Bench press is one of the most popular exercises in Fitbod, logged over 6 million times.
While it can be highly effective when performed correctly, it can also be detrimental if the proper technique is not followed.
Many people experience wrist pain as a result.
So, below, I’ll explain why you get wrist pain while bench pressing and how to fix it.
Disclaimer: While I’m a Sports Medicine doctor, I’m not your doctor. Please consult your healthcare team for diagnosis and treatment.
Key Takeaways
- The most common reasons people experience wrist pain while bench pressing are improper form and grip and using a too-heavy weight.
- Wrist pain while bench pressing is also potentially caused by carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoarthritis, neuropathy, or a fracture or cyst.
- The Fitbod app clearly explains how to maintain proper form during bench pressing to prevent wrist pain and ensure that the amount of weight you bench progresses as you get stronger.
5 Reasons You Get Wrist Pain Bench Pressing
1. Resting the bar at the base of your fingers instead of lower down on the palm.
Placing the bar too high on the hand can cause wrist pain while bench pressing.
Your hand should serve as a platform for the bar as you lower it down to your chest and then back up.
You can’t grasp it from the top of your hand, otherwise, it won’t be in a neutral position aligned with your forearms.
As a result, the force from the bar is not completely transferred to the chest (which is what you’re actually working out in a bench press). Some of the force goes into your wrists, which causes pain.
2. Gripping onto the bar with a few of your fingers or using a thumbless grip.
In the starting position, wrap all your fingers around the bar after you have set it correctly on the heels of your hands.
Except for the squat, there is no thumbless grip in strength training when using free weights. The grip is thumbless in the squat because you are the one moving (not the bar).
During a bench press, the whole hand (including the thumb) helps secure the bar so it doesn’t fall on your chin or neck. It also aids with lifting efficiency.
By not grasping the bar with your whole hand, you can’t lock your wrist completely, which prevents you from transmitting your lifting force to your chest (the whole reason you’re doing a bench press) and upper extremities (which help you move efficiently).
- Related Article: How To Hook Grip
3. Your wrists are bent back too far when you grip onto the bar.
If your wrists aren’t in a neutral position, some of the force from the bar will be unevenly distributed through the wrist, which can cause pain.
4. Your grip is too wide on the bar.
Grip width is a matter of individual preference, to an extent. However, you achieve the best range of motion when your forearms are in a vertical position (shoulder width or slightly wider than shoulder-width apart) when the bar is on the chest.
With a wider grip, the bar doesn’t move as far and locks out before the triceps have done much work, so the pecs (chest muscles) and deltoids (muscle on the top of your shoulder) end up doing most of the work.
5. You’re using a weight that’s too heavy.
If the weight is too heavy, the muscles in your hand and forearm might not be strong enough to stabilize the wrist position, which can lead to pain.
Over time, your hand and forearm muscles will get stronger, which will support the wrist joint, but this takes several weeks and months of bench press training to develop.
With the Fitbod app, you won’t have to guess how much you should increase your weight while bench pressing. It automatically adjusts your workouts as you progress toward your goal, so you maintain and build muscle without worrying about overdoing it.
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Basic Wrist Movement & How It Functions While Bench Pressing
How does the wrist function while bench pressing?
The wrist serves as the link between the forearm and hand and is therefore involved in many complex everyday movements as well as exercises.
The different types of wrist motions are flexion, extension, ulnar deviation, radial deviation, and circumduction.
- Flexion is when your wrist, with your knuckles facing the sky, is bent towards the ground.
- Extension is when your wrist, with your knuckles facing the sky, is bent backward towards your elbow.
- Ulnar deviation is when the wrist is bent towards the pinky side of the hand.
- Radial deviation is when the wrist is bent towards the thumb side of the hand.
- Circumduction is the action that produces a circular movement of the wrist.
During the bench press, the wrist is in a neutral position (not flexed or extended) while being lined up with the forearms to help transmit the force from the weight of the bar appropriately.
Any excessive flexion, extension, or deviation under load can lead to wrist pain over time (more on this later).
Bench Press Technique & the Wrist
Next, I’ll discuss how the wrist operates during the course of a bench press.
Bench Press Technique and Wrist Position
First, ensure you have a spotter to keep the unracking and racking of the bar safe for you.
If you are benching heavy by yourself, always do so inside a power rack. If you don’t have a power rack, don’t bench heavy weights on your own.
According to a study completed by the American College of Sports Medicine, at least 50% of free weight-related deaths were linked to bench pressing. If you’re benching alone, it’s imperative to take proper safety precautions.
Now that you’re ready to bench press, let’s break down the exercise into the following phases:
- Start position
- Lowering phase
- Lifting phase
- End position
Here are the phases in more detail:
Start Position
- Lie down on the bench with your eyes looking straight up and your feet flat on the ground.
- The bar should rest on the heel of your palm (not up near the fingers), and directly over your forearm (aligned with it) so that power being transmitted up the arms and to the bar goes directly to the bar without being focused through the wrists.
- Wrap all your fingers around the bar after you have set it correctly on the heels of your hands.
- Grasp the bar with the wrists directly under the bar approximately shoulder width (or slightly wider than shoulder width) apart – we’ll talk about grip width later on
- Touch your shoulder blades together in the back
Lowering Phase
- Unrack the bar.
- With elbows and wrists locked, move the bar out to get the bar over your chest.
- Lower the bar to your chest.
- The bar will contact your sternum (the bone in the middle of your chest, between your pecs) a few inches below your collarbone.
Lifting Phase
- Touch the chest with the bar, and then drive the bar right back to exactly the same position with your elbows and wrists locked.
End Position
- Rack the bar (with the help of a spotter if you have one) back to the start position.
Wrist Diagnosis & Bench Press
There are a few potential wrist diagnoses that could cause issues. Remember to consult a medical provider for an official diagnosis of your wrist pain.
Here are the most common diagnoses for wrist pain when related to bench pressing:
1. Thumb-Sided (Radial) Wrist Pain
You might have thumb-sided pain on either the palm side or the knuckle side. It can potentially be caused by:
- Carpometacarpal Osteoarthritis: Also known as CMC arthritis. It’s basically arthritis at the base of the thumb and can get worse (more painful) with gripping the bar.
- Scaphoid Fracture: This is usually very common following an injury (like falling onto the ground with your hand outstretched to brace yourself) and can be misdiagnosed as a wrist sprain because many individuals will have a normal X-ray earlier on with it.
I bring this up even in the setting of the bench press, as there’s a reported case where an individual developed a scaphoid fracture after his wrist was forced into flexion and radial deviation after the bar slipped from his hand.
This diagnosis is usually confirmed with X-rays a few weeks later or via an MRI.
2. Pinky-Sided (Ulnar) Wrist Pain
There can be pinky-sided wrist pain on either the palm side or knuckle side, which is potentially caused by:
- Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex Injury: This structure stabilizes the wrist to allow for adequate motion and to transmit forces through the pinky side. Injuries usually occur from an acute injury similar to the scaphoid fracture. However, it can also occur through chronic (long-term) tears from overusing the wrist which is commonly seen in individuals who work with their hands, like plumbers, carpenters, or even weightlifters.
3. Wrist Pain in the Palm
There can be pain in the palm of your hand, which is caused by:
- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: It causes pain and/or numbness/tingling because of compression of the median nerve as it travels through the carpal tunnel (a canal in the arm that has a lot of tendons, blood vessels, and the median nerve). Usually, if you have it, your symptoms are worse at night.
- Ulnar Neuropathy: This occurs when the small branches of the ulnar nerve are damaged from compression in certain wrist positions, such as being bent back too far (extension) or bending forward too far (flexion). This causes weakness and sometimes other symptoms like numbness or tingling.
4. Pain in the Back of the Wrist
Pain in the back of your wrist can potentially be caused by:
- Kienböck’s Disease of the Lunate: It occurs over a long period of time with the progressive breakdown of one of the bones in the wrist called the lunate. No one really knows why this happens, but it could potentially be due to disruption to the blood supply to the bone from repetitive damage or overuse. The pain usually starts as mild swelling and eventually worsens to persistent pain associated with weakness in the wrist. It can cause diminished grip strength over time. Though it is rare, it’s reported to occur in weightlifters.
- Ganglion Cyst: It’s usually a bump that feels like a “squishy ball” on the knuckle side of your wrists. These are really common and don’t usually cause any pain unless they get in the way of other structures in your wrists like tendons.
What Should You Do When Your Wrists Hurt While Bench Pressing?
You can do many different things to help your acute, non-traumatic wrist pain after bench pressing.
What does acute mean exactly?
- Acute pain is usually recent, within the last two weeks, and will disappear once the cause is healed.
- Non-traumatic means the pain is not from a direct trauma injury, for example, if the barbell fell onto your hand.
YouTube creator with over 1 million subscribers and trainer Sean Nalewanyj offers tips for preventing wrist pain while bench pressing.
He advises:
“First off, make sure you’re keeping your wrists in a neutral position throughout the bench press exercise. Many lifters allow their wrists to bend backward, and this both decreases how much weight you can lift and puts a lot of stress on your wrists at the same time. Make a conscious effort to keep those wrists straight, and ensure that you’re gripping the bar across the lower/meatier portion of your palm rather than high up close to your fingers.”
He also continues:
“The second tip to eliminate bench press wrist pain is to adjust your grip width and ensure that your forearms are vertical with your hands/elbows stacked directly on top of each other. Gripping the bar too wide or too narrow on the barbell bench press will cause your forearms to angle either inward/outward and will increase the strain on your joints. Try taking a video recording of yourself during your next chest workout to make sure everything is properly aligned.”
Here are some other things to keep in mind when experiencing wrist pain.
Identify Whether You Have Any Loss of Sensation
Once you feel pain in the wrist, ensure you haven’t lost any sensation in your wrist or hand and don’t have any new weakness in the wrist (especially grip strength).
Go to a doctor for an evaluation in person if your wrist pain doesn’t follow the “rule of two.”
Assess Your Pain Using “The Rule of Two”
The rule of two is when you rate your pain on a scale from zero to ten (zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain possible) and then keep track of the pain level in your wrist while exercising or continuing to bench press.
If your wrist pain from bench pressing, for example, increases by two levels (on a scale from one to ten on the pain scale) for more than two hours, you’re doing “too” much and need to either back down or be evaluated by a medical professional in person.
Use “PRICE”
If you’ve taken any first aid course you’ll be familiar with RICE, which stands for rest, ice, compress, and elevate.
With PRICE, we’re just adding protection to the acronym.
Protection of the wrist can be a compression wrap or brace to control swelling and add support.
Sometimes, you’ll use protection before being evaluated by a medical professional to make sure the wrist doesn’t get injured again (by accident) to make things worse.
Decrease Inflammation
Ice is one of the best, cheapest (usually free), and oldest, non-prescription anti-inflammatories that you can get your hands on.
The general rule with ice is five minutes on, and ten minutes off to avoid injuring the skin. Don’t ice for more than 20 minutes.
If ice isn’t cutting it, you can bring down the inflammation through medications by mouth or even a topical anti-inflammatory with the help of your medical provider.
Orthopedic Surgeon, Dr. Joseph A. Gil, advises:
“Those who experience wrist pain through weight lifting can treat minor pain by resting, icing, bracing the wrist, and taking anti-inflammatory medications (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) for 24 – 48 hours. Wrist pain that is not alleviated after 48 hours should be evaluated by a healthcare provider.”
Inflammation should be controlled during an acute injury before pushing through with any exercises or rehab, as you don’t want to irritate the body further. This will only cause more inflammation (the reason you get the pain) and make things worse.
Use Training Modifications
If your wrist pain hurts while bench pressing, avoid the exercise while treating the pain.
Dr. Gill also advises:
“The best way to prevent wrist injury is not to lift weights that exceed the participant’s ability to keep the wrist in a controlled position. Lifting weight that is too heavy or excessive can force the wrist position into extreme flexion (bending forward) or extension (bending backward) which puts significant pressure on the intrinsic wrist ligaments and can result in partial or complete tears of the ligaments.”
In general, it’s always a good idea to avoid activities that could flare up your wrist pain to prevent things from getting worse. A good rule of thumb is using the rule of twos that we mentioned before when performing activities with your wrist pain.
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Frequently Asked Questions Wrist Pain While Benching
Should I use the Bulldog grip bench press?
First off, the Bulldog grip is a style that positions the bar lower in your palm with a slight radial deviation of the wrist (with your fingertips pinching the bar) allowing you to maintain a near-neutral position to transmit the force of the weight optimally to your chest and upper body.
Technically, this grip can help stabilize the wrist during a bench press, similar to the grip mentioned earlier in the article. Use the style that you’re most comfortable with, but most importantly, doesn’t aggravate your wrists.
Should I do a dumbbell bench press instead?
Another training modification to consider is skipping the bench press using the bar and using dumbbells (depending on the amount of weight). By grasping the dumbbells, you’ll stabilize your wrists in a neutral position almost automatically.
Should I use wrist straps when I bench press?
If you have issues with wrist pain while bench pressing due to having weak muscles or limited flexibility, you can consider using wrist wraps. Wrist wraps can help stabilize the muscles that extend or flex the wrist to keep it in a neutral position. That way, it’s less likely to move with increased forces from the weight of the bar.
The only issue is you can become dependent on wrist wraps and not allow the muscles that extend and flex your wrist to become stronger. You’ll also lose flexibility in these muscles and, eventually, strength in the bench press.
About The Author
Dr. Niraj Patel is a physician and assistant professor of family medicine and sports medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He completed his family medicine residency training through Cleveland Clinic Akron General where he served as the Chief Resident and House Staff President. He completed his sports medicine fellowship through Ohio Health Riverside Methodist Hospital; team physicians of the Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) and the Columbus Crew (MLS). In addition, he has completed a Certificate in The Principles of Aviation & Space Medicine through NASA / The University of Texas Medical Branch where his final project was on the topic of “Muscle Loss in Spaceflight.” Niraj has been published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine as well as Current Sports Medicine Reports, the official review journal of the American College of Sports Medicine. In his spare time, Niraj enjoys reading, working out, watching sports (especially hockey), and spending time with his family.