Recently I've been thinking of chest development and I thought I would share a few of my thoughts based on the research I have done. I wrote this mostly from study memory but I did consult with a few references and hopefully it will give you a little more insight into your chest workout. This isn't an official article, but I think you will agree that I have done my research. Bare with me as I explain, it will become more obvious towards the end![]()
Effects of muscle fibre shortening on fibre damage
When a muscle fibre shortens, the myosin cross bridges involved with binding to the actin within the fibres, becomes disrupted. This reduces the strength of the muscular contraction as the fibres shorten beyond their 'sticking point'. The sticking point is where the muscle fibres shorten to a specific point where maximum force can be produced, but this will not mean maximum force is produced mechanically because leverages will vary. Anyway, as the fibres go past this sticking point as it is called, tension decreases across the length of the fibre and if tension decreases, force is reduced and less damage can be done to the fibres.
Effects of muscle fibre lengthening on muscle damage
When a muscle fibre lengthens under contraction, or in other words it contracts eccentrically or negatively, the situation is different. The greater the stretch in the muscle fibres, the greater the tension developed and therefore more force can be produced leading to increased levels of fibre damage.
These principles applied to chest development
If you bench press with a narrower (i'm not talking close grip here, rather a medium grip) rather than wider grip, you are getting more or less the same fibre recruitment (Clemons & Aaron. 1997. Effect of grip width on the myoelectric activity of the prime movers in the bench press. J. Strength Conditioning). However, the wider grip allows a greater stretch in the fibres at the bottom of the rep which means more force can be developed (Hall. 1995. Basic biomechanics. Mosby). The fibres also contract horizontally in the direction that they run across the chest, which creates maximal levels of force in the fibres by removing the angular element of the contraction (mechanics in a straight line is always superior to angular mechanics).
If you think about how much the fibres contract though, obviously with a wider grip you have a lower range of motion at the top of the movement because of hand spacing, which does limit fibre shortening. This effect is conteracted though, by the greater stretch at the bottom of the rep. Consequently, between a narrower and wider grip there is probably a similar level of overall fibre contraction. Contraction however is just a general term, because the wider grip will be allowing a greater stretch and the narrower grip allows more shortening at the top of the press.
To conclude, the greater stretch of the wider grip will increase force production and therefore damage, whereas the narrower grip will develop both less force because of no stretch and also because of maximum fibre contraction at the top of the press (due to interference of the myosin cross bridges and a reduction in tension). This makes the wider grip better for force development and damage, but will increase the chance of shoulder damage.
Differential non-uniform, localised fibre contraction
It must also be considered that the fibres will stretch more in the outer regions of the pectorals because they are stretched over the sides of the ribs. The inner portions of the fibres will stretch horizontally and therefore less overall. Hence, the wider grip will develop more force in the outer regions at the stretch and these will ache more due to greater damage (numerous people will have felt this). The narrower grip will theoretically develop your chest more equally but slower at the outer chest, and the wider grip will develop the outer chest before the inner. Eventually though, overall development of the chest as a whole will bring the inner pec out just fine as the outer chest becomes limited by genetics and the inner chest is still to fully reach its potential.
I used to believe that it was a myth that the fibres were recruited differently in the inner and outer chest. Now I know it is no longer a myth, if you are doing a wide grip. Does anyone have any thoughts on this subject, I would appreciate them because it took some time to write this, it was fun though...
And yes, I did write this, it is not a rip off in any way