Shouldn't there be a rule? I mean, I know zero about power-lifting, but that guy only moved that weight about 1.5 inches. If his back was flat, it would have to travel a much greater distance.
It doesn't seem like a demonstration of power, it seems like fucking around.
Also how you make sure nobody takes powerlifters seriously.
Well, there are already rules in place for the bench, and they make a lot of sense. Your shoulders and butt need to be on the bench and your feet need to be on the floor, not touching the bench. Your back doesn't have to touch the bench because you naturally have an arch if you have the right form. These are clear cut rules, that make it pretty apparent how you should bench but also makes it easier for people who just say fuck it and instead of increasing their bench, they increase their spine mobility to have a bigger arch. Trying to ban the cheat arch is not possible without including some sort of framework about how far away your back is allowed to be from the bench, which would make it very awkward to judge. The only way you could remove the cheat arch without such thing, is making it a rule to put up your legs in the air during the bench, which would lower the impact of the bench on your total even more, making it practically useless to be part of the competition.
Some people just say to ditch the bench.
I'll add a counterpoint to this user's post:
The rules apply, and to those who are able to exploit them with extraordinary spinal mobility, kudos. However, you typically only see this shit with the lighter weightclasses where they cannot add any more bodyweight so they max out leverages. Same thing with the little guys pulling super-wide sumo deads that travel like 4 inches to lockout.
Go up to the 181+ (pounds) weightclasses and all the weird leverages drop off.
...
Hubbard in the 83kg division, still has a retardedly big cheat arch.
youtube.com
But I know what you mean. Though if you look at the 105-120+ divisions, they just shorten the range of motion by having bigger bellies.
Powerlifters do it so they can lift fuckhueg weights, not for the approval of ignorant normies like yourself. You can't go round telling people how much they can arch because that just doesn't work. Ass and upper back on bench, heels on floor, bar touching chest and returning to lockout. This is a powerlifting bench press. If you think the world record holder in bench (Kirill Sarychev, 335kg) who presses over a huge ROM because he is so tall, isn't arching as hard as possible or should minimise his arch so as to be more impressive and valid to you, a non lifting dweeb, you're fucking delusional.
the snap city gatekeeper
Despite the weight you look like a fag while doing it and doesn't actually count because you took a shortcut to do so.
try harder