Floor Press vs Bench Press

Bodybuilding training can be as vast as they are unique. Many lifters understand that there are many different ways to skin a cat when it comes to making gains. They also understand that even if you get an injury you can’t afford to take too much time off without risking the loss of your coveted gains. Injuries are a terrible truth of any athletic endeavor. While you could just keep on pushing through the injury, potentially furthering the injury, or you can find a new method of training that will give you the same results you’ve been looking for. For instance, shoulder injuries are extremely common issue in lifting. If you want to shape you chest and upper body then the bench press is the way to go. But how can you continue to train your upper body when your shoulders are shot?

Enter the floor press.

While your shoulders could be destroyed you don’t want to take too much time off and lose out on your gains. The floor press is the perfect exercise to ensure that your still making upper body gains while building strength in your delts, chest, and triceps. In fact, it’s a great movement for general upper body strength gains and is a movement utilized by powerlifters, bodybuilders, and even fighters. While the regular bench press allows you to have some added leg drive making for more of a total body experience, it also means that during the concentric portion of the lift, the elbows will travel lower than the height of the bench and therefore add stress to the elbows and, more importantly, the shoulders.

The floor press only utilizes the upper body as you lay flat on the floor. What you lose in leg drive you ultimately make up for in increased upper body strength and stability. Rather than use injury as an excuse, modifying your training should always be a priority. A fighter makes no excuses for their injuries when prepping for a match, the same should be no different for a strength athlete preparing for a meet.

How do you perform the lift? First you must start with the loaded barbell on the floor. Place yourself under the bar, find the right grip, then with your core, chest, arms, every part of your upper body, lift the bar off the floor. When you feel no pain in your shoulders you can come back to this article and thank me later. Try performing 6-8 reps with moderate weight, then up the volume to 8-10 once you’re comfortable.

What exercises do you use when you’re injured?

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Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.