Forward Drag with Press

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 calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension; the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down.

The quadriceps, shoulders and triceps take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:ChestCalvesGlutesHamstringsQuadriceps

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 strongman, where the load is deliberately awkward rather than balanced. Most of the difficulty goes on holding on and staying braced.

What you need

These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:

• Hammer Grip Incline Bench Pressdumbbell + bench
• Incline Bench Pressbench + barbell
• Incline Bench Press with Bandsband + bench
• Incline Cable Chest Presscable
• Incline Push-Upbody only

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 22 are listed at intermediate level.