October 15, 2004

6 responses to (S)oiled floor press

  1. Sanna Says:
    October 19th, 2004 at 12:39 pm

    Hehe, jag tyckte väl att det lät som Soil när du visade mig videosnutten häromdagen. I rockenroll.

  2. Scott Says:
    October 19th, 2004 at 2:08 pm

    Kris, you’ve expanded my music library yet again. SOiL is definitely suitable workout music.

    Just watching the video of the close-grip pressing - that looks to be a fairly wide grip (at least compared to my own). Any idea how wide it is? I have ‘8-10 inches’ in mind as a rule of thumb for these, but I’m happy to be corrected on this.

    btw, I like the b+w photos.

  3. Kris Says:
    October 20th, 2004 at 12:18 am

    SOiL is not bad. Lately, I’ve fantasized about getting myself an iPod http://www.apple.com/ipod/ that I could fill to the brim with workout music. Imagine 10,000 songs in a small case…

    As for the grip, I’ve actually narrowed my close-grip somewhat since I embarked on Blakley. For all close-grip work - including triceps extensions, floor presses and JM presses - I now bench with middle fingers on the edge of the smooth part of the bar. My normal close-grip is index fingers at smooth (see http://tsampa.org/training/blog/archives/2004/03/#post_153 for a photo). Grip width would depend somewhat on shoulder width, but as a general rule of thumb I would not go narrower than forearms parallel at lockout. Bodybuilders often go much more narrow than this (forearms slanting towards each other), but for a powerlifter looking for maximum weights and stability this would definitively be too narrow.

    If anything, I’d say my current grip is on the narrower side. According to Jim Wendler http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=6438&tid=50 “a close grip for me is index finger just outside the smooth part of the bar and a medium grip is a thumbs length from the smooth.”

    Thanks for the feedback on the photos! I like black and white, but the main reason the photos from the school gym are often b+w is the really poor lighting that makes them look like #@! in color. As usual, these are shots taken from video clips so not too much that can be done about it unless I do some heavy color correction in Photoshop. I’m usually too lazy to do much more than auto levels et al if needed. For a photographer such as yourself this is probably blasphemy. ;-)

    BTW, I like the redesign of your blog.

    -Kris

  4. Kris Says:
    October 20th, 2004 at 3:52 am

    While doing some nocturnal surfing I happened to stumble upon bench king Ryan Kennelly’s grip spacing advice:

    “Because barbell designs vary so much, in reference to where the knurling starts and stops and where the guide rings are placed, it’s difficult to describe to someone the widths of these three grips. So, figure out where you like your grip to be when you press for a max rep and call that your competition grip. Then, your medium grip will be two inches [5.1 centimeters] in from there and your close grip will be two more inches in from there.”
    http://eclipsecec.com/bt_articles/kennelly_interview_2.html

    For reference, the maximum allowable bench grip in competition is 32 inches (81 centimeters) between the index fingers. Given the max grip, the close-grip would be a whopping 28 inches (71 centimeters) using this formula. Not that I bench quite that wide.

  5. Kris Says:
    October 20th, 2004 at 2:51 pm

    When I woke up (in the morning I should add…), my first thought was that I had forgotten the elementary fact that one should move both hands in by 2 inches for every grip. In another interview he also states that “a close grip on a barbell is at least one complete hand width in from your competition grip” http://www.eclipse2000.com/bt_articles/kennelly_interview.html. My hand is indeed just about 4 inches wide and this formula would thus put me quite precisely at index fingers on smooth. For a maximum bench the close grip width would thus be approximately 22 inches (60 centimeters) with a medium grip being 28 inches (71 centimeters). Hope I got it right this time. If not, SCREAM!!!

  6. Straight to the Bar Says:
    October 21st, 2004 at 2:39 am

    How close is close?

    After noticing that Kris is using a somewhat wider grip than I am for close-grip bench work (or floor work as the case may be) I had another look at the grip width used in my own lifts. The standard…

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