Reverse Grip Bench Press: How To, Muscles Worked and Safety

The reverse grip bench press is a barbell bench press done with an underhand (supinated) grip, palms facing your feet, and it shifts more of the work onto your upper chest and biceps than the standard overhand version. It's a legitimate variation, but the underhand grip brings a real safety issue: the bar can roll towards your face if your wrists fold or the bar drifts. So the rules are simple. Go light, use a spotter or safety pins, and keep the bar path controlled. Here's the setup, the cues, the muscles it hits and how to fit it into your training.

How to do the reverse grip bench press

You'll need a flat bench, a barbell and a way to catch the bar if things go wrong. That means a spotter, or a power cage with safety pins set just above your chest, or a Smith machine.

1. Set up on the bench. Lie back with your eyes under the bar, feet planted flat, glutes on the bench and shoulder blades pulled back and down. Make a small arch in your upper back, the same as you would for a normal bench.
2. Take the grip. Reach up and grip the bar with your palms facing you and your hands roughly shoulder-width apart. Wrap your thumbs fully around the bar.
3. Unrack with help. Have your spotter hand the bar off, or lift it out of the hooks yourself and settle it over your shoulders with straight arms. Don't unrack alone with a heavy load until you've done a few warm-up sets.
4. Lower under control. Bring the bar down to the lower chest, around the bottom of your sternum or nipple line. Keep your elbows tucked close to your sides, about 30 to 45 degrees from your torso. This is much tighter than a normal bench.
5. Press. Drive the bar up and slightly back towards the rack. Keep your wrists stacked directly over your forearms the whole way up.
6. Rack it. At lockout, guide the bar back into the hooks. Never let go of the bar on the way up.

If you're new to the lift, learn the standard version first. Our bench press guide covers the setup that this variation builds on.

Grip width

Grip width matters more with an underhand grip than with an overhand one. A shoulder-width grip keeps your forearms vertical at the bottom, which is the strongest and safest position for your wrists.

Going narrower than shoulder-width pushes the work onto your triceps (the same thing happens on a close grip bench press), and going wider tends to irritate the elbows and the front of the shoulders. Most people find their sweet spot somewhere between shoulder-width and a hand-width outside it. Pick a spot, mark it on the knurling with a bit of tape if it helps, and use the same grip every session so you can track progress.

The safety issue: bar roll

This is the one thing to take seriously. With an overhand grip, the bar sits low in your palm and the thumb side of your hand blocks it from rolling back. With an underhand grip, the bar sits near the base of your palm and your wrists are pushed into extension. If your wrists give way, or the bar drifts towards your head during the press, it can roll back over the heel of your hand and towards your neck or face.

That's why the reverse grip is rarely done heavy by sensible lifters. To keep the risk low:

• Use a spotter who can take the bar with a lift-off grip, or set safety pins in a power cage just below your chest height at the bottom.
• Press in the Smith machine if you train alone. The fixed bar path removes the roll risk almost completely, and our guide to the Smith machine bench press explains the setup and how to hook and rack the bar.
• Always wrap your thumbs. A thumbless grip makes the bar far more likely to slip.
• Keep the weight modest. This isn't a one-rep-max lift. Stick with 8 to 12 reps and stop a rep or two short of failure.
• Stop if your wrists hurt. Wrist or elbow pain on the way up is a signal to swap to an easier variation, not to push through.

Muscles worked

The reverse grip bench press works the same prime movers as the regular version, but the underhand grip tilts the balance a little.

• Upper (clavicular) chest. In a Lehman 2005 EMG study of 12 men, a supinated grip increased activity in the clavicular portion of the pectoralis major compared with a pronated one. It's the main reason people use this variation.
• Biceps. The same study found more biceps brachii activity with the supinated grip. That's not surprising, since the biceps is a forearm supinator and sits in a stronger position with palms up.
• Triceps. Your triceps still do most of the lockout. In that study, narrower grips raised triceps activity regardless of whether the grip was supinated.
• Front delts. They help drive the bar off your chest and are loaded in every pressing variation.

One caveat: the changes in muscle activity in that study were small, and the author concluded that choice of grip should follow the positions your sport requires rather than chasing a particular muscle. So don't expect a miracle. If upper chest growth is your goal, a plain incline bench press or an incline dumbbell press does the same job with less risk.

Cues that help

• "Elbows in, close to your ribs." An underhand press naturally wants your elbows tucked. Don't flare them.
• "Break the bar" is a bad idea here. Don't try to bend or twist the bar. Keep your wrists neutral and stacked instead.
• "Wrists over elbows." If you can see your wrists bending back, the bar is too heavy or too far back in your palm.
• "Press back, not straight up." Aim to finish with the bar over your shoulders rather than over your chin.
• "Slow down." Lower for 2 to 3 seconds. Fast, bouncing reps are the quickest route to the bar rolling.

Common mistakes

Going too heavy. Your ego will tell you that you can reverse press your normal bench weight. You can't, and the bar roll risk climbs with every extra kilo. Drop at least 20% to 30% from your overhand weight to start.

Training alone without safeties. Setting up in a rack with the pins at the right height takes two minutes. Skipping it is the single most common way this lift goes wrong.

Flaring the elbows. Elbows out at 90 degrees puts the bar over your neck and strains the shoulder. Keep them tucked.

Letting the wrists bend back. If the bar sits on your fingers or the wrists hinge, the load goes through the joint instead of your forearm bones. Stack the wrist over the elbow.

Pressing it as your main chest lift. It's a variation, not the foundation. Build your bench around the standard overhand press, and add this for variety and upper chest work.

Variations

Reverse grip dumbbell press. Hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing you and press them up from your chest. Dumbbells let each wrist find its own comfortable angle, and if a wrist gives way you can simply drop the weights to the side. It's the safest way to train the underhand press for most people. If your bench isn't adjustable, our guide to the best weight benches in the UK will help you choose.

Reverse grip Smith machine press. The fixed path of the Smith machine takes the roll risk away. Lie so the bar lowers to your lower chest, and use the safety stops. It's the best option if you train alone.

Reverse grip incline press. Set the bench to a shallow 15 to 30 degree incline and use light weight. This targets the upper chest even more, but it also puts your wrists in a harder position, so be conservative.

Close grip or neutral grip press. If the underhand grip bothers your wrists, a neutral-grip dumbbell press (palms facing each other) gives some of the same chest and triceps work with less wrist strain.

Sets and reps

Treat this as an accessory lift:

• Muscle: 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps with a weight you could lift for 2 to 3 more reps.
• Frequency: once a week, after your main bench or incline work.
• Rest: 90 to 120 seconds between sets.

The NHS advises muscle-strengthening work on at least two days a week for all the major muscle groups, so a weekly dose of reverse presses fits easily inside a wider routine. See the NHS physical activity guidelines for the full recommendations. For more ideas on how to slot it into your week, browse our workouts hub.

Recommended reads

1. Bench press: how to do it properly
2. Close grip bench press
3. Incline dumbbell press
4. Smith machine bench press
5. The best power cages in the UK