Hey everybody. I would like to bench more since it's a great compound workout. But unfortunately, the last time I benched (a few months) ago, my wrist hurt pretty bad when I was lifting the bar, so I had to stop. I had tried to bench a few months before that with the same problem.

Is it because I'm holding the bar incorrectly, or what?

Yes, it is probably because you are holding the bar incorrectly.

When you are holding the bar during a bench press, your fists should be facing upwards not sideways. When they start facing sideways, you will be able to see the back of your hands. This is a bad sign.

It's putting too much pressure on your wrists. You could seriously hurt yourself.

kingusama92 wrote:Yes, it is probably because you are holding the bar incorrectly.

When you are holding the bar during a bench press, your fists should be facing upwards not sideways. When they start facing sideways, you will be able to see the back of your hands. This is a bad sign.

It's putting too much pressure on your wrists. You could seriously hurt yourself.

This. Also how wide are you gripping the bar? Have you tried it with dumbells? Keeping your wrist aligned with your arm should fix the problem though.

It might be a problem with your form, it's hard to tell without actually seeing you bench. Wrists strains are common with the barbell bench press, I have suffered from a few strains in the past. If you are having problems with the barbell, switch to dumbbells for freedom of movement and less strain on the wrists.

The bench is the best exercise to build pecs fantastic, but it is also an exercise that must be done very properly because otherwise you risk injury as in your case. You will probably get hurt because your wrists are supposed to be straight! Otherwise you risk not being able to do the exercise. Focuse more on technique than on weight.

Popatar wrote:This. Also how wide are you gripping the bar? Have you tried it with dumbells? Keeping your wrist aligned with your arm should fix the problem though.

Dumbbells are a good suggestion.

A lot of people don't even use the bench press, they do the same workouts with dumbbells. They are equally effective and do the same job.

Although, your form if wrong for the bench press will probably be wrong for the dumbbells too. Dumbbells require the same type of grip, but what they help with is being able to know exactly how wide you should be lifting.

I think the way I held the bar was with my hands being parallel to the floor forming almost a 90 degree angle with my arms. I think the width of my arms were such that my arms formed about a 70 degree angle when the bar was at my chest. Is that clear? Are my hands supposed to form a straight, vertical line with my arms?

Yes, the hand should be vertical with your arm.

There should be no bend at the wrist. This is where most people doing the bench press end up getting hurt. The wrist starts rolling back as the lifter tries to push it up.

I would recommend practicing your form with lighter weights before going to the weight you should be lifting. This way you will be able to iron out any kinks in your form.

SirTenenbaum wrote:I think the way I held the bar was with my hands being parallel to the floor forming almost a 90 degree angle with my arms. I think the width of my arms were such that my arms formed about a 70 degree angle when the bar was at my chest. Is that clear? Are my hands supposed to form a straight, vertical line with my arms?

You hands should be in line with your elbows. Your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor. You might need to experiment with your grip to achieve this. Ideally you will use a partner to tell you if your hands are aligned with your elbows at the bottom of the movement.

It's just down to bad form, I used to get the same problem. Look up Dave Tate 'so you think you can bench' on YouTube that helped me out no end.