Horizontal pressing engages the chest, shoulders, and triceps muscles.
Horizontal pressing is one of the most effective methods for building upper-body muscle and strength (1). By targeting your chest, deltoids, and triceps, this type of exercise is a go-to for anyone looking to enhance their pushing power. When your body is positioned horizontally and works against gravity, it creates the ideal resistance needed to develop significant muscle growth and strength.
Why should you add horizontal pressing to your routine? Keep reading as we break down its benefits and share four top exercises that utilize a mix of gym equipment and bodyweight.
Overview — What Is the Horizontal Press?
In lifting, the horizontal press is a popular method athletes use to build their upper body muscles. It is simply a resistance training program that involves you pushing weights away from your chest. They are also called horizontal push exercises.
Sometimes you hear athletes categorizing their training splits into push/pull/leg routines. The push part of the routine primarily involves horizontal pressing, targeting multiple muscle groups. The mechanics behind this movement typically involve extending the arms away from the body, as well as arm abduction and arm adduction. It utilizes the elbow, arm, and shoulder to extend away from the upper body.
Horizontal Press — Muscles Worked
Horizontal presses work the following upper body muscles:
- Triceps
- Chest
- Shoulder Muscles (Medial & Anterior Deltoids)
- Core Muscles (Abs & Obliques)
Horizontal presses effectively target the chest, triceps, shoulders, and core muscles. The core helps with proper posture and stabilization during the movement. Depending on the variation of the exercise, you can also recruit your lats and posterior deltoid muscles for stabilization.
Benefits
The horizontal press is a popular exercise routine for building upper-body strength. Here are some benefits of this routine.
Great for the Upper Body Muscles
Including a push movement, such as the horizontal press, is sure to target those upper-body muscles. The results will be an aesthetically pleasing physique and proper posture.
Works the Chest, Arms, & Shoulders
The horizontal press builds and strengthens multiple groups, which improves the force production required from these muscles. It primarily targets your shoulders, chest, and arms, allowing you to lift heavier objects more effectively and prevent unnecessary injuries, thereby enhancing your athletic performance.
Improves Functional Strength
You perform daily activities such as pushing doors open, carrying a heavy weight overhead, lifting a child, pushing yourself up from a chair, and pushing shopping carts. They use the muscles trained during horizontal pressing. Building those muscles can improve your daily activities.
Activates Core Muscles
Your core muscles are crucial for maintaining excellent posture, stability, balance, and preventing injuries. Using them during a horizontal pressing exercise helps build their strength. Stronger core muscles make lifting in proper form easier.
Top Horizontal Pressing Exercises
Now we understand the concept of horizontal pressing and its key importance to strength and muscle gains. What are some of these exercises we can pick to see tremendous improvements in our training? Below are four of the best horizontal pressing exercises.
Bench Press
The bench press is a staple upper-body-building press that is very common (2). There are multiple variations of this exercise, which primarily target your triceps, chest, and shoulders.
You can use a barbell or a pair of dumbbells to bench press, and you can also do it in an inclined, flat, or declined position. Doing them inclined focuses more on the shoulders and upper pecs, while performing them declined focuses on the arms and lower pecs.
How To
- Lie flat on the bench and use an overhand grip. Ensure you arch your back slightly while engaging your core muscles.
- Take a deep breath and lift the bar off the rack, fully extending your arms and elbows. This is your starting position.
- Slowly lower the bar close to your chest, and after two to three seconds, return the bar to the starting position to complete a rep.
Cable Press Machine
Another effective horizontal push exercise is the cable press. It uses a cable machine that effectively keeps tension on your target muscle throughout the movement. This study demonstrates that time under tension is a crucial factor in optimizing muscle growth (3). This exercise primarily targets the chest muscles, with the delts and arms serving as secondary movers.
How To
- Stand with your back facing the cable machine and grab the attachments using an overhead grip set at shoulder level.
- Exhale and push your arms forward and inward, extending them fully until your arms and elbows are straight.
- Hold for about two to three seconds and slowly return the cables to the starting position, making one rep.
- Perform this exercise for as many repetitions as you desire.
Push Up
Push-ups are the bodyweight variation of the horizontal press. It targets the upper body muscles, including the shoulders, triceps, and chest. Push-ups are convenient to do, as you don’t require any weights. You can also adjust the push-up exercises to target specific muscles by varying the hand placement or hand width.
How To
- Get into a high plank position and place your palms on the floor at shoulder-width distance.
- Keep your back and legs straight, and then slowly lower your torso close to the floor.
- Pause for about two to three seconds and slowly push yourself up.
- Do the movement for as many reps as you can.
Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
The dumbbell incline bench press is a variation of the regular bench press, but with a notable twist. While they both work similar muscles with this exercise, you can unilaterally train your target muscles. This helps with training imbalance and allows you to focus better, building increased levels of mind-muscle connections, which is effective for growth (4).
How To
The dumbbell incline bench press employs the same mechanics as the bench press.
- Sit on a flat bench and grab one dumbbell using a neutral grip.
- Lie flat on the bench, keeping the dumbbell close to your chest, and ensure you arch your back slightly as you engage your core muscles.
- Take a deep breath and lift the weight, fully extending your arms and elbows. This is your starting position.
- Slowly lower the dumbbell to your chest and, after two to three seconds, return the weight to the starting position, completing one repetition.
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References
- Chaves, S. F. N., Rocha-JÚnior, V. A., EncarnaÇÃo, I. G. A., Martins-Costa, H. C., Freitas, E. D. S., Coelho, D. B., Franco, F. S. C., Loenneke, J. P., Bottaro, M., & Ferreira-JÚnior, J. B. (2020). Effects of Horizontal and Incline Bench Press on Neuromuscular Adaptations in Untrained Young Men. International journal of exercise science, 13(6), 859–872. https://doi.org/10.70252/FDNB1158
- Saeterbakken, A. H., Mo, D. A., Scott, S., & Andersen, V. (2017). The Effects of Bench Press Variations in Competitive Athletes on Muscle Activity and Performance. Journal of human kinetics, 57, 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1515/hukin-2017-0047
- Burd, N. A., Andrews, R. J., West, D. W., Little, J. P., Cochran, A. J., Hector, A. J., Cashaback, J. G., Gibala, M. J., Potvin, J. R., Baker, S. K., & Phillips, S. M. (2012). Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. The Journal of physiology, 590(2), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200
- Calatayud, J., Vinstrup, J., Jakobsen, M. D., Sundstrup, E., Brandt, M., Jay, K., Colado, J. C., & Andersen, L. L. (2016). Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. European journal of applied physiology, 116(3), 527–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7
