The Svend press, also known as the pinch press, is a very effective exercise for building bigger and stronger pectoralis majors  (chest). Although the Svend press is much different than conventional chest exercises, it’s still a great exercise to isolate the target muscles. 

The Svend press is the namesake exercise of 2001 World’s Strongest Man winner Svend Karlsen. While the exercise might look easy, remember that it’s strongman approved. 

All you need for the exercise are two small weight plates. As weird as it might sound, the World’s Strongest Man invented an exercise that does not require anything more than a couple of 10-pound weight plates. 

The Svend press involves squeezing the plates together in front of your chest, resulting in better pectoral muscle recruitment. So, include this exercise in your chest routine as a finisher, or do it as a standalone movement on your non-chest working days. 

Remember, the Svend press is unconventional, but that doesn’t make it any less of a functional exercise. It is an incredibly effective exercise for inducing muscle-ripping chest pumps, building the highly sought-after middle chest striations, and achieving overall pectoral strength and conditioning.

In this article, you’ll learn the correct way of performing the Svend press, its benefits, target muscles, common mistakes, and the best variations and alternatives. 

The Svend press primary targets your upper and lower pectoralis major. Establishing a mind-muscle connection and achieving a pump while performing the exercise might require some practice.

However, once dialed in, the Svend press could become your go-to exercise for annihilating your pecs at the end of your chest workouts.

Since the Svend press involves pushing the weight plates in front of your body, it will result in anterior deltoid and triceps engagement. Remember, if you feel tension on your biceps during the exercise, you’re probably going too heavy and should try again with a lighter weight.

This is how to perform the exercise:

Some of the most prevalent Svend press mistakes include:

Many lifters treat the Svend press like the dumbbell press and rush through the movement. However, to make the most of the lift, you should slow down your rep tempo and focus on contracting your pecs throughout the range of motion.

If you feel you cannot complete the stipulated reps while following a slow rep speed, you should try dropping the weights you are using. Your form, more than anything else, plays the most important role in this exercise. 

As mentioned above, to get the best bang for your buck in this exercise, you should ensure your arms are parallel to the floor throughout the movement.

Lowering your arms or lifting them above shoulder height will result in greater delt engagement. Forget that a WSM champ created this exercise and focus on exercise form precision rather than chasing bigger weights. 

Rounding your back or slouching your shoulders while performing the exercise can take away tension from your chest and put it on your shoulders. 

During the exercise, maintain an upright torso and keep your chest up and shoulders pinned back. Also, you shouldn’t be shrugging your shoulders while performing the Svend press. 

Advantages of adding the Svend press to your exercise arsenal include:

If you’ve ever performed the barbell or dumbbell bench press, you probably know these are high-impact exercises, meaning they put your shoulder and elbow joints under significant stress. 

Plus, since your shoulder rotator cuffs are tiny muscle groups, they fatigue faster than your pecs, making you leave gains on the table. 

On the other hand, the Svend press puts the majority of the focus on your pecs. Plus, since you won’t probably be lifting more than 20 to 30 pounds in this exercise, it reduces your chances of injury during training.

Plus, the Svend press is a great exercise for people recovering from an injury who cannot risk performing high-impact exercises like the bench or dumbbell press.

Although the Svend press is a compound movement, it helps you focus on your target muscles by making you slow down and contracting your pecs with every rep.

If you want to build muscle mass, your goal should be to achieve muscular hypertrophy, which helps build muscle size and strength. With its low weight load and longer time under tension, the Svend press is designed for hypertrophy.

If you struggle with achieving muscle pumps while training your chest, you should add the Svend press to your training regimen. Furthermore, the mind-muscle connection you establish during the Svend press will carry forward to other chest exercises. 

If you are someone who loves leaving the gym with a nasty pump, the Svend press is the perfect fit for you. The exercise isn’t overly demanding and ensures maximal pectoral muscle fiber recruitment, resulting in muscle-ripping pumps. 

Here are Svend press variations and alternatives worth trying:

If you train in your garage gym or basement and don’t have access to barbells or weights plates, you can perform the Svend press using a dumbbell or kettlebell. 

To perform the variation, grab a dumbbell’s handle with both hands and follow the steps mentioned above. While using a kettlebell, grasp the cannonball using both hands. 

For maximum pectoral engagement, you should squeeze the dumbbell’s handle as hard as possible and press against the cannonball using both hands with all your might. 

The cable Svend press is an easier variation and great for beginners. Here is how to perform the exercise with the correct form:

The upper chest is a weak muscle group for most people, and the incline bench Svend press is a great exercise to target your upper pecs. 

The Hex press is a dumbbell variation of the Svend press performed on a flat bench. Here is how to perform the exercise:

Check out our complete hex press guide!

Since the barbell floor press involves a limited range of motion and puts less tension on your rotator cuffs than the conventional bench press, it can be considered an alternative to the Svend press. 

Check out our complete barbell floor press guide!

The Svend press is one of the most underutilized chest exercises. It is one of the lifts that look easy but will leave your pecs begging for mercy as soon as you begin the exercise. 

Make sure you are contracting your pecs with every rep. The Svend press is a great exercise to pre-exhaust your pecs at the beginning of a workout or finish with a muscle-ripping pump. 

I'm NASM Certified Personal Trainer and nutritional coach since 2012. I've many certifications including NASM-FNS, NASM- CES and NASM-CPT I am part-time writer, have written for many publications include flex, fitnessvolt, coachmag and M&F.

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