Today I want to talk about the benefits of using a suicide grip for pressing lifts. In the suicide grip you do not wrap your hands around the weight, but rather rest the weight in your palm and grip the bar with your fingers. It seems strange and even a little dangerous with the name “suicide grip.” But rest assured there is nothing suicidal about a properly performed suicide grip — so long as you aren’t about to testify against the Clintons like John Ashe.

In his article, The Biomechanics of a Safe, Strong Bench Press (we will delve into this article in its entirety early next week) Jim Stoppani — aside from writing the perfect explanation of how to properly perform a bench press — goes into the Suicide Grip.

Stoppani writes that “the closed grip, with your thumb on the opposite side of the bar from your fingers, is the safest way to prevent the bar from falling on your chest. However, I’m a big proponent of using an open grip, also known as the suicide grip, because the thumb is on the same side of the bar as the fingers…..It all has to do with where the bar sits in the hand. When you use a

Notice the hand placement here. Jim Stoppani is no joke. I don’t agree with 100% of everything he says, but he never says anything not worth listening to.

closed grip, the bar sits higher on the hand, meaning it rests more on your fingers. Holding the bar in this position requires more wrist joint involvement. The problem is that the wrist is a weaker joint compared to the elbow and the shoulder….Holding the bar with an open grip keeps the bar lower on the palm, positioning the bar directly over your forearm bones. When you drive the bar up off your chest, the transfer of force will go directly through your forearm bones right into the bar. With a closed grip, the force must go through your forearm bones to your wrist bones and then to the bar.”

In a nut shell, the positioning of the bar in the middle of the palm transfers weight directly to the targeted area while minimizing the involvement of your weakest joint, the wrist.

I am not saying that you should do your presses (bench, shoulder, etc) with a suicide grip, I am just telling you that there are some people out there, Stoppani included, who think it is preferable and you should try it out…even with no weight on the bar…and see how it feels. I am going to be adding some suicide grip sets to my workouts and you should see if they work for you as well.

However, if we are going to do it we really ought to do it correctly. So aside from watching a bunch of form videos on suicide grip (also called false grip) lets talk about some of the rules regarding a suicide grip.

The first is chalk. A slippery bar is absolutely deadly with this grip. Wipe down the bar with your towel and chalk up your hands as well as the bar. People have asked me “how much chalk should I use” and my answer is always the same. Use as much chalk as you feel you should and then double it.

The next thing is bar placement. The bar goes across the middle of your palm not in the area under the fingers and you put the palm at the bar first before curling in the fingers on the bar, not the other way around.

After you have the palms set with the bar you squeeze the barbell with all five fingers and hold that squeeze, as tight as possible, throughout your lifts. The thumb should be on the same side of the bar as the wrist and the fingers dug so hard into the bar it is like you are trying to break it.

Once you have your grip get the bar into the starting position of your lift and make sure your forearms are engaged and the weight is not on your wrists. After this you want to keep your torso and hips as stable as possible. Cheat reps are always bad, but ESPECIALLY bad when using a suicide grip. You never use your body to get that little extra. Just lower the weight so you can get all strict lifts from the first to the last.

This grip requires an incredible amount of discipline and attention to detail. The nice thing about this is that all lifts require this, but the suicide grip forces the issue. As you get used to it in the suicide grip maybe your dumb ass will remember to translate that to other lifts with other grips.

The benefit of the suicide grip is more than just displacement of the weight off the wrist into larger joints and better targeting of the intended muscles. It is also easier on the shoulders….especially the glenohumeral joint.

So, grab a bar or some dumbbells and just play around with light weight or even no weight other than the bar and focus in on a few reps and see how it feels. It will be awkward at first, as is everything new, but try it out, practice some and if you feel comfortable add it to your routine.