For a long time, powerlifters have been taking advantage of a loophole. The bench press rules say that as long as your hips and shoulders are in contact with the bench, everything’s fine. Consequently, many flexible lifters (usually young females) bend their backs to the extreme to shorten the range of motion and lift more weight.
The rules may allow this, but what’s point of similar lifting? Does it even count? There is a world of difference between a regular bench press and a 2-inch bench press.
In the video below, you can see a 13-year-old girl under the name of Maryana Naumova bench press with a super excessive arch. Just because similar shenanigans do no break the rules, it does not make them legit.
Believe it or not, this girl would benefit a lot more from a full range of motion bench press than this moronic version of the lift. However, it seems that in this world, the ego always wins since there are plenty of retards who support this perversion.
Does the bench press with an excessive arch build as much muscle as the regular bench press?
No. The short range of motion limits the stress on the muscle. In general, a greater range of motion recruits more fibers.
Is it cheating if everybody is doing it?
Technically, no. But it makes more sense to simply change the rules and prevent this from happening in the first place.
It looks hilarious, I’ll give her that. It’s funny, if it’s found that a little of a thing could potentially be beneficial in some way, it’s almost always eventually assumed by someone to take that thing to a new extreme. I wouldn’t expect a 13 year old to consider the possible diminishing returns or that excessive arch may be detrimental. The adults around her failed her though, damn shame.