maratoolAlternating Floor Press
How to do the alternating floor press
- Lie on the floor with two kettlebells next to your shoulders.
- Position one in place on your chest and then the other, gripping the kettlebells on the handle with the palms facing forward.
- Extend both arms, so that the kettlebells are being held above your chest. Lower one kettlebell, bringing it to your chest and turn the wrist in the direction of the locked out kettlebell.
- Raise the kettlebell and repeat on the opposite side.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abdominals brace the trunk so force can pass between the hips and the shoulders; the deltoids stabilise the shoulder and add force at the top of the range; the triceps straighten the elbow to finish the movement.
Every exercise for:ChestAbdominalsShouldersTriceps
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
A kettlebell's mass hangs below and outside the handle, so it pulls away from the grip and the wrist has to stay packed. That offset is why racked and swinging variations feel nothing like the dumbbell version.
Every exercise using:Kettlebell
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Around The Worldsdumbbell
- Barbell Bench Press - Medium Gripbarbell
- Bench Pressbench + barbell
- Bench Press - With Bandsband
- Bodyweight Flyese-z curl bar
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 63 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.