Originally Posted by
beaverbob
This is going to sound stupid. I think I had a major breakthrough on my bench press on a non bench day. During my rest, I was spotting a gym-acquaintance on the bench. I noticed his hands were out past the knurl marks. He's an older guy (40s), in pretty good shape with decent bench #s and we got talking about grip width. I was under the impression that the marked rings on the bar were maximum allowed grip width. Turns out this is an olympic-marked bar. Basically I've been doing close(r) grip bench press this whole time. I am an idiot. At the end of my workout I did a few reps of 135 with my hands out wide enough so my forearms are perpendicular to the ground when the bar is at my chest. Man, what a difference. This could be the cause of my bench struggles. Really looking forward to next workout to figure it out.