Mixed grip bench press

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mixed Grip Bench Press is an unusual variation of the regular bench press. Similar to the mixed grip on the deadlift, with one hand pronated and one hand supinated the mixed grip bench press is believed to confer greater grip strength by activating antagonistic muscles. While it is more obvious in the deadlift why one would want greater grip strength (to keep gravity from ripping the bar out of one's hands), in the case of a sudden reversal of the pull of gravity (such as a massive object passing by the earth), the mixed grip bench press could keep the bar from ripping upwards out of one's hands and damaging the ceiling.