Single-Arm Floor Press

How to do it

1. Lie on your back on the floor with one dumbbell or kettlebell held over your chest.
2. Bend the knee on the loaded side with the foot flat, or keep both legs straight.
3. Rest the free arm out to the side on the floor for balance.
4. Press the weight up until the arm is almost straight.
5. Lower under control until the upper arm touches the floor, and pause.
6. Press again from the dead stop, then finish the side before swapping.

Common mistakes

• Letting the loaded side roll off the floor. One weight on one side is a rotation the trunk resists for the whole set, and the floor makes that resistance measurable — if the shoulder lifts, the load is too heavy.
• Pushing off the free hand. Resting it out to the side is balance; pressing into it hands the anti-rotation work to the other arm.
• Bouncing the elbow off the floor. The pause is the exercise.
• Taking half your two-arm weight. The trunk is the limit here well before the chest or triceps are.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Triceps

Secondary

• Pecs
• Shoulders