utra wide grip seated front presses w/ olympic barbell

[Royalty]

I did them today....wide grip...my index fingers on the outer "ring".


Does anyone do these?

[chaos]

That's about normal grip for me, index or middle finger on the outer ring.

Did it work for you?

[jpm101]

If you can get away with that collar to collar grip, than props to you. But some find too much stress on the shoulder joints. I have long arms and using even the snatch grip for overhead pressing (collar to collar) just feels wrong. Any thing over 200 mostly. Good Luck.

[Royalty]

That's about normal grip for me, index or middle finger on the outer ring.

Did it work for you?

my weights were down....I usually can get 225 with medium grip.


with the wide grip I managed 190lbs.

When I do militaries in the future Im going to stick to medium grip.

[chaos]

my weights were down....I usually can get 225 with medium grip.


with the wide grip I managed 190lbs.

When I do militaries in the future Im going to stick to medium grip.

Why? Does it hit your shoulders better or is it to feed your ego and lift more weight?

[jpm101]

Extra wide grip (collar to collar) front presses will affect the lateral delt head more. But may give unneeded joint stress for a lot of folks. Moving the grip in, to a little wider than shoulder width, gives more focus on the anterior delt head, though the lateral head still gets some work. That grip also brings into play the triceps and upper pecs more. The reason more weight can be used than with a ultra wide grip.

When using the PBN (press behind neck) with a collar to collar grip, more stress is also placed on the shoulder joints. May be the reason some have trouble or injury when doing the PBN. Using a middle grip (little wider than the shoulders) seems to give the best leverage and safty for most. 

Both these exercises insure mass/thickness to the whole shoulder girdle, when done right. Good Luck.

[Montague]

I did them today....wide grip...my index fingers on the outer "ring".


Does anyone do these?

I’ve done something like that on the Smith with favorable results – feel it more on those side caps of the delts.

Not the biggest Smith fan, I’ve adopted a similar hand position for seated db presses.
Unlike a lot of trainers, I don’t bring the db’s together at the top. That straightening of the arms and shift of weight actually makes the topmost portion of the movement much easier.

Taking JPM’s advice, I start with the db’s held out nice and wide and push them up in a straight line (never leaving that vertical plane) as far as my arms allow.
The positioning of the hands throughout the movement is essentially the same as it would be with a bb.

Pressing from out wider and not going anywhere near lockout dramatically alters leverage & TUT in a good way.
You can’t handle as much weight this way, but I've definitely experienced better growth with this method.

[Zach Trowbridge]

Just thinking about a grip that wide makes my shoulders want to seperate from their sockets.