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One-Arm Push-Ups – Do The Upper Body Exercise Correctly
Table of Contents
One-arm push-ups are a technically challenging, spectacular exercise that clearly demonstrates an athlete’s physical skills. To learn them, you’ll need both basic physical fitness and the ability to maintain balance through the coordinated work of the stabilizer muscles. The correct technique and other aspects will be discussed below.
The benefits of exercise
One-arm push-ups, like the classic versions of this movement, build up the musculature of the upper body. In particular, these are the muscles of the chest, the anterior bundles of the deltas, and the triceps.
Exercise develops strength and endurance in the upper body muscles and trains coordination
However, the first option has two main differences:
When balancing on one hand, the latissimus dorsi and abs are actively involved in the work. It becomes even more difficult to maintain balance while moving. Looks promising, doesn’t it? You can challenge your own body!
Contraindications
The exercise has very few contraindications, despite its complexity. In fact, they are the same as classic push-ups. These are various joint injuries: shoulder, elbow, and wrist.
Do not perform one-arm push-ups if you experience pain or discomfort in your joints or muscles. Otherwise, the benefits of exercise will be minimal, plus there is a risk of harm to health.
Exercise technique
Different sources have different descriptions of the exercise technique. Even coaches do it differently. Some options are more effective, but more difficult, while others, in turn, are easier to perform, but the effect won’t be as pronounced.
One-arm push-up
Therefore, it’ll be logical to consider the most difficult version of the exercise and give several ways that’ll make it easier for you to master it.
Such an option implies that the position of the body looks much the same as for classic push-ups. You do not lean on two palms, but on one, directly under the body. In other words, your body is as straight as possible, your shoulders are parallel to the floor, and your legs are spaced apart at a distance comparable to the width of your shoulders.
This is what you should strive for. However, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to learn the exercise right away, even if you have impressive physical strength. It’s again about balance and the ability to mentally coordinate the work of a large array of muscles.
How to do one-arm push-ups properly?
Techniques to make the exercise easier:
The wider you spread your legs, the easier it becomes to maintain balance, and the further from the midline of the body you can put your working arm aside. Accordingly, you can transfer more load from the triceps to the pectoralis muscle
Moving your pelvis towards your working hand and lifting the opposite shoulder will also make balancing easier
It makes sense to use these techniques only at the very beginning, to feel the taste, so to speak. Otherwise, it is very tempting to get used to the fact that the exercise is easy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WePSA7zZHE
Preparatory exercises
To learn one-arm push-ups, you must first master a few lead-up exercises.
Lean partially on your other hand
In this exercise, you use small support, such as a ball, a bar, whatever is at hand. The technique is as follows:
These push-ups are more difficult than the classic ones. Try to transfer your weight to your working hand and gradually lift the other palm away from the support.
One hand on a support
Place your other hand inside out
Using a standard push-up position, place the palm of your working hand on the floor as usual, and turn the palm of your other hand inside out.
Thus, push-ups are not very convenient. Therefore, you’ll involuntarily transfer most of the weight to your working hand.
Get into a classic push-up position. Twist the palm of one hand and transfer your body weight to the other hand
Start pushing up, trying to fully focus on the working arm
Arms above feet
The exercise option allows you to reduce the load on the working hand, thereby hardening the muscles.
Place your working hand on a slight rise, such as a step platform, bench, or edge of a bed. In such a position, the load on the muscles will decrease, and you can fully focus on working out the balance. Take your other hand behind your back and straighten your body
Bending exclusively on the working hand, try to perform the movement correctly
Gradually lower the height of the support until you reach the floor. You’ll learn to balance right away.
One-arm push-ups are challenging physical and coordination tasks, but as many athletes know, nothing is impossible. Not everyone can perform the movement correctly, but if you succeed, you can confidently assert that your level of physical fitness has reached significant heights.
