The "trendy" very straight bar path/internally rotated shoulders/high touch point is everywhere on social media, but i think it only works for people that can make their archs highest point very high on chest, otherwise ur rom actually increase and youll injure something eventually. I think most people should just focus on making their starting position feel as close as possible as decline bench press/touch low, since its basically what were trying to achieve by arching. For actual grip, focusing on feeling some weight on the edge/outside of my palms after i internally rotate the thumbs has worked well for me. Also, if you try to force a high touch point when its just not meant to be, then you can end up doing a jm press without noticing, cause the body tries to protect your rotator cuffs/doesnt allow you to go straight down.
Theres an Elite FTS vid with JM on what I believe is bulldog grip. and he says that bending the bar will rotate your arms back out to counter the hands being internally rotated. If you hold your arms out in front of you, you can rotate your hands around without really rotating your arms. I get that it can still effect your arm rotation but not as much as people would think.
It’s shoulder rotation not hand or arm, they’re more a consequence of the shoulder rotation. Fighting the rotation at different points of the arm is going to be uncomfortable for most and likely break down at higher intensities. Counteracting the rotations defeats the point of even adopting such a position in the first place, you want that internal rotation if you do a grip like this
Turns out this entire time I was using some flashy bench grip lol. I just always bench without my fingers wrapped around the bar because it doesn't feel as comfortable as fingers over
Bulldog grip is probably partly responsible for the "bend the bar" que, in an attempt to undo some of the internal rotation. I don't like the grip nor the que but a lot of technique stuff boils down to personal preference anyways.
I'm confused about this being a topic right now. Is there some sort of resurgence in the lifter sphere of people pushing Bulldog Grip for bench? Cause it's not new; Barbell Medicine was suggesting using the Bulldog Grip for pressing as far back as 2018 as a way to ensure the bar was on top of your wrist if you were holding the bar to far back in your hands and it wasn't on top of your wrist. Which is usually what makes me suggest it to people in the gym, i.e. I see them benching the bar is closer to their proximal knuckle than their Radius/Ulna.
I suppose I have a bulldog grip but every time I’ve tried really hard exaggerating that internally roared position further it’s felt weaker and end up abandoning it. I did have shoulder issues early on with/from an overly biased external rotated grip. So I’m just doomed to have shoulder stuff regardless of the amount of IR lol
All these fancy new terms and ideas are usually worthless for most people. I love your analogy to hook grip. Hook grip takes a ton of time to get used to, is extremely hard to use if your hands are small, and is only used by a small percentage of lifters. The “bulldog” grip is even more nuanced. First, no grip will “blow-up” your bench press. Going wider, or more narrow impacts the lift the most. Also, internally rotating the hands too much can be uncomfortable which directly how comfortable somebody feels. In the end, grips, whether in the deadlift - bench or even the squat will vary from person to person. There is never a one size fits all approach. I wish people would focus more on just mastering their underlying technique. That’s where the best gains come from.
I used to have a really internally rotated grip when I benched with max grip, I stopped using it after I actually literally hurt my pinky from squeezing the bar from a weird angle. Lmao
Never tried this, but the position of the wrists also seems incredibly uncomfortable. As someone with pretty fragile wrists, I will probably never try this grip.
If it’s uncomfortable and you “have to get used to it” it’s probably not worth doing. Just because something is efficient on paper doesn’t mean it works for everyone in practice. You want your movements to feel as natural as possible and be repeatable at higher intensities
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Video starts 2:40
The "trendy" very straight bar path/internally rotated shoulders/high touch point is everywhere on social media, but i think it only works for people that can make their archs highest point very high on chest, otherwise ur rom actually increase and youll injure something eventually. I think most people should just focus on making their starting position feel as close as possible as decline bench press/touch low, since its basically what were trying to achieve by arching. For actual grip, focusing on feeling some weight on the edge/outside of my palms after i internally rotate the thumbs has worked well for me. Also, if you try to force a high touch point when its just not meant to be, then you can end up doing a jm press without noticing, cause the body tries to protect your rotator cuffs/doesnt allow you to go straight down.
I had never heard of this grip before but I practically use it minus the fact that my index and middle still wrap around.
Ahh man I got so hyped when I saw a notification from Brazos Valley Strength
Theres an Elite FTS vid with JM on what I believe is bulldog grip. and he says that bending the bar will rotate your arms back out to counter the hands being internally rotated. If you hold your arms out in front of you, you can rotate your hands around without really rotating your arms. I get that it can still effect your arm rotation but not as much as people would think.
It’s shoulder rotation not hand or arm, they’re more a consequence of the shoulder rotation. Fighting the rotation at different points of the arm is going to be uncomfortable for most and likely break down at higher intensities. Counteracting the rotations defeats the point of even adopting such a position in the first place, you want that internal rotation if you do a grip like this
Turns out this entire time I was using some flashy bench grip lol. I just always bench without my fingers wrapped around the bar because it doesn't feel as comfortable as fingers over
Bulldog grip is probably partly responsible for the "bend the bar" que, in an attempt to undo some of the internal rotation. I don't like the grip nor the que but a lot of technique stuff boils down to personal preference anyways.
[internally rotates grip 2 degrees]
I bulldog grip now.
I'm confused about this being a topic right now. Is there some sort of resurgence in the lifter sphere of people pushing Bulldog Grip for bench? Cause it's not new; Barbell Medicine was suggesting using the Bulldog Grip for pressing as far back as 2018 as a way to ensure the bar was on top of your wrist if you were holding the bar to far back in your hands and it wasn't on top of your wrist. Which is usually what makes me suggest it to people in the gym, i.e. I see them benching the bar is closer to their proximal knuckle than their Radius/Ulna.
Maybe doing this with a bench inside the rings is part of my problem
Had no idea there was a name for this grip. It just came naturally to me once I moved to max grip
I suppose I have a bulldog grip but every time I’ve tried really hard exaggerating that internally roared position further it’s felt weaker and end up abandoning it. I did have shoulder issues early on with/from an overly biased external rotated grip. So I’m just doomed to have shoulder stuff regardless of the amount of IR lol
All these fancy new terms and ideas are usually worthless for most people. I love your analogy to hook grip. Hook grip takes a ton of time to get used to, is extremely hard to use if your hands are small, and is only used by a small percentage of lifters. The “bulldog” grip is even more nuanced. First, no grip will “blow-up” your bench press. Going wider, or more narrow impacts the lift the most. Also, internally rotating the hands too much can be uncomfortable which directly how comfortable somebody feels.
In the end, grips, whether in the deadlift - bench or even the squat will vary from person to person. There is never a one size fits all approach. I wish people would focus more on just mastering their underlying technique. That’s where the best gains come from.
I used to have a really internally rotated grip when I benched with max grip, I stopped using it after I actually literally hurt my pinky from squeezing the bar from a weird angle. Lmao
Never tried this, but the position of the wrists also seems incredibly uncomfortable. As someone with pretty fragile wrists, I will probably never try this grip.
You have to get used to it. I was uncomfortable and felt weak at first but then it helped me break the plateaus.
If it’s uncomfortable and you “have to get used to it” it’s probably not worth doing. Just because something is efficient on paper doesn’t mean it works for everyone in practice. You want your movements to feel as natural as possible and be repeatable at higher intensities
Sounds like a shoulder injury waiting to happen lol