Close Grip Bench

Gabrielle is demonstrating proper form for the Close Grip Benchpress. Notice the following:
* elbows in close to the body and
 * bar placement low on the chest.
This exercise is generally performed full range of motion. This works the triceps through their entire strength curve.
Hand placement should never be closer than 14" between the pointers (pointers touching the smooth part of the bar when using an olympic or power bar). Bringing the hands in closer than this will cause undue stress on the wrists.
Larger individuals may want to take a slightly wider grip. But much further than a thumb's distance from the smooth will begin to lose the effectiveness of targeting the triceps in this exercise.

VARIATIONS
Variations of this exercise would be
board presses (performing the exercise with a board on your chest to cut the range of motion this exercise will be demonstrated on another portion of this domain.)
The advantages to the board press would be:
* Since you are not doing the most difficult part of the lift more weight can be used
* There will be less stimulation of the shoulders making this movement concentrate more on the triceps
Disadvantage
* You are only training the tricep through a limited portion of the strength curve
* Part of the strength curve you use in the actual bench will not be trained

Only moving the bar through a partial range of motion while stoping at a predetermined point.
Avantage
* Allows you to perform an isometric contraction at or just below a particular weak area in your strength curve
* Bringing the bar to a stop at a given point will strengthen that part of the strength curve
Disadvantages
* Same disadvantages as the board press
* Holding an isometric contraction beyond 6 seconds may be hard on your heart

Overall this exercise is a great sports specific way to strengthen the triceps for a better benchrpress. For the bodybuilder it is the best way to load the triceps with a lot of weight with very low risk of creating the elbow problems associated with skull crushers and other tricep specific exercises.