Floor Press

[barbe705]

my shoulders have been bothering me lately. I was thinking about switching out the close grip bench for some floor presses. has anybony done them and had good results? do they take the stress off of the shoulders?

brent

[Matt Brouse]

I think they are harder on my shoulders. But I've got beat up old shoulders and have gravitated to an extreme arch in the BP. Floor is a lot flatter back. Might just be me.

[Magnus]

I think they are harder on my shoulders. But I've got beat up old shoulders and have gravitated to an extreme arch in the BP. Floor is a lot flatter back. Might just be me.

Ditto. I tried them, and I felt my shoulders working harder than anything else. But, my shoulders aren't the greatest, either.

[underdawg]

Yep, you'll probably be better off with a 2-3 board press.

[Bob Lipinski]

I only do floor presses now since quitting the gym. No easier on the shoulders.

Boards are a good answer. Also, how do you bench Brent? Bench form can make a huge difference. Smitty has one of the best bench form videos I have seen.

[aklifta907]

Stop benching for awhile and do bodyweight stuff for chest like push-ups and dips and see if they don't hurt your shoulders. Some people can't do dips due to shoulder pain. Funny thing, I stopped benching all together for 2 months completely. I did high rep push-ups with some chains on my back, and ALOT of dips. My bench went up 30 lbs in 2 months, no joke. I think the dips strengthened my Triceps alot and thats what led to a bigger bench, anyway, shoulders felt great. Now I rotate bench and bodyweight stuff for chest every couple months. My chest has not lost anything as far as shape goes, but I am stronger. Honestly my chest is big enough, I have no reason to go heavy anymore, now I just focus on maintaining.

[barbe705]

thanks for all of the responses. I have watched smitty's video, a while ago, time to check that out again. I do have some arch when I bench. I have 2 severely hernaited discs right at my pelvis and they prevent me from arching too much(pain as well as stiffness). All good ideas though. I'll have to play around and see how they feel and, from the sounds of it, try something else.

[Bob Lipinski]

Brent-

The lower back arch isn't as important as squeezing your shoulder blades together, then pressing hard with your legs to fix yourself to the bench. At the same time, keep your upper arms out at a 45 degree or less angle to your body.

Really, I changed my entire bench form by focusing almost exclusively on tricep stuff for about a year. In the short term my raw bench suffered, but it made the elbows-in form much more natural.

Board presses and more board presses.

[egg_uk]

you could also try dumbbell bench press, as long as you have a spotter or two for helping get the dumbbells up to you, and taking them off you. They feel much better on my shoulders than using a normal bar.

[BrandonA]

Floor press is all delts and tris....My shoulders are hit hard when I do them....

You can try a carpet press or a foam press..takes a lot of pressure off the shoulders at the bottom....Check EliteFTS..or supertraining.com for vids....

-B

[Dreadnought]

you could also try dumbbell bench press, as long as you have a spotter or two for helping get the dumbbells up to you, and taking them off you. They feel much better on my shoulders than using a normal bar.

I totally agree....Try doing bench presses using dumbbells. I also have bad shoulders and switched to using dumbells and have hardly any pain while working out and no pain after working out. I use "power hooks" These are great tools. You can hook/hang them on your olympic bar, then load them with what ever weight dumbell you want. There is no need to swing or horse the dumbbells up into the starting position (That alone can hurt your shoulder joints).

Edited February 22, 2009 by Dreadnought