Elite powerlifters use a pronounced arch to lock the shoulder girdle through thoracic extension, lat depression, and external rotation. The coach cues male lifters to press against his hand on the bar for T-spine extension, while telling female lifters to push their chest up to the bar. Heels slightly under the knees with floor drive transmits force through the hips and reinforces stability.
When you see an arc on a bench press and you see elite powerlifters getting to this really high arc, it's because it's creating stability. Let's get Kay to just flatten out his back for a second. As he flattened out, what happened was his shoulders protracted in. As the shoulders protracted in, go do a bench press for us. You can see here, if he flattens out, now the front delt is working. We don't want that on a bench press because that's instability. That's the front delt working. Go, just do a couple of presses so we can show the folks at home. See, you can see that. So this arc is coupled with external rotation. So what he's going to do here is press up again, right? He's getting into thoracic extension in this position. So if I push down, one of the cues that I like, one of my favorite cues on bench press, obviously if I'm working with a male client, if I'm working with a female client, it's a different cue. But as a male client, I put my hand here and I want him to press against my hand. That really promotes the thoracic extension, that T-spine extension. T-spine is coupled with depression of the lats. And that depression of lats is coupled with the external rotation, which then creates a really nice stable position. So, okay, try and push your chest up to the bar. If I'm working with a female client, that's the cue that I'll give is push your chest up to the bar. And you can see here how much more stable his shoulders are in that position. And that's because we really are arcing. So when you see an arc on a bench press and you see elite powerlifters getting to this really high arc, It's because it's creating stability. Stability is key for every exercise, and obviously on a bench press, it's absolutely key in making sure our shoulders are stable. Your feet should always be considered. Now, foot position— if you look at an elite bench presser, they may have their feet all the way behind their body, right? And that position is because they have the ability and mobility and strength through the lower back. Now, that's a position that you have to earn. It's not somewhere where people are going to start off from the beginning. So for most folks, a position of putting their feet, just their heel slightly under their foot. Now, one of the cues that I like to use is getting people to really push their heels down into the floor. Now, as we do that, you saw what happened immediately. That action is coupled with that T-extension. So you can see how this is a transference of force through the hip. Now he's lifting up his chest.
