Help with my arch

[pinky8713]

At my dad's house I always bench shirtless. I place my traps/upper back in position, and then slowly creep my butt up toward them, creating the arch. Once I get my arch where I want it, my feet are generally already where they need to be and i'm ready to go. I feel nice and tight, and very solid then. It feels great.

At the gym, I have to wear a shirt, so I always wear a normal t-shirt. I get my traps/upper back set in position, but when I try to creep my butt up, my upper back tends to slide along the bench making it impossible to hold a tight arch, if any arch at all.

It's not only killing my numbers not having my usually benching form, but every rep feels like crap too. I'm sick of hating benching at the gym. I really need to learn to form my arch at the gym, and not only at my dad's.

I've been repping 185 at the gym, and maxing out at one rep at 225, being mostly fresh. This isn't where my numbers normally are so it's not too fun. I decided to hit up a workout at my dads tonight. I did a complete bench workout (four heavy benching sets) and THEN decided that I wanted to feel 225 since I haven't felt it at my dad's in a while. I hit four reps without a spotter, and plus, those reps at 225 felt 10 times better than the 185 reps do at the gym.

What do you guys think? Is there any material or anything that could help with the upper back sliding on the bench, which is ruining the arch? I'm a bit lost here. I've been trying to work on the arch at the gym for six months now, and i haven't been able to make any improvements at all due to the sliding.

[Ryano]

Have you tried putting chalk on your back, or spray stickem?

[smokinHawk]

allot of benches are slippery due to replacement pads, i bought a little rubber slip resistant mat from walmart, it is one of those rubber almost netted things you put under table cloths so they dont slip off the table, also they are used in cabinet drawers
works great so i dont slide

[Ryano]

I've also heard of people using a mouse pad from you computer to put under your shoulders. You need to peel off the slick side though.

[RhodeHouse]

Have you tried putting chalk on your back, or spray stickem?