Wide-Grip Bench Press and Wrist Pain

[AFer]

I began experimenting with the wide-grip bench press a few days ago because my pecs are lagging relative to my shoulders, biceps, triceps, etc. The wide grip really made my wrists hurt, to the point that the pain made me stop mid-lift. Is this normal?

[runner pat]

Not normal. I usually use a slightly wider than shoulders grip.

A better solution is to do pre-exhaustion sets of flys.

Do each set of flys to exhaustion then jump right to a set of bench press. You only have about 15 seconds to start the benches otherwise you start to lose the benefits of the fly set.

It's difficult to really work the pecs on benches as the triceps and front deltoids fail first. the pre-exhuast sets makes the pecs temporarily fatigued so all three muscle groups fail at the same time.(more or less)

[AFer]

Originally Posted by runner pat

Not normal. I usually use a slightly wider than shoulders grip.

A better solution is to do pre-exhaustion sets of flys.

Thanks, I'll try that. I normally do flys and pec decks after the bench press. The problem is that the regular-grip bench press is developing my triceps, which are freakishly overdeveloped already.