What's up, guys? Jake Hutton from Fitness Culture. Today I want to talk about a
topic that's gonna help you decrease wrist pain when you bench. I've been getting a lot of
comments if I post a heavier set of bench, where people are like, "how are you
benching that much weight without wrist straps?" So today I'm going to go over two
techniques that I use - basically the placement of the bar in my hand and then
the way that my bar path is, and the way that my elbows track while I'm benching,
so that you can bench without wrist straps pain free.
So the first thing we're going to talk about is bar placement in your hand. I see a lot of
people, especially newbies to bench press, they'll just grab the bar straight up
like this, and what that's gonna do is having the bar straight across your hand,
is gonna bend your wrist a lot. So what I do, is I crank basically
the bar in my hand like this, so it's gonna be more of an angle through my palm,
so it's not gonna be straight across my palm like this. It's basically
gonna be a little bit higher up on your wrist right here, and it's gonna be
bending your wrist back, but changing the angle of that right here,
you're gonna be able to stack your wrist perfectly. Make sure if you put the bar
here that you wrap your thumb, because you're gonna be at more of a risk of
dropping the weight, and basically you're gonna have a perfect
little platform right here to hold the bar, and it's not gonna be bending your
wrist really at all. Alright, so I'm gonna give you guys a look at what it's gonna
actually look like when you set up on the bench. So the incorrect way,
you're gonna be just bar in your hands straight across like this, and as
you'll notice, it kind of puts your elbows in a weird position and it's gonna be
bending your wrists in half. When I set up, I basically put my thumb and my
palm right across the bar right here, wrap my thumb, and then grab my hands
like this. So now I'm in this position, from there I'll try to externally rotate
and that's what's gonna set me up for a good bench press. So it's
gonna make your elbows seem like they're gonna flare out a little bit,
but really it's gonna allow you to also crank your shoulders into the bench,
try to break the bar in half in that position, and press with a nice, strong press.
Another thing you'll notice if you have the bar way up in your hands
like this, if you have a lot of heavy weight, when you come off, that's gonna be
your first loss of power off your chest, because your wrist is gonna bend a lot.
So you'll come down, press off your chest, and it's gonna bend your wrist more,
and you'll just lose that a little bit of power right when you press off your chest.
When it's in a nice position in your hand, it's really stacked on your wrist,
and you're not going to lose any power your chest. You're gonna have a lot more
explosion right off your chest. All right, the next thing is going to be how
your elbows are tracking with your wrist as you're going down.
So obviously, benching and letting your elbows flare out is not only bad
bench form, you're gonna lose a lot of power there,
but that's what's gonna cause a ton of wrist pain. It's not gonna allow you to
stack your wrist right on top of your elbow, because as you come up and you
flare out, you're gonna get that tension on your wrist, it's gonna bend your wrist in,
and that's gonna give you a ton of wrist pain. So no matter where your grip is,
you want to focus on your elbows are stacked basically right under your wrist
as you press. Even if you go a little bit wider, so they're gonna come more of a 45
when you do a nice wide grip bench. And just make sure it's stacked over
your elbow. All right, so I'll give you guys a couple examples of what that's
gonna look like. Most people have a good bar path on the way down, but you'll
notice some people's elbows will flare out, but a lot of times if it gets heavy,
fighting the feeling of letting your elbows flare out on the way up.
So the further your elbows get outside, away from that stacked
position, the more tension it's gonna put on your wrist. And it's also gonna
lose a lot of power in your benchpress. So you really want to focus on keeping
your elbows tight, stacked right under your wrist. That's also gonna keep your
upper back engaged, and you're gonna press with more power and
with no wrist pain. Notice how my wrist is basically stacked straight down on
top of my elbow right here, so it allows me to press directly straight up through
the weight. And you can do the same thing going a little wider even.
Your elbows are gonna come out a little bit further, just make sure your elbow is
tracked directly down under your wrist. Don't let it flare out. The more it
flares out the more wrist pain you're gonna have.
Those are two of my favorite techniques to help avoid wrist pain. It's really helped me out over the years.
Actually I did used to have wrist pain when I pressed, and once I
figured out to change that bar path and not let my elbows flare, not only did
my wrist pain go away, but I was also able to increase my benchpress poundage.
So I hope it helps you guys out in your training, thanks for tuning in.
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