Svend Press

🎯 Chest🏋️ OtherBeginnerCompoundForearms (2°)Shoulders (2°)Triceps (2°)

How to do the svend press

  1. Begin in a standing position.
  2. Press two lightweight plates together with your hands. Hold the plates together close to your chest to create an isometric contraction in your chest muscles. Your fingers should be pointed forward. This is your starting position.
  3. Squeeze the plates between your palms and extend your arms directly out in front of you in a controlled motion.
  4. Pause at the top of the motion, and then slowly return to the starting position.

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 forearms hold the grip, which is often what gives out first; 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:ChestForearmsShouldersTriceps

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

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

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.

Related exercises

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ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.