How to Do A Flawless One Arm Pushup for 10 Reps
The One Arm Pushup is an advanced bodyweight exercise that requires a ton of strength in the chest, triceps and shoulder muscles. In addition, a great deal of core strength and stability is required to perform the one arm pushup with really good form.
Why Should You Care About Doing A One Arm Pushup?
- The pushup muscles and strength you will build while progressing to this movement is totally worth it
- This exercise is gonna build a super strong core
- You can perform this exercise ANYWHERE – at home, at the beach, at a park…
- They’re just plain badass (how many people do you know that can do one of these?) With good form that is!
Now most people that claim they can do a one arm pushup aren’t even close. Here are the common mistakes I see:
#1 – Side of foot on the ground – Weak core
#2 – Legs super wide – Weak core
#3 – Leaning to the side – Weak core
#4 – Butt up in the air – Weak chest and triceps
#5 – Elbow poking out – weak triceps
A flawless one arm pushup should look just like a normal elbows tucked in pushup but only with one hand. I’m willing to bet that there a VERY FEW people that can do a flawless one arm pushup.
You Need To Build Up To A One Arm Pushup
Here are some more in depth progressions I went through to achieve the one arm pushup! Complete each progression before moving onto the next one.
Progression 1 – Regular Pushup for 30 plus reps
Progression 2 – Elbows Tucked to Sides Pushup for 30 plus reps
Progression 3 – One Arm Assisted Push-ups with a basketball for 10 reps
Note – the further the ball is away from you the hardest it is. Build up to doing 10 reps with your arm fully stretched out until you move to step 4.
Progression 4 – One Arm Pushups with Hand on Bench
Here, you’re going to do a one arm pushup (like you would on the ground) the only difference is you’re going to do it with your hand elevated on a surface.
By placing your hand on an elevated surface such as a bench you remove a little bit of the resistance. Therefore making it easier. Gradually lower the surface you use getting closer and closer to the ground.
Progression 5- One Arm Pushup!
As you practice them and get better and better at doing them, you can bring your feet in closer together, tuck your elbow closer to your side and limit sideways leaning.
Supplementary Exercises – These exercises will greatly improve your one arm pushup abilities
1. Weighted Pushups – Perform these with a weight on your back. This exercise will help build the raw pressing power making your one arm pushups easier.
2. Dumbbell Bench Press – Another option if you need to add strength to your chest, shoulders, and tris.
3. Bar Dips – Great exercise to strengthen triceps
4. Renegade Rows – Probably the most beneficial exercise for increasing core strength and stabilization to do the one arm pushup. Do these for 3-6 reps per side with a heavy weight and try to keep your torso completely straight and avoid torquing or leaning to the side.
Note – Keep reps low to build strength and don’t train to failure (training to failure will burn you out and stall your progress)
How To Implement This Into Your Workout Routine
In order to develop a skill you must train it often and train it while you are fresh. Remember that!
So I recommend practicing the movement at least 3x a week. You can perform a one arm pushup progression at the beginning of each of your Strength training workouts. In addition I would make sure to do the renegade rows at least 2x a week.
Example:
Beginning of Workout
One arm pushup progression: 3 sets of 5 quality reps without going to failure
End of Workout
Renegade Rows: 3 sets of 3-6 reps per side with a heavy weight (build up to 50% of your bodyweight in each hand)
Whats Next?
After you can do Flawless One Arm Pushups with ease, the next step is to raise your feet up on a bench. This is an extremely advanced bodyweight exercise and if you can get to this point your a physical freak and you should be extremely proud.
For more on combining bodyweight training with traditional weight training, check out this article here.
But What About Other Badass Bodyweight Movements?
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There reason feet together with spine straight is impossible is because the pressing hand is outside the center of mass line. If you move the pressing hand in line of the center of mass of the body(diamond one hand pushup) then it is possible.
am i a physical freak then? i can only do 1 perfect one arm pushup with my chest going near floor, but i am 14
Great tutorial,especially helped to add some reps to OA pushups.Strange,but it also developed my upper back,even though my form is good o.O
This is a good article,I have been training this movement for 2 months now after getting the CC Ebook,the thing is,I can do the feet together one arm push up variation with very nice form,exactly like Jim Bathurst and Al Kavadlo has demonstrated in their Youtube channels by the name of perfect one arm push up and ultimate one arm push up respectively.If you see al’s the ultimate one arm push up video in his channel,his form is as good as it gets if you must keep the feet together,and my form is by no means different than him.I can do this feet together variation for 8-10 reps with both my hands after 2 months of training.I have a lots of questions regarding this and I hope you will help me out with them,so here it goes,
1)Al,in his “pushing the limits” book regarded one arm one leg push up as a surprisingly easier move compared to the feet together aka the “ultimate”(as he goes on to say) variation,both from the balance and strength perspective.I however,in spite of being able to do over 10 reps of the ultimate one arm push ups with my right hand,can only do 1(with a shitload of struggle) one arm one leg pushup with perfect form.Just 1,and not because I dont have the balance,my balance is pretty good,its just that when I am done with the eccentric phase and about to initiate the concentric phase,I feel like I am not gonna move no matter how much I press,eventually after 5-6 seconds I can complete the concentric or the pushing part.So,there is no comparison in between these two moves as far as strength is concerned,the naked warrior variation seems to clearly take a lots of strength for me.Again I am telling you I am 200% sure that I have ideal form in both movements.I have also seen a guy mentioning in a GMB forum that the naked warrior version is actually harder,so tell me what do you think?Which one is harder for you as far as strength is concerned?
2)I did the feet together variation on a weight scale once,it gave me a reading of 72% of my BW in top position and 76% of my BW in the bottom position,I guess the pressure on the scale was 73-75% of my BW,most of the time,but,in order to find out the amount of weight I am really lifting(more like finding the equivalent of weight lifted in a dumbbell bench press),should I eliminate the weight of my pushing arm which should be 5-6% of my BW,so,if the scale shows a reading of approximately 75% of my BW,should that mean that I am actually pressing/lifting (75-5)%=70% of my bodyweight,after eliminating the weight of my pushing hand,since it lifts,its not being lifted.OR should I consider the weight percentage recorded i the scale as the weight I am actually lifting?
3)Just like a regular pushup mimics the pressing movement pattern of a bench press,does the feet together one arm pushup mimic the pressing movement pattern of a perfect form dumbbell bench press?The reason I ask this is because I went to perfect/ultimate one arm pushup within just 2 months and I speculated it should have taken a lot more than that.so I did not exactly find it a very advanced move to pursue.My question is,since a legit one arm pushup done on a scale records 70-75% of my bodyweight does that mean that I should be able to dumbbell bench press with at least 70% of my bodyweight?I am fully aware that these tw workout use different sabilizer systems,but if taken just from a resistance perspective,will I be able to generate the same amount of force against a free weight,as is recorded in the scale?thanks in advance.
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One Arm Pushup | Kinobody Fitness Systems
Hey Greg!
Was wondering to incorporate this progression system into the S&D of your muscle building?
Would it be enough work for my chest if i do:
standing press
one arm pushup variation
lateral raises
flyes or skull crushers
Was thinking to maybe add flyes instead of skull crushers, since i think the triceps will get plenty of work from standing press and one arm pushup, and maybe the chest will need a bit extra while i work my way up to a one arm pushup. (doing standing press as main, since my shoulders needs more than my chest)
Does it sound like a way to do it?
Thanks in advance, love your work!
Already learned the front lever (missing 1-2cm to get completly horizontal, but i will get there soon), the pistol squat today with 12kg for 5 reps and training at least once a day for the stand to stand bridge, with great results, really love your work!
Also, whats your thought on the ab excercise where you lift your legs to the bar, and then lower them from side to side in a “12 o clock, 9 o clock 12 o clock 3 o clock – repeat” – motion..
Have no idea whats its called, but i can really feel my obliques burn!
Definately not advanced bodyweight training, pretty easy really took a couple attempts to nail it pretty good and do more than 5 reps comfortabley but depends on the person
i know my problem is a weak core now……………..
has anyone read convict conditioning ??
i have never seen a single handed pushup like the one in that book :)(EXACTLY same as a normal pushup excpet with 1 hand)
thats my goal!!
Screw the feet together one arm push up. It is actually a really bad way to perform the one arm push up. The only way to do it with your feet together is to bend your body to the side. In my opinion it is more effective to have your feet shoulder width or wider but keep your torso square to the ground and avoid any bending/twisting.
but wouldnt keeping my feet together AND my torso straight make me stronger ?
is it even possible to keep the body perfectly alligned while in the one arm pushup position with the feet together ?
i observed the same thing during renegade rows…no matter how hard i prepare my core its just to damn hard to keep my body straight AND on one arm.
im confused should i stop going after one arm pushups with feet together ?
YES YOU SHOULD STOP TRYING TO DO SOMETHING THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE! It’s physics. There is no way to do a perfectly aligned one arm push up with your feet together. If it was possible there would be tons of videos on youtube showing people doing it. Keep those legs spread out with your chest square to the ground and arm against it’s side. That’s a perfect one arm push up.
thanks for the reply….:D
btw u are ripped…:) . im saying good-bye to my HUGE breakfast from today onwards!!
also how should i train in order to jump VERY high. i am 5ft 8inch and it would be sweet if i could dunk a basketball.
Dunking a basketball at 5’8 probably won’t happen unless you can already touch the rim with ease. It’s very rare for someone to increase their vert by more than 4-6″
I had the best benefit training hang cleans and hang snatches as well as practicing jumping.
“If it was possible there would be tons of videos of it on YouTube” That’s a load of bull shit, especially since this artical is saying that its rare to see someone even do a one arm push up how he’s demonstrating. Is it impossible? I don’t know but there are plenty of feats of strength out there that are possible but you’ll only find maybe a handful of videos or even just pictures of on the internet. Plus, if no one has done it yet its easy to say it’s impossible.
No it’s simply a matter of physics. Feet together one arm requires you to bend your body for counter balance which ruins the integrity of the movement.
Hey Gregg,tell me something,which one is harder from the resistance perspective,one arm one leg pushup or feet shoulder width apart one arm pushups,in both of these variations it is possible to do the movement while keeping your shoulders and torso perfectly parallel to the floor and avoiding the snake like bend in the waste.Does lifting one leg off the ground enable you to push against more weight(transfers more weight on your front portion of the body) than the regular “both feet grounded and kept no further than shoulder width” variation?Also,do you think that the snake like bend in waste that is inevitable while performing the feet together variation is a sort of cheating and does it minimize the resistance you push against?please try helping me out with the questions that I posted in the previous comment,I really wanna get rid of these confusions.
It depends, I consider shoulder width one arm push ups to be harder.
Yeah the snake like bend is not ideal. Don’t go closer than shoulder width, it compromises the movement.
To the contrary, one-arm pushups are an advanced exercise. That is to agree with the admin that precious few who claim to be able to do one can actually perform a strict one-arm pushup. Most of what passes for OAP are either partial range or ugly, twisting contortions or a combination of both.
Greg, great start on the blog. You might want to install *akismet* plugin cause you only have spam comments. The only real comment here is from John. Yes – all the others are spam.
Yavor
Thanks Yavor!
Yah I have it installed. Those comments were just when I started my blog. I’ll have to delete them.
Added a aweber mailing list.
Just input your information and you will be subbed.
One arm push up is not an “advanced” body weight skill……
full planche is advanced and even then, not terribly hard.
Elevator on rings, maltese, victorian, inverted cross, these are things that are advanced.
One arm push ups are great guys, but dont let this guy who still wants to look stylish in clothes give you advice on what is advanced…
I completely agree with you. For gymnasts and elite bodyweight masters the one arm pushup is not advanced. However if done with flawless form it is advanced especially for most people.
Awesome! Many more articles coming.
Let me know if there is anything you would like to cover?
Some of my next articles will talk about; a diet approach for pure muscle gains and the most effective workout for fat loss.