Bench Press Form (ARCH OR NO ARCH?)

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What’s up guys? Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX. COM. Today I’m going to show you how, on the Bench Press you can instantly increase the weight that you’re pushing the very next time you do this exercise. But you might be employing a technique that some people don’t really agree with.

I’m going to talk to you today about arching your back during the Bench Press. And whether or not it’s a good thing and whether or not, it’s something you should be doing, specifically depending upon your own anatomy. Now we know that in the Powerlifting competitions the Bench Press is really going to be judged on your ability to keep your butt on the bench and your shoulder blades on the bench. They don’t necessarily care about what happens to your middle back. And a lot of guys took advantage of that idea and they allowed themselves to push more weight because they essentially shortened the distance that their arms and the bar has to travel if they arched their back way up and they get their chest way out in the air, and up in the air.

There’s a shorter distance for the bar has to travel. So for them that might be their purpose. I’ve seen a lot of guys though in the Powerlifting community really really jeopardize their low back because they do extreme amounts of extension through their Lumbar Spine. So as a guy who’s not competing, I’m assuming you’re not a Powerlifter watching this channel right now, we have to determine whether or not it’s a good thing for you. And I can tell you, there is going to be a circumstance where arching your back, at least a little bit is going to help you, to not only get much much stronger on the Bench Press but to develop your chest better, especially if you have a flatter chest.

Now as a guy who does not have the greatest chest in the world. I can tell you that these are some of the techniques that I’ve had to employ to try to continue to improve my gains and physique. The benefit here of doing an Arch Bench Press, as I’m going to show you in a second, is it allows us to temporarily overcome our own anatomy. You see, because if you look at the chest, this is a key you have to understand, is that the muscle is a fan shaped muscle that sits right here. We have a lot of fibers, most of fibers here of the chest start down low and head up towards the shoulder, ok.

All the way up here in the attachments. So we have a lot of our fibers coming up at an angle like this. We have some that come straight across from the Sternum. We have a few that come down, ok, from the Clavicle and down. And they all head in the same direction.

Understanding that again, the mass of the chest, the majority of the mechanical fibers and the tension that they can develop is coming from below, not in line with our Humorous, with our upper arm bone, when we perform a Bench Press, you’re realize that you’re not really ever mechanically putting your chest at the most advantage possible, if you have a flat chest, like I do. So what you have to do is you have to try to create a larger chest, help elevate those fibers, get them into more position where they can help. Well, if you go back here to the bench and you look and you set up, you realize that I don’t have all that much leverage here when I do, with my shallower rib cage and flatter chest, to get much force here on the Bench Press. Alright, as my arms travel in line with that middle of the chest. However, when I arch my back here, expand my rib cage, what I’ve done is I’ve taken these lower fibers and I’ve moved them back towards the shoulder, up and back more in line with my Humerus.

So now I get way more, way more fiber activation here and involvement, mechanically putting them in a better position to exert their force. So right now from here, not only have I done that, I’ve also stabilized my shoulder blades up against the bench and I haven’t excessively arched my low back, I’ve just created a somewhat deeper chest. From here again, now there’s a little bit shorter distance but not much. I can definitely push with a lot more force. Because again, I’ve involved a lot more of the chest musculature by being able to put it into a better mechanical advantage to help.

So is it a good thing or a bad thing? It’s a YOU thing, it’s an individual thing. If you happen to have those shallower chest, give it a try. I bet you you’re going to see a better result from your Bench Pressing, not just in terms of your strength but overall in your development as you accumulate more and more workouts. And if you’re a guy who’s already got a really big chest, you know, you don’t necessarily need to worry about it.

You certainly don’t need to excessively drive yourself into extension because that could cause some problems. So, hopefully this video you found helpful. It explains again, sort of the nuances of this particular Cheat, you know on the Bench Press, of whether or not it’s one that you want to use or not. At the end of the day here guys, my job is to help you to get more out of your training. And I can help you to do that guys, our whole programs are geared on finding where you’re at now and then leading you down that path.

The path to improvement. Wherever it is, wherever you are now, it doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is that you’re better tomorrow than you are today. And again, as your Coach I have to make sure I can get you there. And whether it be through tips like this or really getting you down from workout to workout, that’s what we do here at ATHLEANX.

And if you haven’t already joined me guys, on Team ATHLEAN, let me Coach you through every one of your workouts. Head to ATHLEANX. COM right now and join me on Team ATHLEAN and get your ATHLEANX Program. In the meantime if you found this helpful, make sure you leave your comments and thumbs up below and if you have to settle a debate about or not it’s good or not, make sure you share it with somebody else who might find it valuable. Alright I’ll be back here again in just a couple days.