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Old Forum Diamond push ups to improve one arm push ups

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Lawless

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I have recently gone back to pure bodyweight only training after recovering from a previous rib injury.   I went back to the Naked warrior system by doing one armed push ups elevated, full one legged pistols & tactical thumbless grip pull ups.  I used the GTG system at 80% intensity for 1 hour 3 times a week.

I have managed to lower the height of the elevation for one armed push ups every week until I was back doing full range strict one armed push ups on the ground.   Once I got back to doing full one armed push ups on the floor for 3-4 sets of 3 reps I have played with other progressions such as push ups with one arm out to the front, to the side, & on a medicine ball to the side to enable me to do 5 reps with most of the weight being on one arm like full one arm push ups.  I have found that this has improved the quality & strength of my one armed push ups & added a bit more muscle mass.

I am planning on focusing on high tension diamond push ups for a month as an experiment to see if it will help my one arm push ups.  I have seen & read many articles from people such as Pat Flyn & Pavel the fortress who have used diamond push ups to improve & build up to one armed push ups.

I will be focussing on maximum glute contraction, shoulders packed down & back toward the feet away from the ears (anti shrug) fingers spread gripping the deck with most of the pressure on the heel of the hand while using a pelvic tilt to stay in the hole for maximum tension.

I will still do full one armed push ups on the odd days to keep the technique dialled in so that my body will not forget the technique.

Has anyone else on the forum used these exercises to make progress with their one armed armed push ups.  I found that starting from a elevation & lowering was great to get you down to the ground but from there was a totally different ball game to make progress as fast.  Isometrics using the exercises from Pavels Naked Warrior really helped me before previously when I did the Naked warrior workout but am just looking to see if some of the alternate methods work before I discount them for future use.

Personal feedback would be appreciated

 

 

 

 
 
I havent found them to be helpful--my wrists dont like them either.

I have found that crawling (dont let the knees or legs touch the ground) while pulling a heavy chain(90+ pounds)   under me with my hands  me was the best  carry over for one arm pushups.

I built up to 15 minutes of this--when tired,I rested in the top of a pushup.I only did this exercise with some pullups;was able to get 4-5  OA pushups a side without any prior practice.
 
The two details I noticed people need the most work on for one arm pushups are the corkscrew and pointing the shoulder on the unloaded side down
 
Just a suggestion, while practicing the OAP, you could go back to OAP wall pushups, do 20 each side, then work down the inclines hitting 20 at each.

Also, how many regular pushups can you do?
 
because I have not practiced high repetition push ups in a while I max out at about 60.  I used to do a lot of high rep push ups years ago in the royal marines where I would usually max out at 80-90 which I noticed has kept my scores above 50 even though I never really practice them.

wouldn't really fancy going back to the wall to be honest....I have found once getting to the deck progressions from the deck work best for me such as isometrics or having the hand out to the side on a basketball for higher reps work best

 
 
That's Ok, its good to know what works for you.

When dealing with a fixed weight, there are are other ways to progress. For instance, you could practice full OAPs, but then do a workout with 5-10 partial reps per set. You could go a 1" deeper each week until you were eventually doing fulls.

Personally I like the ladder system from rite of passage, you could easily do the above in ladder fashion building up each week.
 
Matt, elevate your feet and do not use max abdominal tension but a "Yin brace" (see Hardstyle Abs).  Do sets of 5-10.
 
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