Bench Grip Opinions

[IBench900]

Aside from the obvious fact that a thumbless grip can lead to a cracked rib a la Gary Frank and a few others.

I'm curious what the big benchers and the MM crew feel about the thumbless grip when benching, any of you guys use it like Crawford, Sebastian, Mule, BigWhitey?.

I just plum flat out bench better with a thumbless grip, my thumb is like a light switch for my tri's thumbless grip the switch is on, thumb around grip and I feel it takes my tri's out of the movement a bti and even makes me flare my arms.

Thumbless I keep the elbows in, bring the bar low and get such great tri activity...go figure?

Any arguments for ? Against?

 

[pwr_machine]

During my first few years of benching, I benched with a thumbless. When I switch to wrapping my thumb around the bar to meet USAPL rules, there was a noticeable difference in strength. I look forward to seeing how some of the big benchers respond.

Oh yeah, Gary Frank will be guestlifting on Oct. 18th in the meet Bigguns15 is lifting in. I may do bench only.

 

[BigWh1tey]

mule , crawford and myself all wrap our thumbs. I like the safety and control of of having a good grip on the bar, and its hard to "break the bar" with a thumbless grip.

 

[thebrute]

i remember doing a WABDL meet in gadsden and seeing a guy use the "suicide" grip(thumbless) and when he was locking out a weight, his wrist rolled....and well you can picture the rest. i used the 'suicide' grip when i stuck myself in my webspace in my hand but that was the only and last time i would use that grip. i like to live!! tb

 

[IBench900]

Didn't Gary Frank use a suicide grip???? 700+ bencher

 

[thebrute]

probably so. like i said not all lifters and utilize 'suicide' grip effectively. tb

 

[BigWh1tey]

gary frank also dropped 700 on his chest.

 

[thebrute]

ouch....one more reason "not" to use the thumbless grip. tb

 

[heavyweight1987]

thats a scary ass way to bench you should never do thst or you will crack a rib or injur a pec muscle!!!!