Grip issues with the Press

[neg_train]

Hello,

I started doing 95 pound presses for 3x5. But for some reason it feels terribly uncomfortable. I use a straight wrist grip, hard to describe but when i get the bar out of the rack my wrists are vertical, not bent. I proceed to press, on the eccentric phase(coming down) i find that i cannot support the weight, it comes crashing down. I used a vertical wrist during descent too. My question is could the problem be in the wrist? Is bending the wrist easier and if so why?






Cheers

[Mark Rippetoe]

The problem may be that 95 lb. presses indicate you're not very strong. I predict that as you get stronger this problem will be solved through natural processes.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

As a general rule....if you keep dropping the barbell on every set, then something is probably off with your technique. I'm pretty sure this applies to just about any lift. Speaking for Rip, you have all of our permission to adjust your grip.

[neg_train]

Wow thats really funny.

I squat 275 and deadlift 315. But yet i can only press 95 pounds. Wow i'm disappointed.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Maybe not funny. Just weird. What's your bench?

[neg_train]

185x1. Touched chest

[Sami]

Maybe not funny. Just weird. What's your bench?

Unfortunately, I'm in the same situation. I squat 265lbs and deadlift 310lbs pretty easily, but I press 95lbs (I failed here and am now resetting) and bench 160lbs (just failed last rep of last set) for my work sets.

[gannimal007]

neg_train

I think some of us are just set up weird for pressing. I've got long arms/legs w/ a medium torso.

My DL 5rm = 365 and squat = 300, but my press and bench are 130 and 187.5. Also, I know that there's more in the tank for the DL before having to reset. I think that it's just how I'm set up. As a matter of fact, until I decided to drink milk and eat, I could never get over 115# for 3 sets of 5 in the press.

Is it just anthropometry?

[Smack]

I was the same. My bench at the time was around 150lbs. Some people just have shitty upper body strength relative to their lower body strength, I guess.

[JLascek]

I use a straight wrist grip, hard to describe but when i get the bar out of the rack my wrists are vertical, not bent.....I used a vertical wrist during descent too.

This is a topic that I feel has needed to be addressed for a while. I had a conversation with Dr. Kelly Starrett earlier this year and from what I remember (and he is welcome to clarify in case my memory/analysis is off), he stated that the carpal bones (the bones of the wrist) are not in a close compacted position when the wrist is straight -- straight meaning the position it would be in when punching someone where the back of the hand is in line with the forearm (first picture below). Close compacted means a position where force is transferred all the way through the joint without any effort used by the surrounding muscle or connective tissue to maintain the position (like when you stand with a fully extended knee; the muscles surrounding the knee don't have to do a lot to keep the knee in extension). The position in which the wrist would actually be close compacted would make the wrist appear in slight extension.

If you are trying to maintain a wrist position in which your knuckles are facing the ceiling, it will be disadvantageous to pressing because it makes it difficult to hold the bar and to apply force vertically into the bar. I think this is what the original poster is doing, and it looks like this:



Notice how the bar is supported in the crook of the flexed thumb. We want the bar to rest on the heel portion of the palm so that we can more efficiently apply force to the bar. The wrist will need to be extended slightly while still keeping the bar in the appropriate position on the palm. The carpal bones are now in a close compacted position with no extraneous effort to maintain that position. This position also has no moment arm in the wrist, an indication of mechanical efficiency in barbell training. It looks like this:



This is my normal press grip. Notice that the knuckles are not facing vertical towards the ceiling. This is in stark contrast to the first scenario where the bar was supported by the flexed thumb as well as the next scenario where the bar sits closer to the fingers in the palm or on the base of the fingers.




The wrist is now fully extended and the distance between the carpals and the bar creates a moment arm. This grip causes wrist pain in a lot of people, and it is quite obvious why. They are expecting the anterior portion of the wrist to be happy with the unnecessary forces acting on it while attempting to move the bar vertically. Would you hit someone open-handed directly in the face with the base of your fingers? No, you would use the heel of your palm like Nicolas Cage did in Con Air (shitty, shitty movie).

Even if I was wrong and a position where the wrist appears straight (like when you punch, or in picture 1 above) actually was close compacted, it would be irrelevant to barbell training because we can't support a significant amount of weight this way -- as pointed out by the original poster. Whether pressing or bench pressing, you can get the correct wrist position by following the instructions on page 72 of SS:BBT, 2nd Ed.

Here is a concise way to think about it:
- Place your hands on the bar with the backs of your fingers facing you with the fingers facing up (in the direction that the top of your head is pointing if you are lying down).
- Pronate your forearms so that your fingers are now turned to the middle of the bar. This angles the wrist so that the bar is on the heel of the palm.
- Wrap your fingers (and thumb, of course) around the bar.
- Rotate elbows under the bar while maintaining grip (when standing for the press).
- Un-rack the bar.

Hope that helped clear up the confusion about the wrist when pressing.