If you're an athlete who doesn't bench but wants to develop your core and shoulder stability while building overall strength, this will do it. Expect to feel your core the next day after the first time you try these. Here’s how you should set up the floor press: You’ll need a squat cage for this exercise. The floor press is one of the best bench press accessories for building strength, hypertrophy, and technique. However, the focus shifts primarily to the … The floor press forces you to exert greater levels of control compared with other bench press variations. An accessory movement to help increase your bench press. The bench press is one of those movements with seemingly endless alterations and variations. While you might see some people do the floor press with their legs straight, I recommend having your legs bent and your feet flat on the floor. Other effective exercises include pec deck, cable crossover, and … thanks! But it can be more than that. The legs up bench press is performed like a standard bench press, but rather than the feet placed on the floor, the legs are bent and the feet are positioned flat on the bench. Learn 13 principles that create more effective powerlifting technique. On a personal level, I’ve been dedicating myself to the world of powerlifting for the past 15 years, having both competed and coached at the highest level. It puts less strain on your shoulders because the range of motion stops at the ground and so a much safer exercise for those who have a shoulder injury. As a result, you’ll only be working the top-end range of motion, and the bottom-end portion of the lift will not be worked. However, the floor press is special because even though it’s a partial exercise, you will typically use less weight when compared with the bench press. The close grip bench press is one of our favorite pressing exercises despite not being the first thing that comes to mind, this technique is a great addition to your workout, and the close grip bench press benefits will have you trying it out in no time. Here are some other frequently asked questions that I receive when it comes to floor pressing: While the floor press does activate the chest as you bring the barbell down to the floor, the pec recruitment is minimal compared with the regular bench press. The floor press is considered a ‘partial range of motion’. Great For Improving Lockout Strength. Using two dumbbells allows you to (duh) move double the weight, but using just one dumbbell offers a couple of advantages. Where to begin? It works best for those who want to feel the effect of bench press on their triceps and reduce the risks of shoulder injuries while training. How to do close grip bench press: 1- Lie on the bench with your feet flat on the floor. Your shoulders also come into play, but the focus here is really your triceps. So now you're down on the ground with your bell or bells. If you struggle in the lock-out phase of the bench press, then you’ll want to implement variations that target the top-end range of motion specifically. the weight feels hard), you’ll see a variety of different strength athletes use this exercise. You need to bring the barbell down with control, and if you don’t, then your elbows will smash onto the floor causing a lot of discomfort. If that combo looks like another great finisher on a long push day, you're right. This offers several advantages and benefits, which we’ll discuss later. It is used by both bodybuilders and powerlifters, in addition to injury-prone athletes. Build your pressing power from the ground up, and you may never look back! better tolerated than the traditional bench press because you're able to use a neutral grip 9 Highly Effective Bench Press Alternatives, 5 Tricks To Bench Pressing With Long Arms, Can You Deadlift In Squat Shoes? An accessory movement to help increase your bench press. The floor press is a low-tech version of the bench press where the exerciser lies on the ground instead of on a bench. The first 3 weeks are focused on hypertrophy development, with the second 3 weeks focused on strength development. Maybe you can't overhead press or bench press just yet, so take care of your problems and increase your strength at the same time. If you struggle in the lock-out phase of the bench press, then you’ll want to... 3. There is NO REASON to get crazy and intense for chins, face pulls or pushdowns. Floor Press vs Bench Press. Floor Press Chins DB Bench Face Pulls Triceps Pushdowns After the Floor Press, let’s say you bust your ass on DB Bench but then simply have a good workout on the rest of the stuff. Take a look at my article on 9 Highly Effective Bench Press Alternatives. The dumbbell floor press is an oft-forgotten exercise that should get a lot more love than it does. The floor press targets the pectoral muscles in the chest. Floor presses can make your bench press stronger as an accessory lift, but you need to train the full range of motion in a bench press to improve at it. Bench Press With Legs Up: Technique, Benefits, Muscles Used Even though this might seem like a small difference, the impact of having the feet off the floor while bench pressing can change the emphasis of the movement drastically. If you want to use the floor press to target more shoulders (and chest), ensure you’re keeping your elbows directly stacked underneath of the barbell. From there, press the dumbbells 1-2 inches off your chest and hold that position for 30-60 seconds, making sure to keep the dumbbells pressed together the whole time. You can limit the range of motion in the bench press to gain the benefits without the problems. And when it starts to feel easy, it's far simpler—and safer—to make difficult again without having a spotter close at hand. PowerliftingTechnique.com is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. The floor press requires powerful extension of the elbows, placing considerable mechanical tension on the triceps. The floor press works equally as the bench press. It also takes your back out of the equation, meaning that your force will come from your arms and chest, as opposed to your back. There are a few other floor press variations that you can implement depending on whether you want to target more or less of your triceps, or your specific lifting goals. The floor press is a weight-bearing exercise similar to the bench press. This doesn't mean you have no choice other than heading back to barbells—which might not be an option if you've got jacked-up shoulders. The floor press is similiar to the Larsen Press. You can limit the range of motion in the bench press to gain the benefits without the problems. Moreover, you can perform dumbbell floor presses by using heavier weights than those used in simple triceps … From there, go straight into four reps followed by a four-second hold, then three, then two, and finally one. To make it even harder, lower the last rep as slowly as possible. I like to do 5-6 reps of each exercise, but you can play around with the reps. Joe Nordquest broke the record 18 years later by only 2 lbs. 5777 N Meeker Ave, Boise, ID 83713-1520 USA. Stop wallowing in your pressing woes and start doing something about it. Neither way is necessarily better, but each will change the dynamic of the exercise slightly. These are much harder than they look, so start light! In this case, the focus is on the mid-range and lock-out portion. If your goals are to add numbers to your Bench and size to your chest and upper body, the Dumbbell Floor Press and its variations can be used as a supplementary lifts. Here are five benefits of the floor press: Builds muscle mass in the chest, triceps, and shoulders; Increases overall pressing strength; Specifically boosts lockout strength thanks! A floor press is basically a bench press on the ground, so it works the same muscles. Now here's what you need to know. First, you can use your other hand to help get the weight in place. The floor press is easier on your shoulder joints than the bench press. Improved Lockout. I would suggest having a slight elbow tuck during the floor press, unless for some reason you purposely wanted to use this exercise to target your chest muscles. Avoid the Floor Press. The kettlebell floor press works your triceps and upper chest more than your shoulders. This is why the floor press is used by some strength athletes to prevent or rehab shoulder injuries because it’s viewed as a ‘safer variation’ for the shoulders. Dumbbell Floor Press Benefits It is One of the Best Tricep Exercises. It's sort of like that, only much more stable, and you don't look like a complete tool. the bench to the floor, I could feel undue stress all through my arms and shoulders. The main muscles focused on here are triceps, and the chest taking the second position. In the below sections we will determine which exercise (barbell bench press or barbell floor press) is best for eliciting the desired training outcome(s). All rights reserved. There’s the close grip bench press, wide grip bench press, floor press, dumbbell bench press, incline, decline, banded, chained, paused, and many, many more. Increase size and strength of the triceps, boost mass in the chest and develop a wider set of pushing movements all with one basic exercise – the floor press. It’s been demonstrated that a grip that is shoulder-width apart will recruit the triceps 2X as much when compared with a grip that is double the distance (Lehman, 2005). As I mentioned in "8 Moves For A Crazy-Strong Core," you can also cycle through all of these advanced variations one-by-one, making each one the centerpiece of your routine for a while until you feel like you've conquered it, then moving on to the next. It is performed by lying on the back, flat on the floor, and uses either dumbbells or a barbell to perform an upward, press motion. Plenty of people who experience lower back pain with traditional bench presses—in other words, plenty of people, period—find that moving to the floor often helps tremendously by reducing lumbar extension that comes from excessive arching. In addition, third parties, including Facebook, may use cookies, web beacons, and other storage technologies to collect or receive information from PowerliftingTechnique.com and elsewhere on the Internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target ads. Here’s how I would program the floor press over a 6-week program. It's harder to screw up than the barbell bench. Instead, try these more difficult variations, which decrease the stability or add isometric holds to allow you to get a great training effect with lighter loads. By pausing (and I recommend that you do), you will need to generate force from a dead stop while the weight is de-loaded on the floor. Your arms should be vertical and parallel to one another. Bend your lifting arm to 90 degrees. I’m not kidding when I say there used to be a time where I felt benching with the feet on the bench (or in the air) was one of the stupidest things someone could do, on par with texting while driving, thinking you can read a Thomas Pynchon novel in one sitting, or trying to take a selfie with a panther. The floor press, which was covered extensively in a previous article, is a segmented (shorter range of motion) variation of the bench press, with the intent to target the top half of the movement. In the below video you can see the proper setup and execution of the barbell floor press. Be the first to receive exciting news, features, and special offers from Bodybuilding.com! It also doesn't have the same "How muchya" associations as the almighty barbell bench, so you can experiment with different variations without feeling self-conscious about using small(ish) weights. Have a spotter check this for you. I’m Avi Silverberg and this is the place where my friends and I nerd out about powerlifting technique. After you've done regular dumbbell floor presses for a while, you may reach a point where your progress starts to stall out, or you reach a strength level where you either max out the dumbbells at your gym or it just becomes too hard to get them into position. Once you have become comfortable with the floor press motion, you can reduce this drive further by extending your legs out straight in front of you. Additionally, your chest will be more active if you choose to heave your elbows directly stacked underneath of the barbell rather than have a slight elbow tuck. Experiment with different hand positions to figure out what feels best to you, but in general, utilizing a neutral grip with be easier on the shoulder joint. A close grip floor press is the same exercise but you’ll take a grip that is shoulder-width apart. In the battle between chest presses vs. chest flys, both have multiple benefits. As such, the entire movement is focused on the top-half to the top-third range of motion, which is the exact portion of the lift that needs to be prioritized if you struggle to lock your elbows at the top of the lift. The floor press may be one of the single best bench training exercises known to man that you aren’t using in your program. Because you can use less weight than a normal bench press but have an extremely high training effect (i.e. There are several benefits to the floor press, which we’ll discuss in this article. I often use it instead of the bench press for these guys. For one, it's a great option when you're in a crowded gym and the benches are taken. If you do have long arms, you’ll want to read my article on 5 Tricks To Bench Pressing With Long Arms. Whats people lookup in this blog: Floor Bench Press Benefits; Floor Bench Press Barbell Benefits But I kinda doubt it. It is performed by lying on the back, flat on the floor, and uses either dumbbells or a barbell to perform an upward, press motion. Rather than the barbell going through a full range of motion, the barbell will stop when your elbows hit the ground. Why Bench Press With Feet On the Bench? It is an effective chest workout for those who do not have a barbell, dumbbell, or a bench at hand. You’ll know if you have longer arms if they measure 38% or greater of your overall height. … The floor press is a weight-bearing exercise similar to the bench press. The head-off glute bridge chest press variations on the other hand eliminate this issue and actually feel very therapeutic on the shoulders and neck while still deriving the same glute and hip benefits as the traditional variations. One of the benefits of the floor press is that it takes away much of the ability to drive with your legs that occurs during bench presses. The floor press and bench press target the same muscles: chest, shoulders and triceps. As a result, your triceps will be more activated in this variation versus the regular floor press. Therefore, if you want to take the chest and shoulders out of the movement altogether, use the close-grip floor press. What makes the floor press unique is that instead of lying flat on a bench press, you will lay flat on the floor with either your legs bent or straight. The floor press gives you a depth check on every rep as your triceps and elbows contact the floor. Day 2, Hypertrophy Focus: Neutral Grip DB Floor Press 3 sets of 8-12. What Are the Benefits Of The Floor Press? Your level of shoulder activation will also largely be determined by the length of your arms. Get On The Floor. This is why you need to train both the bench press and floor press, either by rotating the exercises over consecutive training programs or by adding in both movements within the same training program. Like other things in life, the hardest part can be getting it up. Even though this might seem like a small difference, the impact of having the feet off the floor while bench pressing can change the emphasis of the movement drastically. Because you can use less weight on the floor press, but still yield a high training effect, the floor press shouldn’t cause as much training fatigue as other exercises. This variation is used more with football players or combat athletes as these sports require athletes to develop strength and power in a close hand position. As such, you don’t need a heavy weight to feel like the movement is a high effort. You want to make sure you’re still maintaining tension on your muscles rather than letting this be a position where you ‘rest’. It is a Safe Pressing Exercise for People With Shoulder Issues. The Floor Press develops the same muscles as the Bench Press—the pecs, triceps and anterior shoulder. 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