Wow! And I thought my standard grip was wide with my pinkies inside the smooth rings. And you say this is already more narrow than it used to be? Themoreyouknow.

fakeb inadvertantly providing yet more ammo for my #leverages-based arguments, but yes, my ROM is stupid long. I wear 17-37 dress shirts. I can only imagine what DT, as a true tall, would go through if he actually still lifted.

I've kind of bounced back and forth between middle finger on the smooth and index finger on the smooth over the last few years; maybe I'll try it with the middle finger next time and see if it feels any more solid.

I bench with middle finger on the ring and i like a lot better than pinky on the ring. I tried to move it even wider and have index on the ring but it feels terrible.

Could be worth a shot. My grip used to be a lot wider. I used to bench with my facking index fingers on the smooth rings. Then moved it in to the ring fingers. And a few months ago moved to benching with my pinkies inside the rings. Feelsgoodandsolidman. The wider grip was good too, but for me it felt harder to control elbow flare.

You guys are craaaazy. I go thumb's length away from the center knurling. Usually pinky is about 1-2 inches inside the ring.

Im at ring finger on the ring and considering coming in as well.

That's where i grip for close grip lol. I would bench like 10% less if i tried that way. What happens when you try and grip wider? Are you weaker?

I had the same experience when I went superwide with my index fingers around a finger outside the smooth; I felt like my shoulders were going to explode the next day.

My elbows definitely flare a bit (perhaps too much) on the way back up. Maybe I need to go a little narrower, but I really don't want to. There's no real reason not to when I'm lifting baby weights, I guess.

lol shorts

Our closegrip is your regular grip.

It appears I have unwittingly joined a trend.

Also, this meet will probably confirm what I have suspected for quite a while: Aidan benches more than me.

Saw, youre a manlet and your opinion is therefore invalid

Im going to be fortunate to bench more than I did last time, so it might be safe for a while!

Who let saw into this log??? Must be this tall to enter.

I gripped wider with pinky on the ring up until basically my powerlifting meet 2 years ago (damn, I gotta compete again soon...). So it's still most definitely very viable for me, since I put up 325. I could be wrong but I don't think it's as strong. Now when I move my hands back out it just feels absurdly wide.

FWIW, I was partially motivated towards this grip by finding a spot that made my forearms more vertical at the bottom of the lift (minimum extraneous torque).

Deciphering form preferences in a truly objective and productive way is tough. Possibly futilely tough. How it "feels" when you try a new form is often 100% irrelevant, since it can either feel abnormally bad from not being used to it or abnormally good from various factors like just feeling new/different/fresh (or correcting one thing you were thinking about at the cost of others). Then if you commit to training it for a few months, you have nothing to compare it to. Unless maybe something extreme happened.

I'm curious if this is way too pessimistic of a thought process or if people agree with me. What are your approaches?

I think if you are trying to change something, you need to give it a fair chance and not quit trying it if it doesnt feel good/right. Probably at least like a month would be enough time to see if it is better or not

Having not thought greatly about it, if extraneous torque < benefits gained from reducing ROM, then a wider grip is advantageous. Presumably there is going to be some contribution of individual leverages (scientific definition, not ******s of H&F definition).

I think finding a new technique can be tough, because you could be at a local maxima, and that any change is going to to be negative in terms of poundage, with no real way of knowing if its going to lead to a new, higher maxima. Takes time and some educated guessing.

Yea totally agree. Hopefully my post got that across, but it turned out a little wordy.

Good post! I think it definitely does take some educated guessing.

interesting discussion itt, might have to dabble with a wider grip. currently got pinky on the ring.

Monte idk how you can be out around index/middle, that seems ridiculous.

oh shoot I missed the benching hands discussion

Our boay is actually DT.

DT is actually our boay.

So much that was once opaque and confusing is now clear.

A couple general points from the last week:

1. Regardless of end goal, strength is important. It's not the only way to show progress and drive change, but it is the most easily identifiable method of progress. So we should at least give it a chance to progress. Hence the first lift every day being some core compound lift.

2. There's nothing magical about 10x5. Supersetting a very high volume of opposing work with 60-90 second rest intervals is straight out of German Volume Training. Anything from 10x10 to 10x3 could be a reasonable protocol. But having done a lot of 10x3 work from Smolov and just being an idiot in general, the injury risk and CNS fatigue with loads that heavy is reason for concern. Alternatively 10x10 requires the loads to be so light that I have my doubts that all the triggers for hypertorphy (mechanical tension, muscular damage, metabolic stress) are being met. 10x5-6 seems to be the sweet spot.

3. Don't underestimate the importance of the timed rest intervals and tempo during the sets. Those are key drivers for 2 of the 3 aforementioned factors that cause hypertrophy. 90 seconds rest and 1 missed rep is better than 110 seconds rest and all reps completed.

4. Get warm before lifting. Dunno if you don't log it or what but you're ****ing old.

5. Taking a 1p KB handle to the pec/anterior delt is a religious experience that you should probably be doing on the reg.

Thanks Doug.

I've been hitting all of the timed rest intervals as written, so no issue there.

I don't really do anything to warm up other than a few arm circles and door stretches before upper body stuff, and some kstarr hip opener stuff before squatting. I should probably do some other stuff too, but I only have a bit over an hour because I lift at lunch. I'm walking a few blocks to the gym, though, which isn't much, but it isn't nothing.

I have an adjustable bell at home that I may start incorporating for that pec work, because I have a feeling I'm a little crusty in there. Will report back in a month when I finally remember to do it.

Sounds like you warm up for about 2x as long as I do. YOLO.

I don't understand how you guys get away with warming up so little. I feel like ass off I don't do a ton of warming up.