When i bench heavy and get a good arch my back feels almost like its going to snap in a way. Like ima get a real tight muscle cramp in my mid backk/lats region. I almost feel like if i had a back of steel i could move more weight. Has this ever happened to anyone? Does it just mean that I need to strengthen my back? Or is it tight because of a flexibility issue.
That means your back needs to get stronger. It’s normal. That happens to everyone when switching bench styles.
I have a similar problem. When I bench heavy it feels as if I’m going to get a lower back spasm. Could it be that my leg drive is pushing my lower back to my traps rather than my traps into the bench?
Any suggestions are appreciated.
do some more back work
I used to get this if I didn’t warm up my back well before benching. Start with any kind of back work. After that I just do some single arm stuff and get a super deep stretch. Helps me to roll out my back, too.
I found a belt helped me stay tight and helped to prevent lower back cramping too. Never got cramping around my lats. And I think getting your back will help your bench too. Both the upper back and the lats are very important. Don’t skimp out on either one. For the past couple of months I’ve been hitting the upper back really hard, but neglected my lats and now my bench is down 25lb. At least that’s why I think it’s down.