[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines


Home
nutrition articles
strength training
sports training
womans health
teen health
supplements
book reviews
Thyroid Problems
Site Blog
About Ed
Ezine newsletter
Free eBooks
Contact Page
STORE
Reading
Q&A Page

Enter your E-mail Address

Enter your First Name (optional)

Then

Don't worry -- your e-mail address is totally secure.
I promise to use it only to send you muscle-health-fitness.

Close Grip Bench Press Technique Guide

By Ed Clements

Please feel free to replublish muscle-health-fitness.com articles. You MUST, however, include the the paragraph marked * at the bottom of this page.

The close grip bench press is an exercise designed to isolate the tricpes, it does however also work the chest and shoulders lightly. This exercise will let you build massive triceps – prioritise doing heavy weights on low reps and you will see two greatly defined horseshoes appear in the back of your arms!

The increased triceps strength that the close grip bench press generates will help your performance on the standard bench press.


Starting hand position:

  • Place both hands on the bar with your palms open;

  • Slide your hands outwards until they are a fractionally under shoulder width apart - any closer and you are in danger of hurting your wrists.

    Close Grip Bench Press Technique:

  • Lie back on the bench and push your chest out.

  • Keep your shoulder blades pinched together throughout the movement and feel like you’re pushing them down towards your feet.

  • Plant your feet securely on the floor, fully brace your body and drive upwards.

  • Keep your elbows as close into the body as possible throughout the movement.

  • Lower bar to the middle of your chest, keep wrists as straight as possible.

  • Stop on the way down when the bar is slightly under an inch above your chest.

  • Stop on the way up just before you fully lock your elbows.

    Advanced tips:

  • While pushing up, feel like you are trying to rip the bar apart i.e. imagine you’re pulling outwards with both hands. This really isolates the triceps.

  • Vary the time you leave the bar at the bottom – you can go straight up or you can hold for a one or two count. Stay tight all the time you are holding the bar at the bottom.

    Common mistakes:

  • Relaxing at the bottom of a rep means you lose muscular tension - your strength level will plummet.

  • Lifting your feet off of the floor – this causes you to lose power.

  • Lifting up your head as you push up – this ruins your form and will you’re your performance level.

    Recommended reps:

    Keep the reps at around 5 and vary the number of sets performed –a good starting point would be 5 sets of 5 reps.

    Using Training bands:

    A very effective variation to the close grip bench press recommended by Louis Simmons of the Westside Barbell Club is to add in heavy duty rubber bands to the exercise.

  • Place the band around your wrists whilst lying on the bench;

  • Press outwards sideways away from the centre of your chest until the band is stretched;

  • Lift the bar whilst in this stretched position.

    The effort of pulling outwards against the band whilst lifting the bar means that your triceps become much more involved than in the regular bench press – this isolation of the triceps whilst lifting heavy poundages will build them up incredibly quickly.

    * Ed Clements, creator of muscle-health-fitness.com, is an independent health and fitness writer who specialises in dietary, supplementation and weights training advice for improving body composition and hormone balance.


    5 Related Articles:

  • Complete Romanian Deadlift Training Guide
  • The Chin Up Exercise Guide For Bodybuilders and Athletes
  • Raising Testosterone Levels with Zinc Supplements and a High Zinc Diet
  • Coconut Oil Benefits Bodybuiders
  • Very Low Carb Bodybilding Diets?

    Useful Sites:

  • CRITICAL BENCH - excellent weights training site
  • Mahler's Aggressive Strength - High quality kettlebells, weights and fitness training site



    Return from Close Grip Bench Press Guide To Strength Training
    Copyright muscle-health-fitness.com

    SBI
    SBI!

    • Buy Highest Potency Tongkat Ali!
    Most Tongkat Ali suppliers sell products that are both too poor quality and too weak to significantly raise testosterone levels.

    Many people achieve fantastic muscle and strength gain results from taking high quality Tongkat Ali extract at a proper dosage, not to mention ramping up their sex drive.

    60 day 100% money back guarantee!