Floor Press (Barbell)
The Barbell Floor Press is a horizontal pressing exercise performed lying on the floor to limit range of motion and emphasize lockout strength. It targets the chest and triceps while minimizing shoulder strain by preventing the elbows from traveling behind the torso.
Since the floor press is often used to break through sticking points or work around shoulder discomfort, our AI analyzes your performance data to optimize load management. By correlating your daily recovery metrics—such as HRV and sleep—with your RPE and weight lifted, the app can adjust volume in real-time to ensure you are building lockout strength without aggravating your joints or overtraining the central nervous system.
Form Cues
- Retract your shoulder blades and keep them pinned against the floor.
- Lower the barbell with control until your triceps lightly graze the ground.
- Pause completely at the bottom for a split second to kill momentum.
- Drive the weight back up explosively to full elbow extension.
- Keep your knees bent and feet flat to stabilize your torso.
- Don't slam your elbows into the floor; control the descent.
- Don't lift your hips into a bridge position to cheat the weight up.
- Don't flare your elbows out to 90 degrees; keep them tucked around 45 degrees.
- Don't bounce the weight off your arms at the bottom.
Common Mistakes
- Bouncing elbows off the floor
- Bridging hips to change the angle
- Skipping the dead-stop pause
- Flaring elbows too wide
- Letting the bar drift over the face
Muscles Worked
This exercise places significant demand on the triceps (specifically the lateral and medial heads) due to the emphasis on the top lockout portion of the press. It also recruits the middle chest and anterior deltoids to drive the weight, though with less pectoral stretch than a standard bench press due to the reduced range of motion.
Primary
Secondary
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