Saturday Arch Work

Since the Nat bench is coming up I decided to start doing some work to get my arch back up and my back healthy again. Up until the Canty 3 lift this year a never had a problem but I managed to tear a ligament in my lower back. Since then it got worse and I had thoughts about putting it away for good. But since Im not that strong its actually my best asset in the bench, so I thought that if I take it carefully I might avoid the injury problem and get it back up to where it used to be.

I think arching raw so much made harder to heal (because its higher then a shirted arch) as well as getting careless with my form in the squat. Today I focused on stretching my groin, and quads, and did some hip mobility work (spinal flossing) plus a small amount of hanging to elongate my spine. I kept everything pretty gentle and took a measure (of sorts) with the large PVC pipe at the gym. I feel (I cant see of course) like I'm a long way off where I was this time last year.

I'll do stretches and mobility work specific for arching every third day. Hip flexors, abdominal wall, quads, groin (adductors/rotators) and start doing some loaded upper back work to start strengthening extension and scapular tilt. I've found that a big arch wont do shit if you're not strong enough to hold it, especially in a shirt.

I need a lot of ankle mobility work too as I've had trouble with my foot positioning. Alf gave me a few pointers about placement and leg drive which help but in order for me to get and maintain the tightness I need I have to have my feet closer to my head (like some of the Russians). Its a confidence thing too, I get between 35-45kgs out of a shirt, so if I'm not maximally tight through my whole body, then I simply wont produce the tension or have the control that I need.

This is all tentative as I'm unsure how my back will cope. I only wrote it here so I cant pussy out of it. I feel better now that I've broken it down so I'll see how it goes.