The Wide-Grip Barbell Bench Press is a intermediate-friendly barbell strength exercise that targets the chest, with the triceps and shoulders working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesChest
Secondary musclesTriceps, Shoulders
EquipmentBarbell
LevelIntermediate
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Wide-Grip Barbell Bench Press
Load a flat bench barbell and set the rack height so you can reach the bar with straight arms.
Lie back and take the bar well outside shoulder width, keeping it low in your palms.
Pinch your shoulder blades together and drive them into the bench, feet flat on the floor.
Unrack the bar with a spotter's help and let it settle over your chest.
Bring the bar down on a straight path toward the lower edge of your breastbone until it makes contact.
Press back up by driving your feet into the floor and extending your elbows, stopping short of lockout.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Shortens the bar path, which some lifters use to keep pressing when a long range aggravates the shoulder.
Biases work toward the sternal chest rather than the triceps compared with a narrow grip.
Makes grip width a trainable variable, which is useful inside bench specialization blocks.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Going wider than your shoulders tolerate raises collarbone and shoulder joint loading for very little extra chest work.
Losing shoulder blade retraction increases rotator cuff demand and shoulder instability during the press.
Bouncing the bar off the chest hides how much range you actually control and shocks the shoulder joint.
Letting the wrists roll back puts the bar behind the forearm and turns a chest exercise into a wrist problem.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Wide-Grip Barbell Bench Press, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
