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Most lifters in the gym have performed the classic flat bench press to build chest size and upper body pressing strength. When it comes to variations of this time-honored exercise, most lifters adjust the angle to target the “upper chest” using an incline press or focus on the “lower pecs” with a decline bench.

However, many people overlook a highly effective adjustment right at their fingertips, literally. By moving your hand position slightly inward, you turn the chest-building flat bench press into the triceps-building close-grip bench press.

This changes the training stimulus and emphasizes the tricep muscles, increases the movement’s range of motion, and still builds serious upper body pressing power. Here’s everything you need to know about getting started with this simple movement for size and strength.

How to Do the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press biases the triceps muscles with specific exercise performance and a longer range of motion. As its name implies, the close-grip bench press requires your hands to be closer than during a standard bench press. This increases the range of motion and puts your elbows through more elbow flexion and extension, which emphasizes your triceps over your chest.

Step 1 — Set Up on the Bench

Lie down on a flat bench. Push your feet into the floor to slide yourself up the bench until your eye are under the barbell. Pull your shoulders down and back. Place your hands around the bar in a pronated (palm down) grip with your hands close to shoulder-width apart. (1)

The basic technique should almost identical to your standard flat bench press setup. The primary difference is that your hands should now be at least one fist-width (four to six inches) closer than the chest-focused exercise. This is essential for recruiting more triceps into the movement.

Form Tip: While a relatively close grip is necessary, taking an excessively close grip can be counterproductive, creating more joint strain and less muscular stress. Some old school lifters believe your thumbs should be able to touch during the close-grip bench press. This is inaccurate, impractical, and inefficient advice. Having your hands roughly in line with your shoulders will be effective for the majority of lifters.

Step 2 — Unrack the Bar

Fill your belly and chest with a deep breath and lift the bar from the support pins. Maintain full body tension from your flat feet through your core to your shoulders.

With stiff arms, guide the bar forward until it is over your shoulders. Keep your shoulders pinched back to engage your upper back for support.

Form Tip: The bar should feel balanced when it settles into the ideal position. If you feel like you’re “fighting” an unstable weight above your body, it is either still too far above your face or too far toward your abs. Control the weight and reach a strong, stable position before lowering the weight.

Step 3 — Lower the Bar

Lower the bar toward your torso, keeping your elbows stacked under your wrists. This position keeps your tricep under tension, avoids compensation from the deltoids (shoulders), and minimizes strain on your joints.

Keep your elbows close to your ribs. If they begin to flare out to the sides, tuck them back in toward your body. Bring the bar down as close to your body as your mobility allows, ideally reaching near your sternum and lower chest.

Form Tip: Don’t allow your wrists to bend back throughout the rep. Keep your knuckles facing the ceiling. This will keep your wrists in a more favorable, less stressful position. It also helps to keep your wrists stacked above your elbows, which is a more powerful pressing position than falling out of line.

Step 4 — Press to the Starting Position

After reaching your maximum comfortable depth, press the bar up to its starting position. Keep your feet flat on the floor and feel total-body engagement. Maintain a neutral wrist position above your elbows.

The bar should end up balanced directly over your shoulders, in the same position it was in after being unracked.

Form Tip: Because the objective of the exercise is to challenge the triceps, actively squeeze your triceps in the locked out position before performing the next repetition.

Close-Grip Bench Press Mistakes to Avoid

There are multiple mistakes that can happen in the close-grip bench press because this free weight exercise has many variables that must be controlled by the lifter.

In contrast, certain machine exercises can lock you into pre-determined positions that do not offer as much positional choice. In other words, manipulating a barbell requires more focus and more muscular control than a similar machine movement. Here’s what to watch out for during this exercise.

Elbows Flaring Out

This is probably the most common mistake people make when doing any triceps exercise. Your elbows must track under your wrists to emphasize the lengthening of the muscle during the eccentric, or lowering phase, of the repetition.

When your elbows flare out to the sides, your shoulders are more strongly contracted, which reduces the load on the triceps.

Avoid it: Use a slow tempo when bringing the bar down toward your chest. Take three seconds to lower the weight and focus controlling your elbow angle. Keep your elbows forward toward your feet rather than out to the side. Once you’ve practiced and feel comfortable, gradually increase the bar speed to a point in which you are able to control your elbow position throughout the entire movement.

Gripping Too Narrow or Too Wide

If your grip is too narrow, your elbows will likely flare out excessively, forcing your deltoids to contribute more to the movement. A too-narrow grip position can also contribute to internal rotation of the shoulder which, over time, may increase the risk of injury to the supraspinatus muscle of the shoulder joint.

However, a grip that’s too wide can be just as counterproductive, by decreasing the demand on the triceps and increasing chest recruitment. A close-grip bench press without a close grip is a plain old bench press.

Avoid it: Research has shown that the optimal grip for a close-grip bench press is the the same as the distance between the acromion (outer edge) of your shoulder blades.(2) During the setup phase of the exercise, place your hands shoulder-distance apart with your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a straight line. This will create a customized grip as everyone has a unique shoulder width, rather than telling every lifter in every gym to arbitrarily set their hands 18 inches apart, for example.

Inefficient Bar Path

It is important to remember that the bar path in the bench press is not a strictly vertical line. The bar begins over your shoulders and will travel down and slightly forward as it’s lowered, in a slight arc-like path.

Compared to the standard bench press, the close-grip bench press has an increased range of motion and will therefore have a different touch-point on the body and a different bar path than the standard bench press.

It is important to remember that the bar will touch lower on your chest in a close-grip bench than a standard bench press. If you attempt to use the same touch-point for both movements, it will lead to excessive elbow flare to compensate for the inefficient motion.

Avoid it: Aim for the bar to touch around the narrowing point of the bottom of your sternum — the xiphoid process. However, the exact spot will vary slightly from person to person based on their arm length, ribcage size, and overall body position.

How to Progress the Close-Grip Bench Press

As a basic barbell exercise, the close-grip bench press can be adapted to suit a wide range of lifters’ capabilities with progressively heavier weights. However, if individuals cannot yet manage a full range of motion with the barbell, there are a few options to help achieve the exercise.

Close-Grip Floor Press

The floor press variation reinforces the same close-grip setup and general bar path with a reduced range of motion. While one benefit of the close-grip bench press (performed on a flat bench) is a relatively long range of motion, this floor press variation eliminates the lower portion of the exercise. This reduces shoulder strain while maintaining muscular stress on the triceps.

The close-grip floor press allows you to become familiar with the grip width and hand position, and encourages proper form while staying tight and controlling the movement. Don’t allow your elbows to rest on the ground.

Paused Close-Grip Bench Press

By incorporating a deliberate, long pause at the bottom and top of each repetition, you reinforce proper mechanics throughout the movement. Pause in the bottom, stretched position of every rep for two seconds. It’s crucial that you maintain tension and do not relax with the bar resting on your chest. Your muscles should be tight and engaged for the duration.

Press normally and hold the locked out position for two seconds. Again, don’t treat the pause as an opportunity for rest. Grip the bar hard, flex your triceps, and engage your core before lowering the weight again.

Benefits of the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press has multiple benefits, from performance to aesthetics and even longevity in barbell training. Here’s why you should incorporate this useful movement.

Strength and Performance

For powerlifters or gym-goers looking to increase their max bench press, the close-grip bench press has specific benefits with direct carryover to your bench. If you struggle specifically at lockout, you likely need to improve your triceps strength.

The close-grip bench press primarily challenges the triceps, leading to greater pressing strength.(3) This simple exercise variation could be what is missing from your training routine to push through your sticking point and reach a new bench press PR.

Muscle-Building and Aesthetics

Filling out the sleeves of a shirt is never a bad idea. While triceps dips and pushdowns challenge the lateral head of the triceps in particular, the close-grip bench press significantly recruits the medial and lateral head, leading to more well-rounded muscular development.

This compound (multi-joint) movement also has an increased effect on muscle hypertrophy because it allows you to use relatively heavy weights, which can be useful for stimulating growth.(4)

Joint Health

If you consistently train using a limited range of motion for any muscle or exercise, you can develop strength in that range. However, this can also create a greater risk for strains and tears when those muscles are put through a greater range of motion with “fully lengthened” or “fully shortened” positions. (5)

The close-grip bench press does challenge a greater range of motion than the standard grip due to the positioning of the hands on the bar. The shoulder joints are worked through a longer distance. This will stress the triceps in the lengthened ranges, making them more robust and relatively less prone to injury.

Muscles Worked by the Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press is most commonly known for challenging the triceps muscles, however there are more muscles involved than you may think.

Pectorals Major and Minor

The pectoralis major and pectoralis minor are your chest muscles and, while they are not the major contributors to the close-grip bench press, they do play an important role in the movement. During both the concentric (lifting) and eccentric (lowering) phases, both the pec major and minor are recruited to lift the weight and push your arms upward.

Anterior Deltoid

Your shoulder is comprised of three separate heads — the front (anterior), side (lateral), and rear (posterior). Each helps to raise the arm in its respective direction from your body’s midline. The anterior deltoid, specifically, contributes to raising and lowering your upper arm during the close-grip bench press.

However, be aware that if your anterior deltoid is fatiguing before other muscles groups during the exercise, your elbows are likely flaring too much. Adjusting your grip and/or bar path should ensure maximum focus on your triceps.

Triceps Brachii

Your triceps make up the majority of your upper arm, relative to your biceps. The triceps muscle consists of three heads — the lateral, medial, and long head — and together their main action is to extend the arm from a bent elbow position to full to elbow extension. The triceps contraction is emphasized in the lockout of the exercise where the triceps are more strongly recruited.

How to Program the Close-Grip Bench Press

When programming the close-grip bench press, the main consideration needs to be your goal. The most effective approach will be determined by what you want to achieve with the movement and how it fits into your overall training plan.

Strength

To prioritize strength-building, reps need to be kept in a relatively lower range while working with higher percentages of your one-repetition max (1RM). Train with two to six sets of one to five reps, using 80 to 95% of 1RM.

The amount of sets can vary based on your experience, conditioning, and abilities. More is not always better if you can’t handle it. Regardless of your total training volume, focus on using a fast bar speed and fully locking out each repetition.

Hypertrophy

Using moderate to high sets with moderate to higher reps will provide a greater hypertrophy adaptation. For muscle growth to occur, the muscle needs stimulus, volume, and fatigue.(6) Work with three to six sets eight to 20 repetitions, using of 55-65% of 1RM.

The goal is to reach muscular fatigue at the end of each set. If you’re performing more triceps-focused exercises in the same workout, use fewer sets and reps. If the close-grip bench press is your primary triceps exercise, give it the higher end of the workload.

Close-Grip Bench Press Variations

Beyond the close-grip bench press itself, there are some variations you can implement for comparable benefits of hypertrophy and improving your pressing power.

Banded Close-Grip Bench Press

To increase pressing power and/or improve your lockout ability, adding resistance bands of various tension to the close-grip bench press will challenge upper range of motion. Resistance bands offer accommodating resistance — they get more challenging as they’re stretched farther and offer relatively less resistance before they’re maximally stretched.

The biomechanics of the bench press, the lockout position requires less energy and benefits from a leverage advantage. As your elbows become more extended, the weight feels “lighter.” Bands require you to apply maximum tension as resistance increases toward the top position, forcing a stronger contraction. As the bar travels upward, band tension increases at the lockout. This forces you to consciously produce more power and drive hard to achieve lockout.

Machine Press

This is an excellent variation for hypertrophy goals. Using any machine that mimics a similar set up as the close-grip bench gives you more options for hypertrophy. The design of machines allows lifters to efficiently incorporate a variety of high-intensity techniques for increased training stimulus.

Options such as such as drop sets, partial reps, or even forced reps with a training partner allow for greater variations in your workouts. This is also a safer option than training beyond muscular fatigue with the close-grip bench press.

Close-Grip Push-Up

This triceps-focused push-up variation is a nice complement to any training program, as a primary exercise or as a muscle-exhausting finishing movement. Since your hands are closer together, like the close-grip bench press, the range of motion is greater than a standard push-up, thus making it more challenging.

If you cannot perform a full range of motion rep from your toes, you opt for modified versions such as a close-grip inclined push-up (with your hands elevated on a bench) or a kneeling close-grip push up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the close-grip bench press hurt my shoulder?

There could be multiple factors at work, but most people’s shoulders hurt due to a lack of stability in the upper back. This requires a better focus on scapular retraction and depression — pulling your shoulder blades together and down.

During the exercise, make sure to squeeze your shoulder blades back toward your spine and “tuck” them down toward your back pockets. This stabilizes your entire shoulder girdle to support the load. If it’s done incorrectly, or not at all, your anterior deltoid is more strongly activated as your shoulder goes into protraction (reaching forward) and elevation (shrugging up to your ears).

A variety of upper back strengthening exercises and mobility drills can help, along with drilling proper pressing technique and cueing your upper back stabilizers before unracking the bar.

What alternative can I do if I don’t have a bench?

Any exercise that challenges your upper body pressing muscles in a supine position can be an effective alternative. If you don’t have a bench but can lie on the floor, this is a great alternative. A dumbbell or barbell floor press is a great exercise whenever a bench is unavailable. The focus on the upper half of the range of motion further emphasizes triceps recruitment.

Most commercial gyms have steps, boxes, and risers that can be used as modified bench. Ideally, you want the improvised bench to be the same height as a standard one. Place a yoga mat on top of the step or box to reduce the risk of your torso slipping off.

Get a Grip on Your Bench

The close-grip bench press can be performed either as an assistance exercise to boost your classic bench press or it can be approached as a main movement on its own to develop a stronger upper body. The added arm size is an incidental bonus. Apply this simple grip adjustment to a time-tested movement and you’ll soon welcome new levels of size and strength.

References

1. Lockie, Robert & Moreno, Matthew. (2017). The Close-Grip Bench Press. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 39. 1. 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000307.

2. Larsen, S., Gomo, O., & van den Tillaar, R. (2021). A Biomechanical Analysis of Wide, Medium, and Narrow Grip Width Effects on Kinematics, Horizontal Kinetics, and Muscle Activity on the Sticking Region in Recreationally Trained Males During 1-RM Bench Pressing. Frontiers in sports and active living, 2, 637066. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.637066

3. Saeterbakken, A. H., Stien, N., Pedersen, H., Solstad, T., Cumming, K. T., & Andersen, V. (2021). The Effect of Grip Width on Muscle Strength and Electromyographic Activity in Bench Press among Novice- and Resistance-Trained Men. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(12), 6444. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126444

4. Brandão, Lucas & Painelli, Vitor & Lasevicius, Thiago & Silva-Batista, Carla & Brendon, Helderson & Schoenfeld, Brad & Aihara, Andre & Cardoso, Fabiano & Peres, Bergson & Teixeira, Emerson. (2020). Varying the Order of Combinations of Single- and Multi-Joint Exercises Differentially Affects Resistance Training Adaptations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 34. 1. 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003550.

5. Valamatos, M. J., Tavares, F., Santos, R. M., Veloso, A. P., & Mil-Homens, P. (2018). Influence of full range of motion vs. equalized partial range of motion training on muscle architecture and mechanical properties. European journal of applied physiology, 118(9), 1969–1983. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3932-x

6. Mangine, G. T., Hoffman, J. R., Gonzalez, A. M., Townsend, J. R., Wells, A. J., Jajtner, A. R., Beyer, K. S., Boone, C. H., Miramonti, A. A., Wang, R., LaMonica, M. B., Fukuda, D. H., Ratamess, N. A., & Stout, J. R. (2015). The effect of training volume and intensity on improvements in muscular strength and size in resistance-trained men. Physiological reports, 3(8), e12472. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.12472

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Few exercises can be as daunting as the pull-up. Having the strength necessary to perform one single repetition is a challenge for many. Yet, it is a milestone everyone should strive for. It’s frustrating to struggle performing pull-ups, but it’s even worse to leave them out of your program entirely.

This staple exercise should be the backbone of many pulling workouts for beginners and advanced lifters alike. You don’t even need a gym. Heck, you don’t really even a pull-up bar. A sturdy tree or swingset can be enough to deliver you massive back, shoulder, and arm gains. Mastering the pull-up will be a game changer in your fitness journey.

Benefits of the Pull-Up

The pull-up is a training staple for a reason. It delivers a myriad of benefits from mastering your own body to getting stronger to adding lean muscle. Let’s cover them all.

Functional Strength

Yes, functional training has been a trend in recent years. To specifically define what makes an exercise “functional” is a bit of headache, but there is a certain beauty and practicality in being able to move your own body around, just like with the push-up, running, or jumping. Mastering bodyweight movements and building coordination is a quality every human should strive for.

What is clear is that the pull-up can improve your overall strength and is transferable to many other activities and exercises, such as climbing, gymnastics, or even wrestling. Being stronger at the pull-up is being stronger at life, with improved grip strength and stronger back, arm, and core muscles.

Building Muscle

The pull-up shows up in so many resistance training plans because of its efficient ability to build size. It is one of the best, if not the best, muscle-builders for the back.(1) It is also a tremendous exercise for upper arm and forearm size. Moreover, it spares your lower back and legs from participating in the movement, which can be great if you’re injured or want to avoid excessive training volume in these body parts.

You can focus more on your pulling muscles, which improves your mind-muscle connection and provides quality volume to the target muscles. This will give you the best chance of building a well-developed back.(2)(3)

Better Grip

Grip strength can be easily overlooked, but is actually invaluable. Most exercises, even for the lower body, use your hands. The pull-up can improve your grip because you are required to lift your entire body and connect yourself to the bar.

This will directly be transferable to other pulling exercises and deadlift variations, but strong forearms and grip will also stabilize your wrists during pressing exercises such as the bench press, and can improve overall wrist, elbow, and shoulder joint health.(4) Grip strength is also linked to longevity and general health, which is a hefty bonus.(5)

How to Do the Pull-Up

The pull-up might be a bodyweight exercise, there is still technique involved if you want to master it and reap all its benefits.

• Set yourself in position by hanging from a bar with your arms completely extended using a slightly wider than shoulder-width grip and your hands pronated (palms facing away from you).
• Pull your shoulder blades back, raise your chest, and engage your core to prevent yourself from swaying.
• Pull yourself toward the bar by flexing your elbows and squeezing your back until your chin is over the bar. If you’re a taller lifter or have long limbs, you might need to stop sooner if your back and arms fully contract before that point.
• Exhale and hold the contraction for one second while keeping your chest arched and your body tensed.
• Lower slowly by extending your arms in a controlled fashion to prevent as much swaying as possible.
• Once you’re at a dead-hang, you’ve completed a pull-up. Repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.

Pull-Up Variations

The task ahead is daunting, but the challenge of the pull-up is worthy and you shouldn’t be intimidated by it. If you struggle with the movement, there are some variations that will help you towards your first good rep.

Negative Pull-Up

With this variation, you’re only doing the eccentric (lowering) part of the lift. To perform it, simply stand on a box, grab the bar and jump into the top position. Then slowly lower yourself in four to five seconds.

This is an excellent variation if you struggle with pull-ups, want to build pull-up strength, or cannot perform one strict repetition. You’ll be able to do these because muscles are stronger during the eccentric part of a lift.(6) This way, you can accumulate pull-up volume and practice the lift as well as gain strength in the desired muscles, even if you can’t perform a full range of motion pull-up.

Band-Assisted Pull-Up

A resistance band will “lighten” your body weight so the exercise requires less strength. This is a better variation to get better at pull-ups than the machine assisted pull-up, because the band incorporates some components of total-body stability and coordination.

Loop a durable resistance band around the bar and let it hang down. Put your feet in it, keeping your legs straight and your body tense. Now start pulling. The feeling and overall technique is very close to the unassisted bodyweight pull-up, so it will have plenty of direct carryover.

Inverted Row

This goes by many different names — horizontal row, bodyweight row, Australian pull-up — but it’s a relatively easier version of the pull-up because now you’re pulling horizontally and you’re moving a lower percentage of your body weight. It’s a perfect variation to master before trying pull-ups, as it recruits and trains the same muscles.

Set yourself under a fixed bar and grab it using a pronated (palms down) grip. Flex your core and legs so that your body is tense and in a straight line. Now, pull your chest to the bar. The inverted row is efficient because you can easily scale it down or up.

If it’s too tough, set the bar higher which improves your leverage and decreases the body weight being pulled. If it’s not challenging enough, reduce the bar height, and eventually elevate your feet to make the lift even harder. When you feel confident enough, the pull-up will be awaiting you.

Pull-Up Form Tips

If you want to really nail down your pull-up game, pay attention to these form tips. Proper technique is essential to prevent injuries and progress faster.

Brace Your Whole Body

You might think of the pull-up as only a back and arms movement, but that’s not the case if you want maximum efficiency. Studies have shown that the abs, for instance, are heavily involved in the pull-up.(7) Why is that? Your core — composed of your abs, lower back, and some hip muscles — as well as your legs have to work extra hard to stabilize your body.

During the pull-up, take a deep breath in and flex your abs as much as you can to prevent excessive swinging, which would otherwise alter the efficiency and mechanics of the lift. To recruit your core even more, straighten your legs and hold them together. If you still have trouble preventing swaying, take a few seconds between each rep to reset yourself and ensure picture perfect form.

Keep Your Chest Up

When the lift becomes difficult, it’s tempting to round your upper back and use the assistance of more muscles. The problem is that it internally rotates your shoulders (making them roll forward) and places the shoulder joint in a precarious position.

You have to keep your chest up and your back slightly arched if you want to avoid injuries and train the target muscles correctly. Keep in mind that it will always be better to do fewer repetitions with better form. Doing your pull correctly will ensure you use your lats as efficiently as possible.

Use a Full Range of Motion

If you’re doing half-reps, you’re not “really” doing pull-ups. Yes, pull-ups are a challenging exercise, but cutting the range of motion short is not a valid strategy to get better at them. By reducing the length of pull, you never work the hardest part of the movement and you reduce time under tension, resulting in poorer muscle gains and strength development.(8)

Sure, you really want to nail this exercise, but you’ll be better off practicing the alternatives with proper form, like negative pull-ups or band-assisted pull-ups, rather than performing half-repetitions and getting half results. Practice perfect technique, use the variations, and you’ll master the pull-up soon enough.

Programming the Pull-Up

The pull-up is a versatile exercise that can be suited to beginners and experienced lifters alike, for a variety of goals. All along your lifting journey, the pull-up is a valuable exercise no matter what your goal is. If you’re stronger, you can even add weight to your pull-ups to keep reaping the strength and size benefits of the exercise.

• For Strength: Perform three to five sets of three to five reps.
• For Muscle Growth: Do three to four sets of eight to 12 reps.
• For Muscular Endurance and Conditioning: Perform two to three sets of 15 to 20 reps.
• For Strength-Skill (Technique): Do eight to 12 sets of one to three reps using short rest periods and avoiding muscular failure.

Pull-ups, like many bodyweight exercises, are a skill dictated by your muscles as well as your nervous system. Remember that perfect technique should always be respected if you want to progress efficiently. Avoid reaching muscular failure while learning the lift. This will prevent excessive fatigue from negatively affecting your technique.

Don’t Pull the Plug on Pull-Ups

The pull-up is too valuable of an exercise to skip just because it’s challenging to learn. Set aside your anxiety, follow the advice laid out above, and start working towards your first pull-up. By the time you’re able to bang a few good reps, your fitness and physique will have drastically improved.

References

1. Hewit, Jennifer. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports. 5. 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.05.555669.
2. Calatayud J, Vinstrup J, Jakobsen MD, Sundstrup E, Brandt M, Jay K, Colado JC, Andersen LL. Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016 Mar;116(3):527-33. doi: 10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7. Epub 2015 Dec 23. PMID: 26700744.
3. Schoenfeld BJ, Contreras B, Krieger J, Grgic J, Delcastillo K, Belliard R, Alto A. Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy but Not Strength in Trained Men. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2019 Jan;51(1):94-103. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001764. PMID: 30153194; PMCID: PMC6303131.
4. Coombes BK, Bisset L, Vicenzino B. Management of Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy: One Size Does Not Fit All. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2015 Nov;45(11):938-49. doi: 10.2519/jospt.2015.5841. Epub 2015 Sep 17. PMID: 26381484.
5. Bohannon RW. Grip Strength: An Indispensable Biomarker For Older Adults. Clin Interv Aging. 2019;14:1681-1691 https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S194543
6. Hody S, Croisier JL, Bury T, Rogister B, Leprince P. Eccentric Muscle Contractions: Risks and Benefits. Front Physiol. 2019 May 3;10:536. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00536. PMID: 31130877; PMCID: PMC6510035.
7. Hewit, Jennifer. (2018). A Comparison of Muscle Activation during the Pull-up and Three Alternative Pulling Exercises. Journal of Physical Fitness, Medicine & Treatment in Sports. 5. 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.05.555669.
8. Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, Little JP, Cochran AJ, Hector AJ, Cashaback JG, Gibala MJ, Potvin JR, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. J Physiol. 2012 Jan 15;590(2):351-62. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200. Epub 2011 Nov 21. PMID: 22106173; PMCID: PMC3285070.

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