Best Alternative to Bench Press

Due to current shoulder issues and practical reasons I want to take a break from regular BP. I have three options but am quite uncertain which alternative has the best carry-over to regular BP.

Any opinion on which of the following should be my main horisontal pressing movement and why? And which of the following has the least carry-over to BP.

  1. Close grip BP
  2. Incline BP
  3. Barbell floor press

depends on your weakness and what will carry over to your current style

CGBP is most similar to a regular BP so it would be the closest to practicing your regular form of the choices you laid out. A 1-2 board press could do the trick too. I’ve heard on the internet and my gym that the slingshot is good for working around shoulder problems. Reverse bands and chains are good as well.

Go with closegrip, in the long run strong tris will help take the pressure off your shoulders.

close grip carries over to my bench more than floor press, and incline has never seemed to help with strength, only hypertrophy for me.

Thanks so far, I am a raw lifter and workout usually allow so not so easy to judge my weaknesses. Feels like I am strong/weak throughout the whole range of motion. That’s also my concern with floor press, the ROM is a little short.

I have chronic shoulder issues in both shoulders. I moved my grip in considerably (about a thumbs-length from the smooth) and now my shoulders don’t bother me while benching. It is the most similar to a normal bench press (especially considering some top-level powerlifters bench with a narrow grip), it is less likely to exacerbate problems like incline presses has the tendency to do in many people, and it doesn’t reduce ROM like floor pressing does (although floor pressing can be pretty awesome for certain weaknesses). I’ve tried going back to normal-grip benching several times and each time I end up hurting my shoulders, so I just go back to close-grip. I have no intention of ever going back. If that still is problematic for your shoulders, then you could try close-grip with a 1-board so that the ROM is still greater than floor pressing.

Floor press with my competition grip has great carryover for me.

CG is second. There is only a thumbs length difference between my comp and close grip, yet there is about a 50lbs difference in my maxes.

I dont max out on Inclines, I just use them as an assistance exercise.

Have you considered the reverse grip bench press? There was this article about it (Master the Reverse-Grip Bench Press). It is an additional work-around option for shoulder issues.