to greater muscle growth this somewhat conflicts with reducing range of motion to be able to press more weight for the sport of powerlifting. Especially because those that tend to have the most muscle can bench the most weight. 

This is where varied bench training can be helpful for these lifters. This can look like a lot of things. This could include some slightly closer grip on backdown sets. This could also look like including in close grip bench press, incline bench press, close grip incline bench press or dips which all emphasize greater range of motion.

Here's an example breakdown:

Closing Thoughts

While varied bench training is not necessary for everyone it is a good strategy to use for certain individuals.

If you would like to know if varied bench training is for you or if you are looking for coaching and the application of varied bench training or any other principles reach out to me on Instagram (@maxhallfitness) to book a consultation or to ask me questions.