The What? The Danish Floor Press!
Now we are finally moving into the niche of the fitness industry. What is the Danish Floor Press?
This, rather wonderful, exercises comes courtesy of Martin and Mikkel Fuldbaek from (no prizes for guessing) Denmark. It was originally devised with MMA fighters in mind around the 2010s but I’ve found it to be a wonderful addition to both strength and conditioning work.
What Is It Then?
The Danish Floor Press (henceforth DFP), is a wonderful variation of the floor press which uses the Landmine attachment in a rather clever way. Let’s check out the technique video before discussing it’s advantages.
Now floor presses with the Landmine are something that you will see on a semi-regular basis in the gym. At least, I presume people see them at the gym. I’m still training at home at the minute so my garden gym buddies amount to two schnauzers.
In any case, people use the Landmine for floor presses. What makes the DFP different is the lifter’s placement. Typically lifters doing Landmine floor presses will position themselves outside, rather than inside, the barbell. The below video does a great job of showing the typical Landmine Floor Press (For fun and confusion, let’s call this one the LFP).
So the LFP serves a great purpose in targeting the chest. The DFP, in contrast, works the chest and the core muscles as well. Don’t worry, I haven’t fallen into the functional fitness trap of the 1990s. But I do have an appreciation of multi-muscle group movements.
So the DFP works your abs and obliques. Why else is it a great variation to try? My shoulders, as I’ve mentioned before, are made of peanut brittle. I have found that with tight form, the DFP puts less pressure on my shoulder joint as my body travels with the direction of the barbell.
Additionally by positioning yourself inside the barbell, and right next to the plate, you don’t have to worry about hitching the barbell into a pressing movement. At heavier weights, the need to prop the barbell into your hand makes the LFP impossible to do if you’re training by yourself or with two schnauzers.
Why Else?
As someone who has gotten into two teenage fights during the course of their life, and lost both, I am not an authority on fighting. Also I just realized that sentence made it sound like I fought teenagers as an adult. We were all the same age, they were just much better at fighting.
Moving on … I stumbled across this exercise when I was trawling through MMA forums several years ago and have been using it ever since. Many of the fighters who recommended the exercise called it one of the best additions to their training in years. For them the crossover into punching power was obvious.
Who knows, maybe teenage Conor would have won those fights if he had discovered the DFP. It’s doubtful but nevertheless enjoyable for me to delude myself.
In terms of set up, I’ve found doing these at the end of a chest workout to be quite a nice finishing exercise. At other points they’ve been a great warm up for heavy bench days. If nothing else, it’s just fun to try something different.
As always … Happy Lifting!
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