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Bodyweight Uneven Push Up -- Which Is the Easy Arm?

watchnerd

watchnerd

Level 8 Valued Member
I have a totally dumb question:

In an uneven push up, is the elevated arm supposed to be the hard arm or the easy arm?

The elevated arm has a shorter ROM, so it should be easier.

But I'm using a KB lying on its side, pressing on a curve shape with hands that aren't flat, which makes it harder.

So...huh...the elevated side feels harder...
 
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Perhaps this could help

I think its how you shift your weight distrubution during the movement. Have not done to many of those.
 
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Let me try to throw my novice two cents. During my calisthenics days, I have experienced that the “weakness” is the sticking point in many exercises, and hence which muscle “works” changes not only from person to person in a move, but also for the same person during the life time of the exercise.

If your raised arm is challenged more, then I would say in your case, in that range of motion, you have more room to grow than the more extended one.

When you continue to practice that pattern, the difficulty could shift to the one which is not raised in time.

This is why, I get confused when some one mentions which muscle is working for any compound exercise. If your form is good, your body decides which one of your muscle will work most…


Hope this make sense to some people at least :)
I am practicing staggered arm push ups for my movement practice and I have the same question for that position :) I am somehow trying to figure out for which arm it should be difficult, the one above or the one below, for some stupid reason it is hard for both of them for me, so probably the sticking point for me is some kind of control and mobility challenges in my case.
 
Hello,

IMHO, the elevated arm is the "easy" arm, because it has a shorter ROM. Plus, when you are on the bottom of the move, the angle of the scapula does not allow you to exert a lot of force. That's especially true when the elevation is high. By the way, when the elevation is too high, one may tend to twist the torso a little (especially if there is not a lot of mobility in scapula / shoulder) to close the angle and thus having more force.

That being said, there is also a matter of technique here. In general, we are not used to use an horizontal push which imply some sort of anti rotation while having that much upper back strength and flexibility.

You can also try archer push up to see how it feels. "Normally" the straight arm is the easy arm in this case.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
Why are you doing these, btw? I've considered mixing them in recently as a variation, but I'm not sure the benefits.
 
Dayz said:
Why are you doing these, btw? I've considered mixing them in recently as a variation, but I'm not sure the benefits.
Click to expand...

Trying to get in some more unilateral (esque) horizontal pressing.

The other exercise I'm doing is 1 arm DB bench.

I'm trying these out with a weight vest.
 
watchnerd said:
Trying to get in some more unilateral (esque) horizontal pressing.

The other exercise I'm doing is 1 arm DB bench.

I'm trying these out with a weight vest.
Click to expand...
Elevated arm feels easier ( 20 lb. slam ball ) to me. You could try staggering your hands in various directions, and I like the DB bench with the body offset on a Swiss ball to make it a bit more squirrelly.
 
The elevated arm is supposed to be easier, but not because it's elevated. It's just another way of getting it out of position so you can do the movement with the working arm and provide just a bit of assistance with the non-working arm. Other ways of doing that for the non-working arm are foam roller rolling out as you descend and up as you ascend, sliding plate doing the same, using fingertips instead of palm, place arm out to the side and slightly down, etc...
 
@watchnerd, not that you asked, but my preferred way to put more of the load on one arm is to use a furniture slider under the other hand. At the top, your arms are as they'd normally be, but as you lower, you slide the less-working arm out to the side, or even to the front or somewhere between. At the bottom, the less-working arm is straight and you get significantly less assistance from it.

Using a basketball or other object would be my second choice. It's less stable so, if you're looking to add that element to your training, it's good for that, but the whole thing is less stable, anyway so I've never felt the need to mess with that aspect of it.

-S-
 
Hello,

Another alternative : resistance band one arm chest press:


You can do it either on an 'offset' position (to push more weight) or on a straight foot position. In both cases, you will have a nice anti-rotation work.

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
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