“How much can you bench?” A common question I would ask my friends and teammates as a young adult, thinking the weight you could press somehow ranked your level of toughness.
The bench press was the “cool” exercise and I spent a lot of time trying to perfect it and increase the amount of weight I could press.
As I’ve grown older and more experienced, I’ve looked back and realized how ridiculous I must have sounded! However, throughout my journey in fitness I found an exercise, the floor press, that has helped me break through pressing plateaus and has a lot more benefits than just measuring your tough factor!
Below, is just a short list of the benefits you will experience when you include the floor press in your training routine.
#1 – IMPROVES UPPER BODY STRENGTH
Performing the floor press improves strength in the chest, shoulders, deltoids, and triceps.
Although the floor press doesn’t involve much of the lower body, and is a partial range of motion lift, it is still a multi-jointed exercise that recruits several different muscles.
This makes it an awesome tool for targeting the muscles and portions of the lift help break through plateaus for improving strength in the bench press, shoulder press, push-ups, handstand push-ups and ring dips.
#2 – PREVENTS INJURIES
Because the floor press involves less range of motion than a bench press, does not add excessive strain to the shoulders and isolates the chest and triceps it is a great tool for building a neurological connection.
Building a neurological connection simply means targeting specific muscles you want to activate in an exercise. In doing so, you will be able to increase the number of muscle fibers recruited during each contraction.
This is highly beneficial for preventing training injuries and increasing shoulder stability for daily activity.
Finally, because the floor press does not require as much external rotation of the shoulder, it is an excellent lift for someone training through an injury who cannot perform a full range of motion press.
#3 – HELPS BURN FAT AND REDUCE RISK OF CHRONIC DISEASE
By improving your upper body strength, you’re also building lean muscle. When you build lean muscle, it increases your resting metabolic rate, burning more calories through the day, and increases lean body composition.
Lean body composition correlates to a lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure and decreased risk of chronic disease.
#4 – DOESN’T REQUIRE AS MUCH EQUIPMENT
If you’re limited on access to a bench at the gym or training from home with limited equipment, the floor press is an excellent alternative to bench press with all the same benefits!
The floor press is much more than a “lesser” bench press! It is a great exercise for building upper body strength, burning fat and preventing injury! The health benefits reach far and wide, and never again will you have to worry about all the benches being used at the gym!
Schedule a free consultation HERE to see how Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness can help you with your goals!
COACH PHIL KNIEP – Owner & CEO of Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness
Precision Nutrition L1 Coach
CrossFit Level 2 Trainer
Endurance Certified
Mobility Certified
Scaling Certified
3x CrossFit Games Qualifier