The Larsen press is a bench press with your feet off the floor, so your legs cannot help. Coaches now teach it with the legs held out straight; nothing else changes. It is named after Adrian Larsen, an American powerlifter and former all-time bench press record holder in the 220 lb class.
He set that record this way. In a 2015 Super Training Gym interview he says he was born with dislocated hips and club feet, had corrective surgeries as a child, and trained to bench without his feet on the ground or any leg drive. OpenPowerlifting lists his best raw press as 265.3 kg (585 lb), in May 2013. Brolic lists the lift as Larsen Press (Barbell).
Muscles worked
Brolic tags the pectorals as primary, with the front deltoids and triceps as secondary. As in any bench press, the upper arms travel forward and together while the elbows straighten. Holding the legs out adds trunk work; coach Steve Denovi singles out the obliques, which stop you tipping.
One study had twenty men bench 60% of their max with feet down, then with hips and knees bent to 90° and feet in the air; chest, front deltoid, triceps and abdominal activity was higher. That was a bent-knee press, and activity is not growth.
Set up and unrack
Use safeties or a spotter. Onnit calls falling off the bench the lift’s main drawback. Fitness Volt’s rule: a spotter, or a power rack with the safety bars set just above your chest. Check the height with an empty bar, legs out.
Set up as for your normal bench press, feet on the floor. Eyes under the bar, your usual grip, shoulder blades back and down.
Unrack, settle, then lift your legs. BarBend’s rule: without a spotter, unrack with your feet still down; with one, you may lift them first.
Straighten the knees and let the feet hover, together or crossed. Lammi’s cue is a long body, not a hollow hold; BarBend adds that the legs should not rise above the bench.
Press without leg drive
Lower under control to mid-chest, pause, press. Do not bounce. Onnit pauses for a second or two; Larsen pauses every rep, for balance and to practise driving hard off the chest. Keep reaching your chest toward the bar (Lammi still wants an arch) and keep the bar level; if your hips shift or one end dips, end the set.
Start lighter than the gap suggests. Denovi finds a practised lifter’s best Larsen press about 8% under their bench press. For learning, go well below that: BarBend’s sample sessions use sets of eight at 60 to 70% of your bench press max; Larsen strips the bar to about 70 to 75% after his normal bench work on a lighter day. Both are starting points for learning the movement; if you wobble, take weight off.
How it differs from a feet-up bench press
| Bench press | Larsen press | Feet-up bench press | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feet | On the floor | Off the floor, hovering | Flat on the bench |
| Knees | Bent | Straight | Bent |
| Leg drive | Yes | None | None |
| Arch | As you set it | Reduced | Mostly lost |
Avi Silverberg draws the line at the knees: legs straight is a Larsen press; legs bent with the feet on the bench is a feet-up bench press. Denovi adds that the Larsen press demands more side-to-side control; Onnit calls feet on the bench steadier.
No trial compares the three for muscle or strength; the table separates, not ranks. Jen Thompson, an IPF world champion quoted by Onnit, does not practise it: she judges the instability not worth the injury risk.
Logging
Brolic logs Larsen Press (Barbell) as a two-arm lift in reps with a load. Enter the total on the bar, bar included (the barbell calculator adds it up), and keep it in its own history: the same weight is harder without leg drive, so mixing the two hides whether either moved. Brolic’s Larsen Press (Smith Machine) entry stays apart too. The free workout log has room to note paused reps or feet on a box, and the weekly set tally shows how these sets add to your chest work.
Common questions
Do the legs have to be straight? In Larsen’s own video, no: straight or bent, as long as the feet never touch the ground. Coaches now teach straight legs. Log the one you do.
Can I rest my feet on a box? BarBend and Onnit allow it if hovering is uncomfortable. It is steadier; note it.
Will it build more chest than a regular bench press? Nothing establishes that; no trial has tested it.
My lower back or hips ache with the legs out. Rest your feet on a box or the bench, or put them on the floor. If it still hurts, stop; pain is not a cue to press through.
Sources and method
- Adrian Larsen: the Larsen press — the originator’s definition, paused reps, programming; automatic captions.
- Super Training Gym: Adrian Larsen (2015) — his hips and feet, benching without leg drive, the 2013 record; description and automatic captions.
- OpenPowerlifting — 265.3 kg raw, May 3, 2013.
- BarBend — Jake Boly: origin, unrack order, foot options, sample sessions.
- Onnit — Andrew Coates: steps, spotter caution, the Jen Thompson comment.
- Champion PT and Performance — Kiefer Lammi’s cues; Buff Dudes Workouts — feet together or crossed, no bounce; automatic captions.
- Steve Denovi and Avi Silverberg, PowerliftingTechnique.com — the 8% figure, obliques, feet-up distinction; archived copies.
- Fitness Volt — Patrick Dale: safety bars, level bar.
- Muyor et al. (2019) — feet down versus hips and knees at 90°; not the Larsen press.
- Brolic catalog version 2026-09-22.1 — names, logging mode and muscle groups.
Loads and pauses are starting points, not optima from a trial. A PubMed search for “Larsen press” on October 5, 2026 found no study of the lift.
