It is impossible to go into a gym and not see the bench press being used. Outside of curls, the bench press is the most popular free weight exercise. But the one movement that will truly improve this movement has been forgotten. This movement would be the floor press.
I personally learned to bench a barbell off the floor because I wasn’t able to buy a bench until I was in high school. Obviously, the movements are similar. The main difference is that one is on the floor and one is done on a bench. Today is you see someone doing a floor press, he/she will normally be a power lifter.
This movement is good for more than strengthening your bench press. This pressing movement will allow you increase strength, size and power overall.
Increase Explosiveness
The Floor Press is naturally an explosive movement. When your upper arms rest on the floor, this takes away all of the tension and elastic energy from your muscles. While the bench in a bench press is like a spring to help you push the bar off of your chest.
With the floor press so you start from a stationary position each rep. Your muscles need to quickly turn on and produce speed and strength to push the bar off of the floor. This is what allows you create and increase power.
Helps Develop Triceps and Shoulders
Even though this movement has a short range of motion, you will not be able to lift the same amount on the floor as you would on the bench. When you lie on a bench, you can drive through the floor with your feet and gain power from your glutes. This is not possible with the floor press. So with the floor press your muscles are forced to
The floor press develops the the chest, triceps and delts. The main difference is that chest is secondary and the delts and triceps are the primary target in the floor press.
Your back and chest are basically taken out of the movement, because you stop when your arms reach the floor. Strong triceps are critical for any sport where you push someone away from you. For instance offensive lineman pushing against a defensive lineman.
Improve the Sticking Point on the Bench Press
The sticking point on the Bench Press is the midway point to the top of the movement. Even though this exercise has many benefits, this is the main purpose for it. The sticking point benefits more from speed and not strength. The Floor Press is misinterpreted as
Less Stress on Shoulder Joints
The short range of motion of this exercise doesn’t put as much stress on your shoulders. As your elbows move down during a normal benching movement, there’s a better chance you will put stress on your shoulders. If you do the exercise correctly there shouldn’t be a problem. But if your shoulders are prone to injury and you still want to press, the floor press would be your best option.
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