I love the dumbbell floor press.
It’s an exercise you can perform anywhere you have a set of dumbbells.
For those in a gym setting, it is a great accessory exercise to help you build strength in the bench press.
If you workout at home, it is one of the few dumbbell chest exercises you can perform without a workout bench.
It honestly might be one of the most underrated exercises that people don’t utilize. And I get it – there are exercises that provide a greater range of motion for the chest. Ones that provide deeper stretches to break down the muscle fibers.
But, if you’re limited in your gym equipment or simply have a goal to get stronger, it’s worth considering adding this exercise to your workout routines.
So, now that we’ve hyped up the dumbbell floor press, let’s go ahead and discuss the important elements of the exercise. In this expert guide, we’ll cover how to perform the dumbbell floor press, what it targets, how to add them into your workout routine, and variations of the exercise.
Let’s get started.
How to Perform the Dumbbell Floor Press
The dumbbell floor press requires you to have access to a set of dumbbells. If you work out at home, purchasing an adjustable set of dumbbells is something worth considering. With this exercise, you’ll want to select a moderate to heavier weight to really challenge the muscles being worked.
To perform the dumbbell floor press:
- Select the desired dumbbells you would like to use for the exercise.
- Place the dumbbells so that they will be on either side of you when lying on the floor (or have a spotter place them in your hands once you get into position).
- Lie down with your back on the floor. Squeeze your shoulder blades down and back. And bend your knees so that your feet are placed firmly on the ground.
- Maintain contact between the floor and your head, shoulders, back, glutes, and feet.
- While lying, curl the dumbbells until they are in a position to press them up.
- Extend your arms overhead and position the dumbbells so that they are aligned with your shoulders (think bench press).
- Brace your core and maintain tension through all contact points between the body and the ground.
- Lower your arms like how you would during a bench press. Keep lowering until your elbows/triceps have touched the floor.
- Contract your chest and press the dumbbells back to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
What Muscles Does the Dumbbell Floor Press Target?
The dumbbell floor press is a compound exercise that targets numerous muscles either directly or indirectly.
From a direct standpoint, the dumbbell floor press works the muscles of the chest. Notably, it trains the movement pattern of locking out at the end of a bench press.
From a secondary standpoint, it also directly trains the triceps and shoulders.
Indirectly, you will train the muscles of the core (and even a little legs) as you remain engaged and in contact with the floor.
How to Add the Dumbbell Floor Press to Your Workouts
The dumbbell floor press for gym goers will likely be a secondary exercise and will fall somewhere in the middle of their workouts.
For the at-home lifter, the dumbbell floor press could be a primary exercise of your push and chest workouts depending on what equipment you have available to you.
Regardless, the dumbbell floor press should be performed with moderate to heavy weight at moderate repetitions.
Generally, this means adding 2-4 sets of 6-12 repetitions of the exercise to your workout routine depending on your goals.
For those looking for specific workouts to add the dumbbell floor press, you will want to add them to the following:
- At any point during a full body workout.
- On upper workout days within an upper/lower split.
- On push days within a push/pull/legs split.
- On chest days for bro-split workouts.
Dumbbell Floor Press Variations
The dumbbell floor press is a variation of the dumbbell bench press and/or barbell floor press. There are several exercise that you can do to train this movement pattern and the muscles of the chest.
Listed below are several examples of exercise variations you can look into to meet your goals and exercise needs. As I add more content to Legacy Muscle, I will be sure to link them to their associated expert guide. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to use a YouTube search to find out more information about these variations.
- Barbell floor press
- Kettlebell floor press
- Dumbbell bench press
- Barbell bench press (with a block)
- Push ups
Conclusion
Now that you know all about the dumbbell floor press, I hope that you will give them a try if they align with your level of fitness and goals.
They are one of my favorite exercises to perform at home, and really the only way I am able to perform weighted training for my chest.
If you enjoyed this content, please consider bookmarking the Legacy Muscle website. I am publishing content nearly every day and would love to continue to be a part of your fitness journey.
And, if you have any friends or relatives who could benefit from reading my content, please text them a link to Legacy Muscle or share it with them on social media.
Doing so allows me to bring free fitness advice and workout templates to more people, the main mission in creating all of this content.