Totally, agree. That picture you have up...i can just imagine what would happen if you suddenly lost strength in one side. You wouldn't have a stable position from which to recover and you could really end up getting hurt.

Well, I agree. That excessive arching, or basically lifting the butt off the bench can put a lot of compression on the discs and be very bad for the back. But you are taking something that is mental and making it more important then actual biomechanical considerations. Frankly, anyone, if they are disciplined can learn to avoid that reaction of the butt rising. It's hard, I admit because when the weight gets heavy the body just naturally seeks a mechanical advantage and that gives it one. But it can be overcome with discipline.

Let me go at it another way. I actually read one guy with a bunch of letters after his name talking about feet up benching just now. He brought up some of the points I already discussed about lower back problems and how it may be advantages for some. But then he brought up a point about how the upper body stabilizers will be more engaged with feet up benching because you take out the lower body. He didn't actually give his opinion on it though (so fuck em).

As soon as I read it I thought it was ludicrous. Your "upper body" stabilizers were not built to be "isolated". We are connected from head to toes and things going on at the hips can affect things going on at the shoulders. Ask youselve if your body was ever meant to bench press. Maybe if a rock fell on you and your hands were in the right position you may press it off, lol. But do you think isolating the upper body stabilizers would be a good idea? Course not. You would just be less stable and more prone to injury, most likely from being squashed by the rock.

First of all, you are not well anchored to the bench. Second of all, there are two types of stabilizers, active and passive. You don't want to overwhelm one to the disadvantage of the other.

It would be one thing if we were actively training 'stabilizers'. You know, like the bench pressing on a ball? But that is light weight dumbells, not heavy barbells. When you are benching even somewhat heavy, it is not a time to make yourself less stable and definitely not a time to put your shoulders in a more stressful position. But the only way you can properly set your upper back with the feet up, at least from what I have experienced is....to create an excessive and unnatural arch in the lower back.

But you are benching with your lower back flat, your upper back rounded and your chest down. You are basically unstable in a myriad of ways. Your body was meant to work as a unit. There is not any real disadvantage to allowing it to do so. You just have to control the pitfalls of anything you choose to do.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
or
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.