Should You Use the Suicide Grip For Bench Press? Pros & Cons

The suicide grip for bench press is called the ‘false grip' or ‘thumbless grip.' Instead of wrapping your thumb underneath the barbell, you place the thumb next to your index finger, where it sits on top of the barbell.

So is the suicide bench press grip better? Lifters use the suicide grip bench press variation because it allows for a safer shoulder position, keeps your wrist more neutral (more comfortable for some), and activates your triceps more. These are valid, but the suicide grip is harder to hold tight and could more easily fall out of your hands.  

Furthermore, the same benefits you get while using the suicide grip can be achieved with a standard grip for bench press.

For these reasons, I never instruct my athletes to use the suicide grip for bench press and rarely do it myself when performing it. It’s something that many of my previous clients have enquired about because they’ve seen someone else doing it online or in their local gym, but in my opinion, it’s not worth it, and I much prefer my clients to use a safer grip alternative.

In this article, I'll explain:

• What Is The Suicide Grip?
• Are There Benefits For The Suicide Grip?
• 6 Reasons Against Using The Suicide Grip?
• What Is The Proper Way To Grip The Barbell?
• Can You Use The Suicide Grip For Any Other Exercise?

What Is The Suicide Grip?

So, what is a suicide grip bench press? The bench press suicide grip is when you don't wrap your thumb around the barbell.

The suicide grip is nothing new. In fact, if you've ever seen old training videos of Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can see that he uses the suicide grip in almost every bench press variation.

Because of Arnold, an entire generation of bodybuilders started to rationalize that the thumbless grip was superior. In other words, if it was ‘good for Arnold,' then ‘it was good for me.'

Before I advocate that there are more suicide grip disadvantages than suicide grip benefits, let's first examine why some people love benching using this grip style.

How to Do the Suicide Grip

Here are the key steps for performing the suicide grip bench press:

1. Get yourself a spotter and ask them to take your position behind the bar.
2. Load the bar accordingly.
3. Begin the suicide grip bench press with the same position as a conventional grip bench press. Instead of wrapping your thumbs around the barbell, keep them tucked under the bar.
4. Squeezing the bar tightly with all eight fingers, perform your bench press with great form as you normally would in a standard grip alternative.

Want to improve your bench press technique?

Let one of our coaches help you get stronger

Are There Benefits For The Suicide Grip?

There are three main reasons why you hear lifters advocating for the suicide grip:

• It keeps the wrist neutral
• It keeps the shoulders in a safe position
• It allows you to activate your triceps more

Benefit #1: It keeps the wrist neutral

Using a thumbless grip and tucking in your other fingers reduces the leeway that the wrist can flex forward or back because otherwise, the barbell may fall out of the hands. To avoid this, you must keep the barbell in the base of the palm with the wrist stacked directly over the forearm. You can also use wrist wraps to offer additional support and reduce the risk of a serious injury when lifting heavy weights.

Benefit #2: It keeps the shoulders in a safe position

In the bench press, you want to avoid having your arms ‘internally rotate,' as it will cause additional stress on the structures of the shoulders. One way to avoid this is by tucking your elbows as you bring the barbell down. The suicide grip is said to force lifters into this tucked elbow position.

Benefit #3: It allows you to activate your triceps more

If your elbows are naturally tucking more, you will activate your triceps more throughout the range of motion. This could be an advantage if you're not already benching with a focus on your triceps. By activating greater musculature, you have the ability to lift more weight.

These reasons are valid. In fact, I'm always trying to manipulate my lifters' technique to achieve these outcomes. However, as I will explain, the suicide grip is not the only way to accomplish them. You also have to weigh the potential cons of using the suicide grip.

6 Reasons Against Using The Suicide Grip For Bench Press

Let's now take a look at the reasons why I don't suggest using the suicide grip for bench press:

• You can't grip the bar as tight
• The same wrist position can be achieved using the standard grip
• It will be harder to keep your lats tight
• Your elbow position may be ‘too tucked'
• There's a high risk the barbell can fall out of your hands
• It's against the rules of powerlifting

1. You Can't Grip The Bar As Tight (Making The Weight Feel Heavier)

You can grip the bar tighter using a standard grip

Your hands won't be as tight around the barbell by using a suicide grip versus a normal grip. Having your hands as tight as possible around the barbell is important because it will make the barbell feel ‘lighter' in your hands, which will build your confidence under heavy weight.

This occurs because of the idea of proprioception, which is defined as (1) the sense of position and movement of our limbs, (2) the sense of muscle force and effort, and (3) the sense of balance.

So, whether a load feels heavy or light can be partly attributed to our proprioceptive ability to gauge ‘muscle force and effort.'

Special receptors in our skin, muscles, tendons, and joints activate our proprioception. Therefore, as the barbell sits in our hands, it's constantly providing feedback to our central nervous system about how the load feels and where our limbs are in space.

It's been shown that you can increase your proprioceptive ability by creating muscle stiffness. You can generate greater muscle stiffness by squeezing your fingers as hard as possible around the barbell, which will recruit the muscles of the hands and forearm.

If the hands are relaxed, we have less proprioceptive ability, and the heavier the weight will feel. Alternatively, if the hands are tight, the greater our proprioceptive ability, and the lighter the weight will feel.

This is why I always like to tell my athletes to ‘leave fingerprints on the barbell' because that's how hard I expect them to be squeezing their fingers when bench pressing. You can squeeze your hands much harder in a normal grip vs. a suicide grip.

2. The Same Wrist Position Can Be Achieved With The Standard Grip

The wrist position is not a function of where the thumb is on the barbell

You can achieve the same neutral wrist position using the standard grip versus a suicide grip.

When benching, you want the load sitting in the base of your hand so that the load is directly stacked in line with the forearm, whether you’re using a standard or reverse grip. This will place the wrist in a neutral position, one of the main reasons people use a suicide grip. They say obtaining this neutral wrist position is a more natural way.

However, a standard grip can achieve this same ‘neutral wrist' position. Having a neutral wrist position doesn't depend on where the thumb is in relation to the barbell, but rather, where the barbell is placed in the hands.

For both the suicide grip and standard grip, the barbell should be in the palm's base, giving you the best chance to keep your wrist neutral. You want to avoid having the barbell resting further back on the hands, on the knuckles or fingers.

Another popular bench press grip is the Reverse Grip Bench Press. Check out my complete guide to learn more!

3. It Will Be Harder To Keep Your Lats Tight

You will be able to keep your lats tighter in a standard grip versus a suicide grip.

You want your lats to be activated throughout the bench press because they have a role in decelerating the bar (on the way down), restricting inefficient movement patterns, and stabilizing the shoulder.

You can keep your lats tighter in the bench press by squeezing your hands as hard as possible.

You can test whether you can squeeze your hands tighter using a suicide grip or standard grip. You'll quickly find that the standard grip provides superior grip strength on the barbell, translating to tighter lats as you bench press.

4. Elbow Position May Be Too Tucked

In the bench press, the elbows need to be slightly tucked. However, too much tucking will lead to greater stress on the triceps, which will reduce the contribution of the chest and shoulders throughout the movement.

When the barbell is on your chest in the bench press, the elbows should be either naturally in line with the barbell or slightly in front.

It's a fine balance though, you want to have your elbows tucked because it places your shoulders in an advantageous position and recruits the triceps more. But too much elbow tucking and it will become a weaker press off the chest.

In a suicide grip, lifters are prone to too much elbow tucking. Whereas in a standard grip, lifters can have more control on where their elbows are in relation to the barbell.

Check out my guide on elbow sleeves for bench press, which is a great addition to your gym bag to keep your elbows healthy.

5. High Risk of The Barbell Falling Out of Hands

One of the dangerous consequences of the suicide grip is that there is a high risk that the barbell can slip from the hands. When wrapped underneath, the thumb acts as a locking mechanism on the barbell. In a thumbless grip bench press, the barbell can fall off the base of the palm more easily.

Many lifters online say they've been bench pressing for years in a suicide grip without any accidents. However, it's sort of like wearing a seat belt. Some people drive without a seat belt and be totally fine, but a minor crash can lead to fatal consequences without wearing one. The risk of the barbell falling out of the hands is higher among powerlifters who bench press using heavier loads. Any instability along the chain of the arm, which is bound to happen at maximal loads, can make it extremely hard to keep the barbell in the base of the palm.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brett Gibbs (@brettgibbz) on Dec 12, 2019 at 5:36pm PST

A number of years back, I randomly used the suicide grip as it did feel comfortable, immediately. There was no reason I gripped the bar this way on this occasion, but I can agree here with anyone who has that initial reaction.

Moving along a few weeks of using the grip I was repping out a few plates and a split second later the bar is 1mm from my nose bouncing off of the pins. I cannot believe how fast a bar can move, it moved so quick that at the time I still hadn’t realised that I dropped the bar. 

My advice is get comfortable with the thumbs around the bar, always have safeties in place and never allow yourself to be a position where if you drop that bar you’re going to be in major trouble.

Brett Gibbs, IPF World Champion

6. It's Against The Rules For Powerlifting

If you're a competitive powerlifter, the current bench press rules say that suicide grips are not permitted in competition.

The exact wording is:

The lifter's hands and fingers must grip the bar positioned in the rack stands with a “thumbs around grip”. This position shall be maintained throughout the lift.

IPF Technical Rules

I recently talked with a 40-year veteran of the sport He said that back in the 1980s, the suicide grip was legal in competitions.

Many lifters chose to grip the bar in this style; however, time and time again, lifters were dropping the bar on their chest under maximal loads. This was also before safety racks were popular, so there was nothing to prevent major bodily injury.

So regardless of whether you prefer bench pressing using a suicide grip, if you want to compete in powerlifting with today's standards, you'll need to use the standard bench press grip.

Check out my article on the Best Overhead Press Alternatives

What Is the Proper Way To Grip The Barbell For Bench Press?

Here's how I instruct my athletes to grip the barbell for bench press:

• Find the optimal grip width. Check out my article “Is Wide Grip Bench Pressing Better?” and follow the instructions on deciding your grip width.
• Wrap the thumb underneath the barbell. Think about pulling the thumb back into the barbell to ‘lock it' into place.
• Ensure the barbell is on the base of the palm. This will direct the line of force over the wrist joint and forearm. The wrist should be neutral or slightly extended (not excessive).
• Squeeze every single finger as hard as possible. Many lifters forget to squeeze their pinky finger, so draw special attention to engaging it. Cue yourself to ‘leave fingerprints on the barbell'.
• Engage your entire hand before lifting the barbell from the rack. Many lifters make the mistake of trying to engage their hand while they take the barbell off the rack or when it's already over their chest. Your hand needs to be squeezing hard before lifting the weight up.
• Maintain this strong grip throughout the entire set. Don't relax the hand as it will impact your wrist, elbow, and shoulder position.

The suicide grip bench press is only one type of grip you can use on the bench press. Learn more about the Different Types Of Bench Press Grips.

Suicide Grip Safety Tips

Since the suicide grip carries more risks than  alternative bench press grips, here are some important safety tips to keep in mind when using a thumbless grip:

• Always use a spotter, regardless of the weight you’re using
• Pay close attention to the bar path and keep the bar resting on the center of your palms throughout the set
• Squeeze the bar as much as is comfortable with your eight fingers to keep it in place during the set
• Use chalk or wrist straps to improve your grip

How Does the Suicide Grip Change the Bench Press?

The suicide grip doesn’t necessarily alter the bench press exercise in terms of the muscles of targets and the way you perform it. The main difference is your grip and you should use similar form and technique to the conventional bench press when doing the suicide grip bench press.

However, there are slight differences to be aware of when using the suicide grip compared to a standard grip on the barbell. With a suicide grip bench press, you’re targeting the lateral head of the triceps brachii a little more due to the positions of the forearms and wrists. This positioning causes you to tuck your elbows into your sides more closely, reducing chest involvement and increasing triceps recruitment.

Who Should Use the Suicide Grip When Bench Pressing?

I don’t recommend that anybody use the suicide grip, especially for heavy lifting. 

However, if I had to advise anybody to use this type of grip, it’s probably best for bodybuilders and weightlifters instead of powerlifters. The suicide grip is actually banned from powerlifting competitions and events because of the high injury risk associated with using it.

Can You Use The Suicide Grip For Any Other Exercises?

While I'm not a proponent of using the suicide grip for bench press, I think the suicide grip can be used successfully with other exercises and not have the same consequences.

Here are a few other exercises where the suicide grip is used:

Low Bar Back Squat

I don't teach my lifters to use the suicide grip in the gym for low bar back squatting on their first day. However, some athletes find the suicide grip takes stress off their elbow joint, allowing them to lower the bar on their back.

If the bar is lower on their back, a thumbless grip squat might mean a more mechanically efficient position (depending on the lifter).

Overhead Shoulder Press

Some lifters prefer using the suicide grip for overhead shoulder pressing. I still think many of the negatives for using the suicide grip for bench press apply in the overhead press, but at least the risk of the barbell falling on the chest is mitigated.

The worst-case scenario in overhead presses with various grip widths is that if the barbell drops from the hand, the weight will just simply fall on the floor.

Seated Chest Press

It's common to see the suicide grip used for many chest press variation. This happens because of how the handles are positioned on the machine. Since the machine's handles don't allow for a lot of flexibility in their position, lifters may not be able to comfortably wrap their thumb around the handles.

Additional upper-body and lower-body exercises where you can use the suicide grip aside from the conventional bench press include:

• Close grip bench press
• Machine chest press
• Cable chest flyes
• Pec dec machine
• Pull-ups
• Seated cable rows
• Low-bar back squat
• Barbell overhead press

FAQ

Final Thoughts

If you want to maximize your strength and safety on a flat bench press, use the standard grip over the suicide grip, even as an experienced lifter. While you will hear some pros to using the suicide grip, they don't outweigh the cons and potential risk of injury.

For this reason, all of my lifters are instructed to use the standard grip. I don’t really recommend anybody use the suicide grip when performing the bench press, although it might be suitable for other exercises, like machine and cable-based movements.