I’ve watched a lot of different benching tutorials in youtube and it’s interesting how a lot of instructors and gurus have different styles of teaching. They all have their own style. They all bench their own way, it seems. Some say you have to arch pretty extensively, some say you should arch slightly and some say you shouldn’t arch at all. What is my opinion on arching when doing the flat bench press?

To me, I don’t like arching and to be honest, I can’t arch on the bench at all due to my Harrington Rod on the back with my scoliosis and all. My spine is completely made of metal so therefor, I can’t bend. Due to my scoliosis and metal rod I have in my spine, I can’t arch at all so what you see is what you get.

On a serious note, though, they say you have to arch on bench and I say you don’t really have to if you don’t want to. It’s a preference. I think arching on the bench is pretty stupid, in my opinion. It looks uncomfortable and I think you have less range of motion that way. Lying flat on the back, you have more range of motion so I prefer to lay flat on the bench.

In powerlifitng, you don’t have to arch. If you don’t arch in a powerlifting meet, that’s not against the rules. As long as your head and your butt is on the bench at all times, that’s all the judges in powerlifting meets care about. They don’t really care if you arch or not, it’s really your choice. I don’t like arch ’cause the way I look at it if you arch doing bench press it makes it looks like you’re doing a decline bench.

As far as arching or no arching goes, you just gotta listen to your body and do what’s best for you. Don’t listen to other people. I have the Harrington Rod in my back so I have to do certain workouts my way since I can’t bend.

Even though I don’t arch at all, I’m still feeling great development in my chest each time I bench every week. I’m feeling slightly stronger on the bench each week I do it too. I love bench pressing now. I used to be a hater of the bench press but not anymore. It grew on me over the years. The flat bench is my favorite workout now. Each time I look in the mirror with my shirt off, I’m finally getting the upper body physique that I’ve always dreamed of getting. Because of the bench press, I’m finally getting chest development. I’m going to post new progress pics pretty soon so I can show that I’m not making it up.

The reason I got into bench press full time is because I’m a powerlifter now so I had to get back into it. Powerlifting made me love the bench press and I’m glad I got into it ’cause it’s working for me.

Kev