Hi
I dont have access to a bench press right now as I train in a home gym, I will be able to get a bench soon, I do however have a squat rack and was thinking of trying barbell floor presses. My dumbbells arent heavy enough to do any chest presses with them unfortunatly.
My bench 1rm is 125kg and I usually do 5x5 with 100kg, in your experiences, how much difference is there in terms of weight between floor press and bench press?
In theory, I would think floor would be easier, with the shorter range of motion, elbows just coming to the floor, but I have heard that some can find it more difficult.
I have olympic plates so Im not going to use my 45 lbs plates, as I want to get the bar as close to my chest as possible, and the 45’s will just limit the range of motion wayyy too much.
I am doin a search now, Just wondering what your thoughts and experiences were with this lift?
Thanks in advance.
You are supposed to pause on the floor and relax the chest for a moment and then try to blast back up. So the advantage of a decreased range of motion is negated by not having any stretch reflex to get you out of the bottom. It should be similar to your regular bench poundages, perhaps 20 lbs more.
Been doing some research and seems floor press hit the tri’s way more.
One thing I will try is to stack my two 45lbs plates on top of each other in my squat rack and lay with my upper back/shoulders on them, to increase the range of motion.
I’ve been trying to think of something to lay on, which is not to wide that the plates on the bar can drop to the floor and still hit my chest, and this was the only thing I can think of.
Any thoughts and experiences with these, and its carry over to bench, please let me know.
[quote]skidmark wrote:
You are supposed to pause on the floor and relax the chest for a moment and then try to blast back up. So the advantage of a decreased range of motion is negated by not having any stretch reflex to get you out of the bottom. It should be similar to your regular bench poundages, perhaps 20 lbs more.[/quote]
Thanks bro,
I was thinking if I lay on the two 45’s, this would essentially be the same as bench press, so Im thinking of rotating the floor presses while I lay on the floor, and having the 45s under me. Floor press in one push session, and have the plates under me the next.
Thanks again for the advice mate, going to give it a try today
Would you recommend going slow on the way down, pause at the chest, and then explode up? Is this what your trying to say?
THanks again.
I dumbell floor press about every week. Be careful when you get close to the ground. If you come down too fast you can hurt your elbow, not from blunt trauma, but from the shear force.
Cheers,
I gave it a try and found standard floor press, there just wasnt enough range of motion.
I put the two 45lbs plates under me, and found it very simular to bench, but kept had to keep a more narrow grip.
A lot more difficult than I thought, found it twinged my shoulder a little in a bad way,so going to keep the weight quite light and build up slow.
I did 90kg 5x5, next week will do 10x5 and then next week do 92.5kg 5x5, next week 10x5… etc and just build up slow.
Good alternative while I have no bench, and blasts my tri’s and shoulders a fair bit more, I like it.
Floor press, board press and pin press all can be used effectively from time to time to overload the top 1/2 or 2/3 or 3/4 of the bench motion.
From experience I find it much easier to have a spotter when doing floor press not sure thats a reality for you though shud
Floor press takes your legs out of the lift and your lats to some extent. On top the fact that you can’t arch, it is pretty common to have a weaker floor press. Without my arch I might even have a bigger range of motion on floor press. Unless your arm are really short, I don’t see how the plates touch the floor.
[quote]Pemdas wrote:
Floor press takes your legs out of the lift and your lats to some extent. On top the fact that you can’t arch, it is pretty common to have a weaker floor press. Without my arch I might even have a bigger range of motion on floor press. Unless your arm are really short, I don’t see how the plates touch the floor. [/quote]
I’m the same way. I find floor press a great exercise. Laying flat, the bar stops about 1" from my touching point, and if I arch up I can easily make the bar touch my chest. It’s typically about 90-95% of my flat bench.