Wide-Grip Barbell Bench Press
The wide-grip bench press is a flat barbell press performed with your hands set wider than shoulder width, usually near the rings on the bar. The wider hand position shortens the distance the bar travels and shifts more of the work onto the chest, with the shoulders and triceps finishing the lockout. It suits lifters who already press comfortably with a standard grip and want to emphasize the chest over the triceps for a session.
Why it works
Moving your hands out widens the angle your upper arms travel through on the way down, which puts the chest into a deeper stretch at the bottom and asks it to do more of the work to reverse that stretch on the way up. Because the bar also has a shorter distance to travel between your hands being wider apart, the rep itself covers less range, which is part of why wide-grip pressing tends to let people handle slightly more weight than a standard grip. The tradeoff is that a wider grip puts the shoulder into more external rotation and a weaker pressing position at the bottom, which is why it rewards a slower, controlled descent rather than a quick bounce off the chest.
Set up
- Lie on the bench with your eyes roughly under the bar.
- Grip the bar wider than shoulder width, often near the rings or finger-width inside them.
- Plant your feet flat on the floor and drive your upper back and glutes into the bench.
- Unrack the bar with straight arms and position it directly over your chest before the first rep.
How to do it
- Lower the bar under control to your mid to lower chest, letting your elbows flare out wider than they would on a standard-grip press.
- Touch the bar lightly to your chest without bouncing it off.
- Press the bar back up in a straight line toward the starting position above your chest.
- Keep your upper back and glutes in contact with the bench throughout the rep.
- Lock your elbows out fully at the top without shrugging your shoulders off the bench.
- Reset your breath and bench position before the next rep.
Form cues
- Drive your upper back into the bench, don't let it round up off it.
- Lower the bar with control, no bouncing it off your chest.
- Keep your wrists stacked directly over your elbows.
- Press in a straight line, not drifting toward your face or your belt.
Breathing: Inhale as you lower the bar to your chest, exhale as you press it back up to lockout.
Common mistakes
Bouncing the bar off the chest to get a rebound out of the bottom.
Fix: Lower the bar under control and press it back up using muscle, not a bounce off the sternum.
Letting the elbows flare out to a full right angle from the torso at the bottom of the rep.
Fix: Let the elbows widen naturally with the wider grip, but keep them somewhere closer to a 60 to 75 degree angle from your torso rather than fully flared.
Losing contact between the upper back and the bench as the weight gets heavy.
Fix: Keep your shoulder blades pulled together and pressed into the bench for the entire set, even on the last hard reps.
Setting the grip wider than the bench press rings, which puts the wrists and shoulders in an awkward position.
Fix: Keep your hands at or just inside the rings on the bar rather than going past them.
How to program it
- This is a heavy compound pressing lift, so treat it as your main bench session for the week and give it a full week to recover before pressing this heavy again.
- Four or five sets of 5 to 8 reps suits a strength-focused session, since the wider grip already shortens the range and favors slightly heavier loads.
- Follow it with a close-grip or triceps-focused accessory movement to balance out the chest-dominant emphasis of the wide grip.
- Only add weight once every rep in a set locks out cleanly without the hips lifting off the bench to help.
Safety notes
- Use a spotter or safety arms whenever you're pressing near your working max, since the wider grip puts you in a weaker pressing position at the bottom of the lift.
- If the front of your shoulder feels pinched at the bottom of the rep, narrow the grip slightly rather than pushing through discomfort.
Exercise profile
- Force
- Push
- Mechanics
- Compound
- Category
- Strength
Frequently asked questions
How wide should my grip be on a wide-grip bench press?
Set your hands at or just inside the rings marked on most barbells, which is typically a few inches wider on each side than a standard shoulder-width grip.
Wide-grip bench press vs close-grip bench press, what's the difference?
A wide grip shortens the bar path and shifts more emphasis onto the chest. A close grip lengthens the range of motion and shifts more work onto the triceps.
Is the wide-grip bench press bad for your shoulders?
It places the shoulder in more external rotation at the bottom, which can feel uncomfortable for some lifters. Going no wider than the bar's rings and lowering with control, rather than bouncing, keeps the risk manageable for most people.
What can I do without a barbell for a wide-grip bench press?
A flat dumbbell bench press lets each arm travel through a similarly wide arc without needing a fixed bar.