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Close-grip barbell bench press: elbows in, hands at shoulder width

Also called: close grip bench press, narrow grip bench. All one movement, one page.

By

We compute it and we cite it. We do not test gear. How we know this.

Short answer

Bench with your hands about shoulder width. Elbows stay tucked and the triceps take more of the load.

Pattern
Horizontal push
Equipment
Barbell · Plates · Flat bench · Rack
Usual bar
45 lb / 20.4 kgOhio Power Bar, 45 lb

The kit this lift needs

Straight from this movement’s own equipment list. The spec pages below compare published figures across every model we have verified — no prices, no ratings, nothing we claim to have tested.

Gear for this lift

One verified model per piece of kit the close-grip barbell bench press needs

One representative model per category, picked from the listings we have verified. Specs are the seller's published figures, read on the date printed on each card. We have not tested any of it, and there is no rating on this page because there is nothing to rate it against.

BarWeight is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure.

Barbells

Cap Pro Series 7 ft Olympic Barbell

B006R4EOWI
BarbellsCAP Barbell7 ft
Length
7 ft
Sleeve
2 in Olympic

Best for: A general-purpose 7 ft bar for a rack-and-plate home gym.

Skip if: You want a specific knurl or tensile rating — the listing does not publish those figures.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — The actual bar weight, which the listing title does not state
  • — Shaft diameter and whether there is a centre knurl
  • — Loadable sleeve length against how many plates you own
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Plates

Amazon Basics 2-Inch Olympic Grip Weight Plates

B0DNS4B576
PlatesAmazon Basics2 in Olympic
Bore
2 in Olympic
Material
Cast iron

Best for: Iron plates for a rack-and-bar gym where nothing gets dropped.

Skip if: You deadlift on a floor you care about. Iron is not a bumper.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — Which weights the option you selected actually contains
  • — Whether they are sold singly or in pairs
  • — Plate thickness against your sleeve length — see the bar data on this site
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Benches

FLYBIRD WB5 Weight Bench, ASTM-Certified 800LBS Adjustable

B07DNYSJ8W
BenchesFLYBIRDBreathable leather &Alloy Steel
Material
Breathable leather &Alloy Steel
Frame Material
Alloy Steel
Item Weight
28.5 pounds
Dimensions
46"D x 13"W x 48.5"H
Weight Limit
800 pounds
Color
Black

Best for: A room that has another job. It folds down between sessions.

Skip if: You need a competition-height bench for a specific setup — pad heights in this category vary and are rarely published.

Check these yourself before ordering

  • — Pad height and pad width against your setup — both vary across this category
  • — Whether the stated capacity includes your own bodyweight or just the bar
  • — The gap between the back pad and the seat pad at incline
  • — What the ASTM claim actually covers on this listing
View on Amazon

Specs read from the listing on 2026-07-24. Listings change — confirm the current spec and option before you order.

Comparing the whole field before you buy is the better move. Each guide below picks for a named job and states the published spec that put it there:

Close-grip bench press setup

  1. 01Grip roughly shoulder width. Not so narrow that your wrists complain.
  2. 02Shoulder blades pinned, feet planted, same as any bench.

Close-grip bench press form, step by step

  1. 01Lower with elbows tucked closer to your sides, to the lower chest.
  2. 02Press back up, keeping the elbows in.

How to load the bar for the close-grip bench press

Before the close-grip barbell bench press is a rep, it is a number on the bar. Plates go on in pairs, one per sleeve, and the bar itself is part of the total — a 45 lb bar with a 45 on each side is 135 lb, not 90. This animation walks the three loads you will meet most often.

Our own render, modelled to the IPF bar spec and the published plate spec table.An original 3D animation showing how the three most common barbell loads are built. A 45 lb bar starts empty; a 45 lb plate slides onto each sleeve to make 135 lb, a second pair makes 225 lb, and a third pair makes 315 lb. The running total and the plates-per-side count are shown throughout. This is an illustration of a class of equipment, not footage of a specific product.Original animation by BarWeight — an illustration of this class of equipment, not footage of a specific product, and not a demonstration of how to perform a lift.

Need a different number? Run it through the plate math calculator.

Close-grip bench press video demonstration

Reading the steps only gets you so far, and a render cannot show you what a human body does under a bar. This is the close-grip barbell bench press demonstrated by a coach, not by us — we did not make this video, we do not host it, and we do not earn anything from it.

Demonstration

Narrow Grip Bench Press

Renaissance Periodization

Narrow Grip Bench Press — Renaissance Periodization. Embedded from YouTube; this site did not produce the video.Founded by Dr. Mike Israetel (PhD in Sport Physiology) and a team of exercise scientists/coaches; channel is built specifically around evidence-based hypertrophy and exercise technique.

Common close-grip bench press errors

  • Going so narrow the hands nearly touch. That is a wrist problem, not a triceps builder.
  • Letting the elbows flare, which just makes it a normal bench.

Close-grip bench press: muscles worked

Primary

  • Triceps brachii
  • Pectoralis major

Secondary

  • Anterior deltoid

How we know: Backed by the electromyography sources listed at the bottom of this page.

Close-grip bench press: what the evidence does and does not say

This lift is programmed almost everywhere as a triceps builder, and the elbows-tucked position is real. But the grip-width EMG evidence does not cleanly support the "narrow grip equals triceps" rule of thumb. The systematic review found triceps and pectoralis major activity similar in the bench press, and the grip-width study found no significant difference in that ratio between narrow and wide grips in most conditions. Say it plainly: this is convention.

How to program the close-grip bench press

Training convention: 3-4 sets of 6-12, common as a bench accessory or a triceps builder for lifters who want a pressing movement rather than an isolation.

Rep ranges are training convention. They are what most lifters and coaches do, not a measured result, and nothing on this page is medical advice.

Run the numbers

Knowing the lift is half of it. The other half is loading the bar correctly.

Questions people actually ask

▶How narrow should a close-grip bench press be?

Roughly shoulder width. Going so narrow that your hands nearly touch is a wrist problem, not a better triceps builder, and it tends to wreck the bar path.

▶Does a close grip really work the triceps more?

It is near-universal gym convention, but the EMG evidence does not support it cleanly — a grip-width study found no significant difference in the pec-to-triceps ratio between narrow and wide grips in most conditions. The elbow position genuinely changes, and that is what most people are feeling.

▶What is the difference between close-grip and regular bench press?

Hand spacing and elbow path. Close grip is about shoulder width with the elbows tucked toward the sides. Let the elbows flare and you have simply done a normal bench press with a narrow grip.

Same pattern, different lift

All barbell exercises

Sources

How this page is built and what we will and will not claim: read the methodology.