I've been lifting for years and the other day another guy and I were talking at the gym (AFTER my workout!). He mentioned that he was always told that the forearms should be 90 degrees from the floor with the bar in the down position. I vaguely remember hearing something similar to that years ago. Apparently you lay on the bench and place an EMPTY barbell on your chest, where it would touch in the down position. Then you adjust your grip width so that the forearms are perpendicular (90 degrees) from the floor. Not angled inward or outward, but straight up and down. This is supposed to give you the proper grip width on the bar for bench pressing (for a normal bench press, not a triceps close or pure pec wide grip).

Anyone heard of this?

I think what your buddy is referring to that everything is supposed to be at 90deg angles.  Your forearms are supposed to be vertical when your upper arms a parallel to the ground.

Hand position is completely misunderstood; what you need to be worried about is elbow position.  A narrow grip works triceps, right?  Not if you elbows are sticking 90deg out from your torso!

IMHO, if you are not powerlifting, you should vary your elbow position.  Some days use a grip where everything comes out at right angles, some days keep your elbows tight to your body.

A former co-worker, who was a competitive lifter, trained for bench with his arms tight to his body.  The theory being that the pec is a fragile muscle group, and as much work should be done by the tricep as possible.  Consequently, he had 24" arms.  Cold.

What kind of hand position does your crew train with, GR8TWYT?

Quoted: I think what your buddy is referring to that everything is supposed to be at 90deg angles.  Your forearms are supposed to be vertical when your upper arms a parallel to the ground. Hand position is completely misunderstood; what you need to be worried about is elbow position.  A narrow grip works triceps, right?  Not if you elbows are sticking 90deg out from your torso! IMHO, if you are not powerlifting, you should vary your elbow position.  Some days use a grip where everything comes out at right angles, some days keep your elbows tight to your body. A former co-worker, who was a competitive lifter, trained for bench with his arms tight to his body.  The theory being that the pec is a fragile muscle group, and as much work should be done by the tricep as possible.  Consequently, he had 24" arms.  Cold. What kind of hand position does your crew train with, GR8TWYT?

I can see what you mean about elbow position for sure. Close grips will kill your wrists if you try to keep the elbows out. Not as bad if they're in tight to the body.

Yeah, there's a guy at our gym who benches relatively close in. You'd swear he was doing a triceps routine but it's his chest workout.

An often missed topic when it comes to lifting is hand position, and an even more missed topic is the fact that flat bench is not necessarily the best option for chest development.

Considering altering your routine to incline, and decline sets, with dips added for real chest development. Leave the flat bench for things like reverse grip bench, or close grip benching. Flat bench is better for tricep development than chest in reality.

Here is something for you to try for a few weeks if you're willing to consider trying something outside the "traditional" notions of lifting.
start with four or five warm up sets on an incilne.
Do one moderately heavy set of incline bench (70% one rep max), for 11-15 reps
One minute rest
Then on to one moderately heavy set on a Hammer strength flat bench for 11-15 reps
One minute rest
on to decline bench, moderately heavy doing.. you guessed it, 11-15 reps

Your chest will be trashed, and the growth will surprise you.

Now, all of those are followed by the following.

one set of rev grip bench, mid weight, for 15-20 reps
one minute rest
one set of close grip bench for 15-20 reps

Finally,
hitting your shoulders. At this point, your tri's will be trashed, so get over to the Hammer military press. use as much weight as you can while keeping good form and follow the 15-20 reps.
Lateral raises, as much as you can handle in good form, x 15-20 reps
shrugs, heavy weight/good form, 11-15 reps.

believe it or not... the rest of this workout entails back work too...

I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D

Quoted: An often missed topic when it comes to lifting is hand position, and an even more missed topic is the fact that flat bench is not necessarily the best option for chest development. Considering altering your routine to incline, and decline sets, with dips added for real chest development. Leave the flat bench for things like reverse grip bench, or close grip benching. Flat bench is better for tricep development than chest in reality. Here is something for you to try for a few weeks if you're willing to consider trying something outside the "traditional" notions of lifting. start with four or five warm up sets on an incilne. Do one moderately heavy set of incline bench (70% one rep max), for 11-15 reps One minute rest Then on to one moderately heavy set on a Hammer strength flat bench for 11-15 reps One minute rest on to decline bench, moderately heavy doing.. you guessed it, 11-15 reps Your chest will be trashed, and the growth will surprise you. Now, all of those are followed by the following. one set of rev grip bench, mid weight, for 15-20 reps one minute rest one set of close grip bench for 15-20 reps Finally, hitting your shoulders. At this point, your tri's will be trashed, so get over to the Hammer military press. use as much weight as you can while keeping good form and follow the 15-20 reps. Lateral raises, as much as you can handle in good form, x 15-20 reps shrugs, heavy weight/good form, 11-15 reps. believe it or not... the rest of this workout entails back work too... I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D

Like I said earlier, I've been lifting for quite a few years. I've tried a number of different workouts over the years. I actually put emphasis on incline (with dumbbells) over flat bench. I long ago gave up the "flat bench uber alles" line of thinking. Granted, I still do flat benches but I like my incline DB's much more!

Thanks for the workout advice nonetheless. What is a "Hammer Strength" bench?

Quoted: Quoted: An often missed topic when it comes to lifting is hand position, and an even more missed topic is the fact that flat bench is not necessarily the best option for chest development. Considering altering your routine to incline, and decline sets, with dips added for real chest development. Leave the flat bench for things like reverse grip bench, or close grip benching. Flat bench is better for tricep development than chest in reality. Here is something for you to try for a few weeks if you're willing to consider trying something outside the "traditional" notions of lifting. start with four or five warm up sets on an incilne. Do one moderately heavy set of incline bench (70% one rep max), for 11-15 reps One minute rest Then on to one moderately heavy set on a Hammer strength flat bench for 11-15 reps One minute rest on to decline bench, moderately heavy doing.. you guessed it, 11-15 reps Your chest will be trashed, and the growth will surprise you. Now, all of those are followed by the following. one set of rev grip bench, mid weight, for 15-20 reps one minute rest one set of close grip bench for 15-20 reps Finally, hitting your shoulders. At this point, your tri's will be trashed, so get over to the Hammer military press. use as much weight as you can while keeping good form and follow the 15-20 reps. Lateral raises, as much as you can handle in good form, x 15-20 reps shrugs, heavy weight/good form, 11-15 reps. believe it or not... the rest of this workout entails back work too... I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D Like I said earlier, I've been lifting for quite a few years. I've tried a number of different workouts over the years. I actually put emphasis on incline (with dumbbells) over flat bench. I long ago gave up the "flat bench uber alles" line of thinking. Granted, I still do flat benches but I like my incline DB's much more! Thanks for the workout advice nonetheless. What is a "Hammer Strength" bench?

Sorry if my post came across sounding like too much of a know it all... trying to write a post on one of my favorite topics and keep an eye on my 2 year old, I managed to miss your statement about getting away from flat benching...

The "hammer' bench was in regards to the Hammer Strength bench machine btw.

Have you checked out Dogg Krapp? If not, I think you'd really like his stuff. Totally unconventional, and works like crazy.

Quoted: I can see what you mean about elbow position for sure. Close grips will kill your wrists if you try to keep the elbows out.

Ahhh, but I neglected to point out that at some point your thumbs are going to have to rotate to the same side as your other fingers.  A bit less secure, but not too hazardous.

And I too, shitcanned flat bench a long time ago due to many various shoulder injuries.

Incline dumbell is the key to becoming one with bigness.

Quoted: I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D

Well?

Pimp your site, man!


Link us up!

Quoted: Quoted: I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D Well? Pimp your site, man! Link us up!

Yea? I wasn't sure if that was against the rules or not... :D
Well, one of them is www.kustomfitnessonline.com/forums
I'm not hard to find there. We just put this site up a month ago. The staff left another board that had over 20k members, because the guy that owned the site was doing some fairly unethical things. Everyone on staff is a pro in their particular speciality. Stop on buy. I'd LOVE to have some more gun people on board!!!

There will be a second site up in two weeks called Biohazard USA, and we will have our own line of supplements and workout clothes.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I haven't been around ARF.com in a while, but that is because I run a bodybuilding/p'lifting/strongman board elsewhere... So this is right up my alley... :D Well? Pimp your site, man! Link us up! Yea? I wasn't sure if that was against the rules or not... :D Well, one of them is www.kustomfitnessonline.com/forums I'm not hard to find there. We just put this site up a month ago. The staff left another board that had over 20k members, because the guy that owned the site was doing some fairly unethical things. Everyone on staff is a pro in their particular speciality. Stop on buy. I'd LOVE to have some more gun people on board!!! There will be a second site up in two weeks called Biohazard USA, and we will have our own line of supplements and workout clothes.

Good info and advice. Much appreciated!

I'll have to check it out.