Floor Press
The floor press is usually performed with a barbell. Lie on the floor on your back with your head, shoulders and hips flat. To keep yourself from rocking, bend your knees and pull your feet in until they are flat on the ground and you can feel tension in your hips. Extend your arms and have a spotter hand you the bar, and grip the bar with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width. Lower the bar until your upper arms are flat on the ground, and pause for at least a count of one. This prevents you from bouncing off of the ground. Push the bar up to full extension.
Training
A variety of set and repetition schemes can be used for training with the floor press. Some powerlifters perform heavy single repetitions, attempting maximum weight. If you wish to try this, you need to spend a period of weeks working up to it by lowering your repetitions and increasing your training weight every session. The floor press can be performed with higher repetitions and volume, or you can perform the exercise with dumbbells. If you perform the floor press with dumbbells, do not attempt a maximum lift but use higher repetitions, at least six per set.
Alternatives
Alternate methods of training the floor press include adding chains to the bar. Heavy chains draped over the end of the bar add weight as you get closer to locking out the lift. As the chain is pulled off of the ground, you are moving more weight. This is another exercise favored by powerlifters, and is used to strengthen your triceps. To further work your triceps, bring your grip in closer, but not so close that you feel strain in your wrists. For extra work, you can perform the close-grip floor press with chains. The triceps are the most active muscles in any pressing exercise, according to a 1995 study published in the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research."
Alternative Exercises
The bench press is an alternative exercise to the floor press, and quickly replaced it in popularity. The military press works your shoulders and triceps heavily, and your chest to some degree. A benefit of the military press is that it also can be performed anywhere, and pressing a heavy barbell overhead while standing also recruits the muscles of your upper back, chest and core. If you have access to an adjustable bench, you can perform incline bench presses. On all exercises, you can adjust your grip, and by bringing your grip in, you will work your triceps more as you increase the range of motion.
