https://youtu.be/ys79H4_jdmg
Single arm push ups are just the worst.
I’ve been plugging away at it for under a year. With a few breaks here and there. And it is taking a while to hit a set of 5-6 repetitions. Not my most consistent work.
Progress has been hard in one sense. It has hard to string many repetitions together. I’ve managed 4 in a set.
But in another sense it’s getting easier to do one high quality repetition. Small mercies.
But a movement like the one arm push up is equal parts anti-rotation, anti-extension, shoulder rotation, abduction and flexion/extension.
Basically there are a lot of moving parts. And when there are lots of moving parts, none of the parts get as much work done as they would if you simplified or isolated the movement as one would with a push up, dip, bench press or machine pressing.
But on the plus side, plenty of ‘work’ is getting done. And all that stabilisation required to do the move has its rewards. You are constantly fighting the tendency to rotate.
But I can’t rely on this move to be my primary push. Too many constraints on the shoulder and pec.
So while i plug away at this movement, I throw in healthy doses of overhead pressing and dips too.
The pay-off from a time spent perspective isn’t awesome. I could have gotten many more dips or push ups done in the same time it took me to get 10-12 reps of the one arm push up done.
But chip away at it i must.
Notes: while the center mass bell does shift a little load onto the legs, it allows me to go much deeper than i would if my hand was on the floor.
