Single-Arm Push-Up
Trains the Pecs.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Take a push-up position with your feet much wider than your hips.
- Put one hand behind your back and set the other under the middle of your chest.
- Brace your stomach hard and squeeze your glutes.
- Lower your chest toward the floor, keeping the hips square and level.
- Go as far as you can control without twisting.
- Press back up to a straight arm, then finish the side before swapping.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips rotate open. Resisting the twist is most of what this exercise is; if the hips turn, it has become a push-up done at an angle.
- Setting the feet close together. A wide stance is what makes the anti-rotation manageable, and narrowing it turns the exercise into a balance problem first.
- Placing the hand out to the side. It sits under the middle of the chest, not under the shoulder, or the arm cannot press the body up in line.
- Attempting it before an elevated version is easy. Hands on a bench or bar makes it possible to work down from, and that is the route rather than failing repetitions on the floor.