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curious about bench form

  • 14-07-2008 9:08pm
    #1
    flogen
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,247 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I was in the gym earlier today and while waiting for a free bench I noticed a bar loaded with 160kg worth of weights, which with the weight of the bar naturally brought it up to 180kg. Given that this was around twice my total body weight and the largest I've ever noticed a bar being loaded with I decided to throw an eye in that direction while I waited.

    Sure enough the guy lifting it was huge.

    What struck me was his form, however.

    Now far be it from me - relative gym n00b and someone a million miles from this guy's strength (to be honest, I'd have zero aspirations of ever getting there either) - to question this guy's form but it seemed dangerous to me.

    I noticed that when he was lifting the bar from his chest his heels were raising off the ground completely, to the point of him pressing on the ball of his foot and nothing else, and he was also arching his back quite visibly.

    I know the correct bench form advises you to arch your lower back slightly but this seemed to be his entire back (well from his ass to the top of his shoulder blades) and I would have assumed that making any kind of back movement in the middle of the exercise was best avoided.

    So I'm just curious - was this guy putting himself at risk? I figured someone who had worked up to that weight would have done himself a serious injury already if he was doing anything wrong but something just seemed iffy about it...

    Anyway, I'm not being critical of the guy (yet!) because I don't know if what he was doing was spot on or way off - I'm just curious if this a safe way to bench (perhaps for power lifting?).

    Thoughts?


Comments

  • #2
    bwardrop
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 340 ✭✭bwardrop


    This might clear up your query - when lifting big weights, every little helps.

    The rest of the exercise videos on the crossfit page are quite informative / interesting / impressive!!


  • #3
    Hanley
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 21,981 ✭✭✭✭Hanley


    I don't think he's talking about an arch. Sounds more like a DIY decline press on a flat bench...

    OP, Arching is a very valid and safe thing to do on the bench, but for it to be an arch, your ar5e and upper back must remain in contact with the bench at all time. Anything else is just cheating I' mafraid!


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