History Of The Floor Press

The floor press started before the bench press!  The bench press was invented during the mid 19th century, but before the bench press was even invented lifters would lie on the floor and floor press. As the bench press started becoming popular lifters started to forget about the floor press and started bench pressing instead. However, within the last decade former bench press world record holder Jesse Kellum (who bench pressed 735@209 back when gear wasn’t as effective as it is now,) re-invented the floor press and the exercise became popular again. He quickly discovered how much that the lift was helping him increase his bench press.  Bodybuilders have also been using the floor press to help them build size.

How Does A Floor Press Help Your Bench?

According to Dave Tate;  “Floor Press: This is a special max effort exercise designed to help strengthen the midpoint of the bench press. It is also very effective in increasing tricep strength. This exercise is performed exactly the same as the bench press except you lay on the ground instead of on a bench. Make sure to pause in the bottom of the movement before the accent. This exercise has been used with much success at westside barbell club for the past seven years.

Our intent is two-fold in examining these workouts. First, these workouts, being exemplars of the CrossFit ideal, give us opportunity to lay bare some of the possibly unseen considerations and details we weigh in our programming design. Second, these six workouts introduce a series of workouts that will serve to measure and benchmark your performance and improvements through repeated, irregular, appearances in the “Workout of the Day”. The workouts intended as benchmarks will be readily distinguished from other Workouts of the Day by their being given, in each instance, a female name.

Our first six benchmark workouts are split evenly between two distinct thematic groups. The first three workouts are comprised entirely of push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and squats while the second group is distinguished by couplets of fundamental weightlifting and calisthenic or gymnastic elements. Each is scored by time.

WHO IS READY?

Fight Gone Bad (F.G.B.) was originally designed about a decade ago for local boy, LW UFC Champ BJ Penn!  When BJ Penn did F.G.B. for the first time, he was put flat on his back when it was over!  When he was asked about to compare the workout to a fight, he said it was like a “fight gone bad”.
F.G.B. was designed to match the time and domain of a UFC fight, while EXCEEDING its metabolic demands.  Meaning, whatever the demands were in a UFC fight, F.G.B. exceeds them in terms of force (heavier), distance (longer ranges of motion), and time (work faster).  In the workout, you work for 5 minutes on 5 different stations (Concept 2 Rower, Wall Ball, SDLHP, 20″ Box Jump, and Push Press) and rest for 1-minute. Normal F.G.B. lasts for 3 rounds, while a Championship Fight or Championship F.G.B. would be 5 rounds long.  The reasoning behind the 1-minute at each station then on to the next station, was because Coach Glassman didn’t want stamina to be a significant factor in the workout.  Since localized muscle endurance limitations reduces the metabolic demands by cramping you up and forcing you to rest, in this workout right when localized muscle endurance is about to be a significant factor you move to the next movement.  Thus, 1 minute was deliberately chosen because it is the time limit found at the crest of the glycolytic pathway (the middle metabolic pathway).
F.G.B. in my own words:  “Just when you’re getting to your threshold of pain and don’t think you can pull off another rep, 1-minute is up and you jump to the next station. So precise and so awesome!”  Now, go get your fight on!

The first CrossFit open WOD is coming today at 5:00pm. Who is in?