Elbow Flare on the Bench Press: How Much Is Too Much?

Elbow flare is the angle between your upper arm and your torso at the bottom of the press. Arms pinned to your sides would be 0°; arms straight out to the sides, in a “T”, would be 90°. Most lifters press best somewhere in between, with the forearms vertical under the bar at the bottom rather than the elbows pointing straight out.

Flare usually isn't a setup choice. Most lifters start with a reasonable angle and let the elbows drift out as the bar comes down, or as they drive out of the bottom — especially on the last reps of a hard set. That drift is what to look for on video.

The shoulder is one of the most commonly reported injury sites in lifting: one review put it at up to 36% of documented resistance-training injuries (Kolber 2010 (opens in a new tab)). That's why wide elbows get the blame. The direct evidence on elbow angle is thinner than the advice suggests.

In a 2024 study, ten experienced lifters benched a light 16 kg bar with their upper arms at 45°, 70° and 90° from the torso while a computer model of the shoulder estimated the joint loads. Grip width and shoulder-blade position changed those loads more than elbow angle did. Wider angles raised the overall force and compression at the shoulder joint, though only for brief parts of each rep — and the most tucked position, 45°, actually raised one shear force compared with 70° (Noteboom 2024 (opens in a new tab)). A model isn't an injury study, but it's a good reason not to chase the tightest tuck you can manage.

The practical case is about control. Elbows that flare wide tend to pull the bar toward your upper chest and neck, take your lats out of the press and make each rep look a little different. Elbows jammed to your sides push the bar low onto your stomach and cost leverage. What you want is a moderate angle you can repeat on every rep.

• A loose upper back. Without your shoulder blades pulled back and down, your shoulders roll forward and the elbows drift out. Shoulder-blade retraction was one of the things that lowered shoulder loads in the 2024 study (Noteboom 2024 (opens in a new tab)).
• Grip width. A very wide grip forces the elbows out; a very narrow one lets them fall in. Your grip sets the range your elbows can sit in.
• Touch point. Lowering the bar toward your upper chest or neck drags the elbows out with it. A touch point on the lower chest keeps them under the bar.
• Tired triceps. When your triceps give out near lockout, the elbows flare so your chest and shoulders can finish the rep.
• Load and fatigue. The last reps of a hard set are where the angle drifts.

Film each test from the foot of the bench at hip height — the angle FormLens asks for, and the one that shows both arms at once (how to film your lifts).

1. 1Empty bar. Do eight slow reps with the empty bar and look at your elbows at the bottom. That's your natural angle with no load.
2. 2Working set. Film a set at your working weight. If the angle opens up as the weight goes up, or rep by rep, it's control and fatigue rather than setup.
3. 3Grip check. Move your grip one finger-width in, then one out. The grip where your forearms end up vertical under the bar at the bottom is the one that suits your angle.
4. 4Touch point. Chalk the bar and do a few reps in a dark T-shirt. A mark creeping up toward your collarbones usually travels with flared elbows.
5. 5Pause. Hold each rep on your chest for one second. If the elbows drift out during the pause, your upper back has let go.

Aim for the moderate angle that suits your build, not the smallest one. For most lifters that's somewhere around 45–70° at the bottom: far enough in that the bar stays over your elbows, not so far that it lands on your stomach.

• Cues: “bend the bar” — try to snap it in half to switch your lats on; “elbows under the bar” at the bottom; “push yourself away from the bar” to keep your upper back tight.
• Set your back first: pull your shoulder blades back and down before you unrack, and keep them there for the whole set.
• Groove the angle: paused bench with a one-second pause on the chest, tempo reps with a three-second descent, and Spoto presses — stopping just above the chest — all make you own the bottom position.
• Build your triceps: close-grip bench, dips and overhead triceps extensions, so they don't give out near lockout.
• Grip and touch point: use the grip from your self-test, and touch the lower chest, around the bottom of the breastbone.
• Load: drop 10–20% and rebuild a consistent angle before adding weight back.

Film from the foot of the bench, looking up it, with both arms and the bar in frame. On every filmed rep, FormLens measures the angle between your upper arm and your torso around the bottom of the rep, taking the wider of your two arms. The Bench Press Mechanics card on the results screen shows the average on an Elbow Flare gauge — green under 60°, gold from 60°, red from 75° — and if any single rep goes over 75°, it adds a “High Elbow Flare Detected” note.

The same clip gives you your elbow depth on every filmed rep (under 95° at the bottom counts as full range) and the difference between your left and right elbows (15° or more flags a rep). Flare on one arm only often travels with an uneven press, so read them together. Depth, balance and consistency feed your form score.

FormLens doesn't measure bar path on the bench. That's easiest to judge by eye from the side, so if your touch point is what you're fixing, film one extra set side-on — more in bench press form.

• Shoulder blades back and down before the unrack
• Forearms vertical under the bar at the bottom
• Bar touches the lower chest, not up by your neck
• The same elbow angle on the last rep as on the first
• Both arms at the same angle
• A moderate angle, not a hard tuck