Originally posted by: brikis98
Originally posted by: DomS
The wider you go generally the more you're going to recruit your pecs into the movement. I usually have my pointer finger just outside the ring in the knurling on the bar. It was one of many factors (along with better diet, increased protein intake, and a better chest/triceps/shoulder routine) that went into helping me bump up my weight
Just a warning that, in my experience, a wider grip seems to put far more stress on the shoulder. This is especially problematic if you do a large amount of bench press without enough pulling exercises (rows, pull-ups) and overhead exercises (OH press, handstand push-ups) to balance it out. The result is always the same: rotator cuff injury. It doesn't happen immediately, but over time, the shoulder gets tighter and tighter, starts making popping noises and eventually just starts to flat out hurt after each workout and sometimes after each rep.
This happened to me a couple years ago when I was over-emphasizing bench press. My friends all tell similar stories as well. The solution was simply to narrow the grip on bench press (my pinky finger now ends up about half an inch
inside the markings) and balance it out more with push/pull exercises. As it turns out, this actually did
not negatively impact my strength. It took a couple sessions to get used to it, but after that, I started to feel better and stronger, partly due to reduced rotator cuff pain. After a couple months of using that grip width along with the Bill Starr 5x5 routine and my bench press went from 275x5 to 315x4.
However, even today, despite the fact that I rarely bench press as part of CF, I still have occasional flare ups in my rotator cuff. I'm positive it's from the damage I did before, so just be careful
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