What are the benefits of doing floor presses? I understand that they are a half range of motion and should be engaging my pecs, triceps and delts more than a bench press. Mainly I've started doing floor presses because I wanted to eliminate the possibility of other body movement. Is there any other benefits?
If I'm not mistaken, the main benefits of floor press are #1) training the triceps to provide a strong finish by hitting the zone where they engage hardest with heavy weight and #2) working your sticking point, which for most is typically related to #1. I did floor presses for a long time and got quite strong on bench while using the exercise. I need to start doing them again, but my current gym has no set up for them :-( I don't know if what I did will work for you or anyone else, but I would do them after my regular bench sets, very heavy (for me) at over 205 lbs. for sets of 5-8. One thing to keep in mind is to resist using momentum. In my opinion, you reap more benefits from the floor press by using pinpoint control. I've seen a lot of guys bounce their upper arm off the floor. No good. Of course, these are same folks who bounce off their chests in regular presses.
You're right about the pinpoint control. When I first started doing these I found myself using more momentum since I wasn't used to the exercise. Now I'm doing my reps more slowly and I'm not allowing my upper arms and elbows to touch the floor. It's too soon to see any results, but I definitely feel a difference with how it's helping some of my other lifting on the bench.
I'm interested in trying these, and did some reading. It would seem to be important that you actually "rest" your arms on the floor for a brief time (less that a second). The goal is to get the muscles to "relax" so that you must forcefully re-engage them. That seemed to be what most of the websites that seemed reasonable suggested. Thoughts?
I would agree. Touching the floor for a sec is fine, but bouncing off the floor is something to avoid.
Ran into my ex-trainer at the gym today (I know this may be bad, but I used him a grand total of once when I joined the gym and decided it was time to start lifting--up until I was 45 I never spend any regular time in the weight room). Anyway, we became friends and I asked him about floor presses. He thought they were good, but he thought dips, and plyometric type press exercises were better. To my way of thinking, everything could bring something to the "heavier bench press" party.