Floor press is a difficult exercise for me compared to competition bench. I can lift more on my bench than floor press which from what I’ve been reading isn’t normal, most people its usually the opposite.
Does that mean my chest is very weak or shoulders?
Do you use competition grip with floor press or more narrow grip?
I will keep doing them, but curious of everyone’s experience with floor press and carry over to improving bench.
Here is a set of floor press from this morning, my pinky is on the ring (normal competition grip my index finger is on the ring)
Try normal grip width and see if that gets you within 10% of your normal bench. Also, are you doing floor presses to train an overload weight or as a tricep dominant exercise? If yes to either then I suggest more board presses or reverse band presses.
[quote]caylanmicahsmom wrote:
Floor press is a difficult exercise for me compared to competition bench. I can lift more on my bench than floor press which from what I’ve been reading isn’t normal, most people its usually the opposite.
[/quote]
Nope, you have that backwards. Floor presses are supposed to be more difficult than a flat bench press. You can’t arch, you can’t leg drive and since for most people the ROM is lessened so you can’t take advantage of the stretch reflex off the chest near as much. My FP was 75ish# less than my bench. For me the floor press was like a dead bench.
I would allow the arms to hit the floor and semi relax here. Kind of like a dead bench. If you arent relaxing a bit at the bottom you are basically doing an unknown board press, which most people CAN lift more than a full ROM bench. This probably explains why your FP is more than your BP.
Thanks guys that helps.
Strengthdawg…I thought I might have it backwards. I guess my sticking point is the same as right at the bottom of the floor press portion, so I assumed my chest and shoulder are weak there. Yes, my FP is harder and have to use less weight than my bench. Before the floor presses I did 170# paused for 3.
I will stick with it. I am supposed to do 3 board presses today, but I’m on vacation and figured floor presses were a good substitute.
[quote]caylanmicahsmom wrote:
Thanks guys that helps.
Strengthdawg…I thought I might have it backwards. I guess my sticking point is the same as right at the bottom of the floor press portion, so I assumed my chest and shoulder are weak there. Yes, my FP is harder and have to use less weight than my bench. Before the floor presses I did 170# paused for 3.
I will stick with it. I am supposed to do 3 board presses today, but I’m on vacation and figured floor presses were a good substitute. [/quote]
Floor presses are one of my fav’s.
generally speaking, if you are weak off the chest, you need to work on your upper back and lats as they play a huge role in your off the chest strength. Big bench = big back!
Cute kids in your avitar? yours?
I replaced my OHP with the floor press in January and my bench has gone way up since. We’ll see what I can officially bench at my meet this Saturday. I do it after bench and use the same exact programming with it (531).
floor press can be higher or lower depending on your leverages. My best floor press before my last meet was 315 and my bench was 330.
I like it for more volume work for building the bench
@Strengthdawg…you are right. I’ve been hitting rows and pull-ups hard, but will continue to do so…also throwing in rear delt work as well. Thanks…yes, my daughter turned 5 in February and my son will be 2 on Saturday…they grow up fast. 
@MightyMouse17…yes, I think my shoulders are weak and have military press programmed once a week this training cycle, I’m hoping it will make a difference. I’m learning different things work for different people, but the basics are the basics which are tried and true
