Wrist problem with bench

[freemoney]

When I bench, and specifically close-grip my wrists feel really weak. I have to stop sets sometimes when I know my chest/triceps can do more reps because of my wrists. Is this a problem of form, will my wrists grow stronger, anything i can do to help my wrists get stronger? also i have broken both wrists but this was 5-6 years ago. thanks.

[TimM]

Are you gripping the bar correctly? It should be on the heel of your palm so that you are not using your wrists to stabilize the wrist angles under load. Your hands should be slightly rotated (elbows out), so the bar is across the entire fleshy palm heel. See page 80 of Starting Strength, by Mark Rippetoe. (If you don't already have the book, wait for his new one Basic Barbell Training coming out soon, I heard it will be a reprint reworded for trainees instead of coaches and with 30% more material).

[Blarg]

You can make your wrists a lot stronger with gripper exercisers like the Captain's of Crush grippers, which can actually make them noticeably wider. There's some good spillover you can get from deadlifting without straps, too, as that taxes your grip if it's not well developed.

[snider-BE]

use straps, meanwhile, take some glucosamine, u can increase the dose 2 times the first weeks u take it, it should improve your joints

[Whose2know]

get a stronger grip, work forearms. I had same problem. I didn't really do any exercies, but eventually my wrists got stronger and I can not bench lots of weight w/o feeling any pressure on my wrists. Also, do you do a thumbs out handle when you grip the bench press? If not, try it.

[Big Poppa Smurf]

this might be what TimM was saying, but try to roll your hands forward a little bit as you bench. This puts the weight in a straight line with your forearm and takes a lot of the stress of your wrist joint.