training myself to benchpress with more tricep?

[thewickedtruth]

Triceps are lagging still compared to the bi's. I decided to give a thought I had a try and also see what you guys thought of it as well. I know that my triceps come into play when I bent, that's a gimme BUT, can I train myself to bench with MORE tricep envolvement? My chest and delts are large with smaller tri's. Typically I bent with my elbows coming straight up and down. NOW when you CLOSE grip bench to really hit the tri's you bring your elbows forward and down along your body. Would it make sense that it would hit my tri's more so if I brought my elbows forward throughout the movement on my regular bench that the usual to try and get more tricep benefit during it?  I've read on here multiple times that there are guys that bench with all tri's and shoulders and have weak chest. Could you train to become one? Or is it just how you learn is how you learn. I see alot of shirted guys benching with their elbows coming forward in hte movement. All have HUGE arms.


  yes, no, maybe?!

[pumpster]

Try various exercises and variations of each, and decide which is hitting that area better:

-Close-grip decline benches uing an E-Z curl bar. In different workouts, try different elbow positions and decide which is more effective.

-Bench dips

-Dip machine

-Flared-elbow pushdowns.

[The Squadfather]

if you're trying to build your triceps train your triceps not chest and bench press, use some decent volume and throw in some extension movements lowering the weight below your head and the triceps will come up, also don't neglect supersets, higher reps, giant sets, drop sets etc.

[thewickedtruth]

if you're trying to build your triceps train your triceps not chest and bench press, use some decent volume and throw in some extension movements lowering the weight below your head and the triceps will come up, also don't neglect supersets, higher reps, giant sets, drop sets etc.

Dude you know I do these already. You frequent my log. I super set bi's and tri's now my entire arm day. I'll go with i'll pick a bi and tri exercise and go back and forth between them for 3 sets each, then pick two more, etc. But I was hoping to get more benefit from my benching with my tri's too. Yanno? So do you think it can be done or not? I already do closed grip exercises and extensions, press downs, etc. on their own day.

[The Squadfather]

Dude you know I do these already. You frequent my log. I super set bi's and tri's now my entire arm day. I'll go with i'll pick a bi and tri exercise and go back and forth between them for 3 sets each, then pick two more, etc. But I was hoping to get more benefit from my benching with my tri's too. Yanno? So do you think it can be done or not? I already do closed grip exercises and extensions, press downs, etc. on their own day.

yeah it can be done but keeping your elbows in means you need tremendous tricep and upper back and lat strength, i remember how Louie Simmons said that he's never seen a huge bencher without monster triceps and a huge upper back and i think it's due to the shirts being used these days you have to keep your elbows in slightly, just try benching that way for awhile and see what happens.

[Herc]

Ive always had the opposite problem.  My tricepts dominated when I bench so my chest isnt very well developed and flys and cables dont do much to add mass.  I wish I had a big chest instead of big tricepts but I cant get my chest up. 
  For tricepts skull crushers are great for putting on mass if your elbows can handle it.  I cant do them anymore so now I do behind the neck dumbell extensions using 2 arms on one heavy dumbell.
  I looked at your tricept routine, maybe your chest is dominating in the close grip bench press and the other two exercises it looks like the machines arnt allowing you to go heavy enough to go till failure doing a low rep range.  I would find a way to go with the same intensity you do on bench, squats and rows ect..  Maybe if you switch the pushdowns to one arm pulldowns you will be able to use a heavy enough wieght to go 6 to 8 really heavy reps.  The dumbell behind the neck extensions are good in my opinion but you may have to do one arm at a time with that too.  My gym only goes up to 125s which is good for me but you may need 150s or more.

[thewickedtruth]

yeah it can be done but keeping your elbows in means you need tremendous tricep and upper back and lat strength, i remember how Louie Simmons said that he's never seen a huge bencher without monster triceps and a huge upper back and i think it's due to the shirts being used these days you have to keep your elbows in slightly, just try benching that way for awhile and see what happens.

That's what I was thinking. Keeping them in some to see if that helps. And I was thinking if my chest dominated my closed grips like I suspected, I would be getting 10-12 reps with 315 and 6-8 with 365 instead of 8 and 3-4 reps. I'm a very analytical person in the gym. I'm always looking for new ways to attack problems and trying new thoughts and ideas.

[pumpster]

If you're analytical then also try just the top 1/2 or 2/3 ROM on flat or decline bench, they'll hit the tris more. Or chains while benching, which has a similar effect.

[canadian_husker]

i love close grip bench.

another good one if you have those Hex dumbbells is close grip dumbbell presses. they really work my inner chest and burn my tri. i super set them sometimes at the end of a chest/triceps day with dumbbell flies

[Princess L]

If you're analytical then also try just the top 1/2 or 2/3 ROM on flat or decline bench, they'll hit the tris more. Or chains while benching, which has a similar effect.

How 'bout board presses?

[thewickedtruth]

LOL again...can you train yourself to change the mechanics of your bench press to have certain muscle groups handle more weight than others? Or be activated more in the movement than previous?


If i'm still pressing the same WAY, no amount of closed grips, chains, board presses, or anything else will redirect how the movement hits the body parts differently.

I'm not even sure If I'm explaining this right. I figured it would be an interesting topic for sure.

[Herc]

  I say do a heavy exercise that doesnt involve your chest at all like pushdown or skull crushers.  Do one arm at a time if the full stack isnt enough wieght.  I really think by looking at your routine that your tricepts arnt getting hit like your other muscles.  You are doing 12 reps with the same wieght multiple sets which shows you arnt tiring from the amount of wieght you are using if you can repeat the same reps for multiple sets and you probably arnt going till failure.  I am not nearly as strong as you but some of the stacks in the gym are too light for me so I go one arm at a time or I do 125 with a dumbell which I can only get about 6 with so I can still do that exercise.   If I ever get to the point when I can get 125 for 12 I will have to switch to 65 one arm at a time since my gym doesnt have 130lbs dumbells.  My opinion is your tricepts just need to be lifted heavy like you are doing on your other exercises, and isolated because the close grips are probably being dominated by your chest.

[pumpster]

LOL again...can you train yourself to change the mechanics of your bench press to have certain muscle groups handle more weight than others? Or be activated more in the movement than previous?


If i'm still pressing the same WAY, no amount of closed grips, chains, board presses, or anything else will redirect how the movement hits the body parts differently.

Are you serious? You ask for input then dismiss it out of hand. Keep the mind open and try all sorts of variations that will redirect the effect to certain areas, try em before drawing conclusions. Using dumbbells as was just mentioned as one example, which allows a hammer grip.

[thewickedtruth]

Are you serious? You ask for input then dismiss it out of hand. Keep the mind open and try all sorts of variations that will redirect the effect to certain areas, try em before drawing conclusions. Using dumbbells as was just mentioned as one example, which allows a hammer grip.

Its' not like I said out of no where. NO THAT SHIT WON'T WORK IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! NEXT! I reviewed the info provided and still didn't feel like my question was answered properly or even if I presented it the way I was hoping. So yeah I'm serious. I know how board presses and chains and such help with teh tricep protion of the lift. What I'm saying is if my elbows  come forward at a 45* angle from my body like most SHIRTED presses instead of just straight up and down with the press, wil it effect my triceps differently? If I'm benching the same way with boards, chains, whatever, i'ts not really addressing the question I asked is it?

I know I could get some shit out of YOU! keep it coming pump.

[pumpster]

Actually you did basically say none of those apply.

What i'm saying is that you're not really gonna know what's working better until trying them; thinking what might work isn't the same as doing. What you think might be the reason might not be; it's just trial and error of each for a few workouts that'll tell you, not guessing or theory. Might be the elbows, or something else or a few things.

Some think that elbows in works differently than elbows out. I think you should try everything mentioned here with elbows in and then out in different workouts. If you want to be systematic, work through each variation and you'll eventually find the more effective combinations between the suggestions and elbow positioning.

If you assume it has to be only related to elbow positioning you might miss something that works better amongst the suggestions.

[thewickedtruth]

Actually you did basically say none of those apply.

What i'm saying is that you're not really gonna know what's working better until trying them; thinking what might work isn't the same as doing. What you think might be the reason might not be; it's just trial and error of each for a few workouts that'll tell you, not guessing or theory. Might be the elbows, or something else or a few things.

I say none of those won't really apply because I do do closed grips, partials, lockouts, etc. We can't use chains in the gym and board presses to me are no different than paritals off the pins with a set ROM which is what they are imho. Done them, don't make a difference, so I tried to circumvent this issue by looking at it not from a partial exercise issue but the way a movement is performed.

[pumpster]

I say none of those won't really apply because I do do closed grips, partials, lockouts, etc. We can't use chains in the gym and board presses to me are no different than paritals off the pins with a set ROM which is what they are imho. Done them, don't make a difference, so I tried to circumvent this issue by looking at it not from a partial exercise issue but the way a movement is performed.

You didn't mention inititally what you've tried so obviously some would suggest without knowing.

According to this you haven't tried a decline bench, E-Z curl bar, DBs instead of BB, smith machine with hands on an angle, etc. Try all of these with elbows in/out and see which help.

[thewickedtruth]

You didn't mention inititally what you've tried so obviously some would suggest without knowing.

According to this you haven't tried a decline bench, E-Z curl bar, DBs instead of BB, smith machine with hands on an angle, etc. Try all of these with elbows in/out and see which help.

I don't see the point of decline when I already flat bench. 

[pumpster]

I don't see the point of decline when I already flat bench. 

Then you're not being analytical enough. You have to try before passing judgement. Try a decline one workout with e-z curl bar, another using DBs, another doing partials, etc. If you're gonna be "analytical" go all the way. Including different angles of decline.

[thewickedtruth]

Then you're not being analytical enough. You have to try before passing judgement. Try a decline one workout with e-z curl bar, another using DBs, another doing partials, etc. If you're gonna be "analytical" go all the way. Including different angles of decline.

Decline felt no different to me than flat bench so I stuck with flat. I'm anal to a point but, it can go bordering ridiculous on some of this stuff!

[The Squadfather]

Decline felt no different to me than flat bench so I stuck with flat. I'm anal to a point but, it can go bordering ridiculous on some of this stuff!

i'm actually the same way with declines, i tried close grips on the decline for a few months and they didn't feel any different to me than on the flat bench so i went back to flat bench, seems like with me the flat bench close grip has more carryover to my regular bench press anyway, pumpster is right about experimenting though, it's a great way to find a good movement for your body.

[Kyubi]

can you train yourself to change the mechanics of your bench press to have certain muscle groups handle more weight than others? Or be activated more in the movement than previous?

Yes I think you have made a good point here,mechanics does play a part.
What I have found of my experience is,that when I keep my elbows closer to body while benching(close grip) it feels more in the tris.something like skull crushers ,done without letting your elbows go outwards(thats how I do my skull crusher),ofcourse line of movement is different in close grip benching.
By the way Skull crushers are best for adding mass to tris.

EDIT: PreExhausting is also a good idea.