An exercise a day keeps the doctor away earns you one extra day from being bedridden for health-related complications. While the health benefits of exercising cannot be overemphasized, there is the right and wrong way of going about it. This article is going to take a look at why arch while exercising is important.

For instance, you need to arch your back when bench pressing and make just your head, shoulders, and glutes touch the bench. You do not lie flat on the bench. So what are the benefits of arching?

Safer for your Shoulders

Your shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint held together by soft tissues, tendons, and ligaments. That makes the shoulder the most mobile joint in your entire body. It also makes the shoulder the least stable joint in your body. When you arch, you safely draw the ‘ball inside the socket’ and enable your upper-back muscles to pull the shoulder blade backward and in a more stable position. The arched position prevents injuries such as biceps tendonitis, pec and rotator cuff strains. 

The Spine is not Axially Loaded

You should be careful not to arch your back extremely, but just enough to make the stack the vertebrae on top of each other naturally. Arching it aggressively will move the vertebrae from their natural position leading to the spine becoming axially loaded.

You can Lift more Weight

With the ball firmly inside the socket in an arched position, your upper-body muscles can safely bench press more weight. This position increases your full-body tension while decreasing the range of free motion the bar can move. You can now lift heavier weights safely.

Simple BioMechanics behind Arching

Arching your body is not only good for your spine posture correction in terms of lining up the vertebrae naturally, but it also gives your body muscles more tension. You can thus carry heavier weights safely without losing control as you lift loads. However, you should be careful not to extremely arch your back without support. Doing so might lead to serious injuries.