Barbell Close-Grip Bench Press
The barbell close-grip bench press is a bench press with your hands at roughly shoulder width, which tucks your elbows and puts more work on your triceps. Your chest and front shoulders still help. Choose it to build triceps with heavy loads and to strengthen the lockout of your regular bench press.
Muscles worked
The barbell close-grip bench press trains the triceps, with chest, shoulders helping.
Weekly sets for triceps
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for triceps, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the barbell close-grip bench press
- 01Lie on a flat bench with your eyes under the bar and your feet planted.
- 02Grip the bar at about shoulder width, with wrists straight and stacked over your elbows.
- 03Pull your shoulder blades back and unrack the bar over your shoulders.
- 04Lower the bar to your lower chest with your elbows tucked close to your sides.
- 05Press up to full lockout, driving the bar back over your shoulders with your triceps.
Coaching cues
- Elbows brush your ribs on the way down.
- Wrists stacked, never bent back.
- Lock out hard at the top.
Common mistakes
- Gripping so narrow that your hands nearly touch bends your wrists awkwardly, so set them at about shoulder width.
- Flaring your elbows out wide shifts the work to your chest, so keep them tucked near your sides.
- Touching the bar too high on your chest puts your shoulders in a poor position, so touch at the lower chest.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Barbell Close-Grip Bench Press alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your barbell close-grip bench press free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.