How to Do Floor Press: Muscles Worked & Proper Form

Muscles Worked in Floor Press

Primary muscles worked:

• Chest
• Front Deltoid

Secondary muscles worked:

• Triceps

How to Floor Press

1. Lie down on the floor with your eyes under the racked bar.
2. Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
3. Inhale, pull your shoulder blades down and together, and unrack the bar.
4. Lower the bar slowly until your upper arms hit the floor.
5. Reverse the motion and push the bar up to straight arms again.

Commentary

The floor press is a variant of the bench press where you lie on the floor instead of a bench, which limits the range of motion since your upper arms will stop against the floor. This can help you overload the top portion of the bench press movement.

The best way to get into the starting position is if you can unrack the bar from a power rack that you can reach from the floor. Set the rack height so that you only have to extend your arms slightly to unrack the bar.

If you cannot find a rack that goes low enough, other options would be to place the bar on blocks, have a spotter hand it to you, or heave it up from the floor using your abdomen.

Read more: Floor Press vs. Bench Press for Strength: Benefits & Differences