Lower back pain while benching

[goran1862]

Hy! My girlfriend is experiencing lower back and glute area, pain is not spreading into legs.
With squat and dl there is no pain but while arching on bench there is hard pain in low back and because of that she is struggling to perform BP. Pain is there day two after bench.
MRI is showing no sign of discus hernia.

Does anyone know what could be the problem and how to fix it

[goran1862]

sry I put the thread in wrong subforum, if moderators could shift it somewhere else

[neilc1]

I'm 6-4 and get discomfort on the first couple warm up sets, till my lower back "stretches" into benching.
try raising her feet a couple inches(plates?)
I'm assuming she's shorter than 6-4 and her legs aren't as long as mine.

[neilc1]

or a lower bench

how tall and weight(roughly) is she?

[Jeff Illingworth]

Post a video, that'll help. I agree with Neilc1, I'm guessing she's getting stretched weird getting into position on the bench.

[timelinex]

I always have low back pings when I try to extend my back as far as I can then tighten up (they go away within a few minutes though). Just figured not everyone can create a big arch from the bench and it's me being too eager for my flexibility. Unless you are competing and trying to eke out every advantage, I'm not sure it matters. Just arch less.

Maybe a coach will correct me, but I think "safety" wise, you should just make sure her upper back is tight, shoulders retracted, and her bar path goes a little towards the sternum. You don't need the arch off the bench.

[goran1862]

Tnx guys, she does big arch, maybe that is the problem.
I dont have video, she doesn't train this week because of the pain.
When she starts, she can try with smaller arch, if that doesn't fix the problem, I'll post video of bench press here

[Jeff Illingworth]

I'm willing to bet that it's not so much the arch directly as she is probably tilting her hips weirdly due to the ratio of her leg length and the height of the bench.

[goran1862]

I manage to dig out 8 month old video. It not the best angle but it's all I got for now.
YouTube

[Jeff Illingworth]

Put blocks (or plates) under her feet. Also, unless she's planning on competing, she probably doesn't need to get her feet so far back.