The floor press is an underrated addition to your training routine that can help to build a strong chest and boost your standard bench press but are you sure you re even doing the exercise.
Floor press chest development.
Stick to higher reps.
Incline squeeze presses incline flies unilateral dumbbell floor presses and low to high flys all work well here.
212 olympia legend flex lewis and ifbb pro johnnie jackson two bodybuilders with some of the best upper bodies of all time are big fans of the floor press for upper chest development.
However the focus shifts primarily to the triceps and shoulders.
First by nature of the movement your lower back will be hyperextended.
On the shallow incline dumbbell flyes set the angle of the bench to between 15 and 20.
This freaks some people out.
Back before lifters had benches the floor press was the only chest press they could perform.
The floor dumbbell chest press forces you to start from the sticking point when your arms are flat to the floor and your hands half way through the full range of motion.
So it s been around for more than 100 years making it much older than the bench press itself.
For folks with shoulder issues the dumbbell floor press is usually better tolerated than the traditional bench press because you re able to use a neutral grip and pressing on the floor limits the range of motion slightly.
Then push the barbell up and back in a slight arc such that it ends up over your upper chest.
What happens is that you go from zero effort with your arms on the floor to maximum effort right away.
Do the floor press with a grip width that s just outside of shoulder width and that places your upper arms about 30 away from your sides in the starting position.
The floor press is a partial range of motion bench press that can be done with barbells dumbbells or kettlebells to isolate the chest triceps and lockout position in the bench.
See what ones you can best get a mental connection with.
This reduces extension at the shoulder joint while still providing a good training effect for the pecs and triceps.
Three notes on the v press.
It takes a lot of the back.
Chest exercises fly on the floor for massive pecs integrate this pec pounding move into your chest workout to take your development to a new level.