Is this considered a cheat movement while benching? When are you suppose to arch for your 1RM and when you are having trouble getting the weight up, or is it considered proper techinque to arch when your doing a
heavier load all the time?
arching is fine. just dont lift your ass off the bench
You should arch all the way through the lift or not at all. get a solid platform at the start of the lift and dont move it. ex: keeping ass down the whole time. if you need to push with your legs, pretend your pushing/sliding yourself up the bench to prevent ass liftage.
Arching is not cheating, lifting your ass off the bench is. If you are going to use an arch, do it on all your sets, not just your heaviest ones. And keep the arch consistent throughtout the set, you don’t need to be squirming around on the bench. Just get yourself set up and stay that way from the first rep to the last.