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Single-Arm Medicine Ball Push-Up

Perching one hand on the ball offsets your base, so the floor-side pec and triceps take a larger share of the load while the core fights to keep the torso from twisting toward the low side. It is a challenging unilateral pressing and stability drill. Reserve it for lifters who already own a clean, full-range standard push-up.

Equipment
Medicine Ball
Body part
Chest, Triceps
Type
Balance, Strength
Browse by movement
Anti-Rotation, Horizontal Press
Muscles worked
Target
Pectoralis Major Sternocostal
Secondary
Triceps Brachii Long Head, Triceps Brachii Lateral Head, Triceps Brachii Medial Head, Deltoid Anterior
Tertiary
Abdominal External Oblique

How to do it

  1. 1

    Set up in a push-up position with one hand on the floor and the other on top of a medicine ball.

  2. 2

    Set the feet a little wider than normal for a stable base.

  3. 3

    Brace the abs and glutes so the body is a straight line.

  4. 4

    Lower the chest under control, keeping the hips square to the floor.

  5. 5

    Press back up through both hands, the floor hand driving the larger share, without letting the torso rotate.

  6. 6

    Finish the reps, then switch the ball to the other hand.

Tips

  • Fight the tendency to dump the hips toward the floor-hand side.
  • Keep the elbows tracking back at roughly 45 degrees, not flared wide.
  • Regress to the standard Medicine Ball Push-Up if you cannot stay square.

Variations

Common mistakes

  • Feet stay at normal push-up width, leaving no base to resist the twist, and the hips corkscrew toward the floor hand on every rep.
  • The floor hand quietly takes over the whole press while the ball hand goes passive, which turns an offset drill into a one-arm push-up with a kickstand; both arms should press, with the floor hand taking the larger share and the ball hand stabilising.
  • The torso drifts across so the ball-side shoulder ends up directly over the ball instead of beside it, and the offset the whole variation depends on disappears.
  • Rep targets get copied from your standard push-up, when the floor arm here is pressing something close to a one-arm effort and needs far fewer reps to be worth doing.
  • People arrive from a plain floor push-up rather than from the two-handed medicine ball version, and the hips are what give way first.
  • The ball rolls out at the bottom when pressure comes off it, usually because the arm is bending outward instead of driving straight down through the ball.

Frequently asked

How many reps of the single-arm medicine ball push-up should you do?
Treat it as strength work: 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps per side with two minutes of rest, starting with your weaker side so both get the same quality. Stop the set at the first rep where the hips rotate rather than grinding to failure, since the twist is what this drill is meant to remove. Progress with a one-second pause at the bottom before you chase reps, and only then with a larger ball that raises the ball hand and shifts more of your weight onto the floor arm.
What can I do instead of the single-arm medicine ball push-up without a medicine ball?
The archer push-up is the closest match with no equipment, since it shifts most of the load onto one bent arm while the other stays straight out to the side. A hand on a low step, a stack of plates, or a thick book gives you the height offset without the roll. If you have a bar or a bench, one-arm push-ups against it at a shallow angle build the same unilateral strength and let you lower the surface as you improve.
Who is the single-arm medicine ball push-up actually for?
Lifters working toward a one-arm push-up, and anyone evening out a side-to-side difference in pressing, since it builds unilateral pressing strength and anti-rotation control together. It also exposes a weak trunk quickly, which is useful information. It is a poor choice for chest size, because the reps are few and the stability demand limits the load, and it is not for you yet if a clean full-range standard push-up is still a struggle. Skip it if the floor-side wrist or elbow objects to the angle.

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