Diamond Grip for the Press and Bench Press
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 02/11/22)
When learning to press or bench press, getting the correct grip can be tricky at first. A very common error is to take a grip that carries the bar back in the fingers (Figure 1).
Figure 1: This is no good.
Let’s fix this.
When we press or bench press, we’d like the barbell to be supported directly over the bones of the forearms, and to do this, we pronate our grip so that the bar sits on the heel of the palm. This provides for excellent force transfer between our arms and hands and the bar, whereas holding the bar back in the fingers with wrists in full extension creates a very weak and flimsy position.
Pronating your grip (Figure 2) simply means that you’re going to rotate your thumbs down toward your feet, and after that, you squeeze the bar tightly with your fingers (“crush the bar” is a good cue).
Figure 2: This . . . is much better.
With this said, new lifters sometimes screw up the pronation step, either rotating their hands the wrong way or spinning their hands on top of the bar (in the press). If this is you, take the “diamond grip” approach as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3: The Diamond Grip approach
Step 1
Place your palms on the bar - palms will face the wall (not the floor) with thumbs below the bar and in contact with each other.
Step 2
Rotate your hands so that your index fingers are now in contact with each other (above the bar). The gap between your hands will make a diamond if you’ve done this correctly.
Step 3
Slide your hands away from each other until you reach the correct grip width - narrow for the press (about shoulder width) and about a hand-width wider than that for the bench press.
Step 4
Squeeze the bar tightly with your fingers.
Make a diamond with your hands and then slide your hands outward - it’s that simple.
We hope this helps you get stronger and live better!
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