Landmine Chest Press

What the landmine chest press actually trains

The landmine press is a press along an arc. One end of a barbell is anchored in a landmine attachment or wedged into a corner, and you press the free end up and away from your chest.

Because the anchored end cannot move, the bar travels on a curve rather than a straight line. That is the defining feature and the reason the exercise exists.

The chest does most of the work, with the front delt and triceps assisting. The direction of travel is upward and inward, which puts it somewhere between a flat press and an overhead press, closest to an incline press in emphasis.

What makes it worth knowing is the shoulder position. The arc keeps the upper arm relatively close to the body throughout, and the shoulder never reaches the wide, externally rotated position that pressing variations tend to force. Kolber and colleagues, reviewing resistance training shoulder injuries, describe the loaded positions most often implicated, and a landmine press stays clear of them.

For someone whose shoulders dislike barbell benching and overhead pressing, this is one of the few pressing patterns that usually stays comfortable while still loading the chest properly.

The standing version also adds a substantial trunk demand, especially with one arm, where the load is trying to rotate you and your abs are the only thing preventing it. Hibbs and colleagues reviewed the role of core training in performance, and anti-rotation work of this kind is a legitimate part of what the exercise trains.

Setting up and executing

Anchor one end of a barbell in a landmine attachment or a corner and load the free end. A folded towel protects the wall if you are using a corner.

Stand or half kneel facing the bar with the loaded end held at chest height. Cup the end in both hands, or hold it in one for the single arm version.

Set the feet, squeeze the glutes and brace the abs hard. On the single arm version this brace is the exercise as much as the press is.

Pull the shoulder blades down. Press the bar up and forward along the arc it naturally travels, keeping the elbows relatively close rather than flaring them wide.

Finish with the arms extended and the bar out in front of the upper chest, then lower back to chest height over two to three seconds.

Reset the brace between reps and do not let the torso twist.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Fighting the arc is the fault specific to this exercise. The bar is pinned at one end, so it has exactly one path available. Trying to press it in a straight line means wrestling the fixed pivot, which puts awkward strain on the wrists and shoulders and makes the whole thing feel wrong. Let the bar go where it wants.

Leaning back is the compensation people reach for when the weight is too heavy. The torso arches backwards to help the bar up, which loads the lower back and unloads the chest. Squeeze the glutes and stay stacked.

Shrugging hands the work to the traps. Keep the shoulder pulled down as the bar rises.

Twisting on the single arm version is the fault that turns a press into a rotation. The load wants to rotate you and if you let it, the abs stop doing their job. Square the hips and shoulders and keep them square.

And overloading it produces all of the above. The mechanics reward control, not maximum weight, and a heavy landmine press turns into a full body heave very quickly.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

For muscle gain, three sets of eight to fifteen with about ninety seconds of rest. For strength work, three to four sets of six to ten with two minutes. In a fat loss phase, three sets of ten to twenty with a minute.

Loading is awkward to track precisely, because a landmine bar transmits only part of the load to your hands depending on the angle. Do not compare the plates to a bench press, and do not chase the number. Track it as its own lift and progress by reps and control.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, so count these towards your chest pressing volume. Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable hypertrophy to going all the way, which suits this exercise because the trunk usually gives out before the chest does on the standing version.

If you are using it because of a sore shoulder, keep the loads moderate and the reps higher while things settle.

Where it fits in your split

As a pressing variation or accessory, generally after the main work.

On push, pull and legs it goes on push day. On an upper and lower split it is a shoulder friendly press in the upper session. On a bro split it fits on either chest or shoulder day, since it sits between the two.

The clearest reasons to programme it are a shoulder that dislikes conventional pressing, a home or minimal gym with a barbell and a corner but no bench, or a desire to combine pressing with genuine trunk work in one exercise.

If none of those apply and you have access to benches, dumbbells and machines, this is an accessory rather than a staple.

The single arm half kneeling version is the one to choose when the trunk demand is the point. The two handed standing version is the one to choose when the chest is.

Once a week is plenty.

Variations worth knowing

The single arm landmine press adds a large anti-rotation demand, because the offset load is constantly trying to twist you. This is the version most often programmed for athletes.

The half kneeling version removes the legs from the equation and forces the trunk and hips to do the stabilising, which makes it harder at the same load and much easier to keep honest.

The landmine floor press, lying on the floor, limits the range and takes the trunk out entirely, leaving a shoulder friendly press with no balance demand.

The Viking press uses a dedicated two handed attachment on the bar end and is usually loaded much more heavily, which makes it closer to an overhead press in character.

The incline dumbbell press is the conventional alternative for the same region, with more range and a straighter path, if your shoulders are happy with it.

And a machine chest press is the option when you want to load the chest with no stability demand at all.

What the evidence says

Kolber and colleagues reviewed shoulder injuries associated with resistance training and identified the loaded positions most often implicated. The landmine press keeps the upper arm relatively close to the torso throughout its arc, which is the mechanical basis for it being tolerable when other presses are not. That is a training option rather than a treatment.

Coratella and colleagues examined how pressing angle affects activity across the pectoralis and deltoid heads, which is relevant because the landmine arc sits between a flat and an overhead press and shares characteristics of both.

Hibbs and colleagues reviewed core training and its role in performance, which supports counting the anti-rotation demand of the single arm standing version as real training rather than incidental.

Saeterbakken and colleagues examined pressing variations in competitive athletes and found differences in strength and muscle activity across them, supporting the general principle that path and angle change the demand.

Schoenfeld and colleagues on volume and Refalo and colleagues on proximity to failure supply the programming, and Vigotsky and colleagues caution against reading activation data as a direct ranking of muscle-building effect.

Common questions

Is this a chest or a shoulder exercise?

Both, with the balance depending on how upright you are and how high you press. A standing press that finishes high involves the shoulders substantially. A more horizontal press with the torso upright and the finish out in front of the chest is closer to a chest exercise. Most people should treat it as a chest press with a meaningful shoulder contribution.

Why does the weight feel lighter than the plates suggest?

Because one end of the bar is anchored, so only part of the load transfers to your hands, and how much depends on the bar angle. This is why comparing landmine weights to bench press weights is meaningless. Track it as its own lift.

Do I need a landmine attachment?

No. Wedging one end of a barbell into the corner of a room works, and a folded towel protects the wall. A proper attachment is more stable and less likely to slip, but the corner version has been the standard improvisation for a long time.

One arm or two?

Two if the chest is the priority, since you can load it more and the trunk demand does not limit you. One if you want the anti-rotation work, or if you are correcting a side to side difference. Both are worth using, just for different reasons.

Will this fix my shoulder?

No, and nothing here should be read as treatment. What it can do is give you a way to keep pressing while a shoulder is unhappy with the conventional options, because the arm stays in a position most people find comfortable. If the shoulder is painful rather than merely grumpy, that is a matter for a clinician.