How many typewriter push-ups should you start with?

Do 20 strict push-ups and hold the bottom of a wide push-up for 20 seconds before you attempt these. Then start with three sets of two or three passes, counting a pass as one shift to each side. Build passes per set before you widen the hands, and end the set the moment you cannot hold the low chest position.

How do you make the typewriter push-up easier or harder?

To scale it down, narrow the hands, stay higher off the floor during the slide, or put your hands on a bench so the angle is kinder. Raising the feet, widening the hands, or pausing two seconds over each hand makes it much harder. The hardest version stays a couple of inches off the floor for the whole set, which is where one-arm push-up strength is built.

What is the typewriter push-up good for, and who should skip it?

It builds one-sided pressing strength and a lot of time under tension near the stretched position, which is why it appears in calisthenics progressions toward the one-arm push-up. It is not an efficient way to add chest size, because the reps are few and slow. Skip it if your shoulders or wrists complain in a wide, deep bottom position and work through archer push-ups first.

Advanced

Typewriter Push-Up

From a wide hand position you drop to the bottom and shift your chest laterally toward one hand, then glide across to the other like a typewriter carriage, keeping one arm bent and loaded while the other extends. This shifts most of your bodyweight onto a single pec at a time and adds a long time under tension near the stretched position. It is an advanced unilateral push-up that builds toward one-arm strength.

Equipment: Body Weight
Body part: Chest
Type: Strength
Browse by muscle: Pectoralis Major Sternocostal
Browse by movement: Horizontal Press

How to do it

1
Set your hands wider than shoulder width and extend into a strong plank.
2
Lower your chest close to the floor and hold this low position throughout the slide.
3
Shift your torso toward your right hand, bending that elbow deeply while the left arm straightens.
4
Glide smoothly across to the left hand, reversing which arm bends and which extends.
5
Keep hips level and only press back up to the plank once you finish the side-to-side reps.

Tips

Stay low the whole time; rising up between slides turns it into ordinary reps and removes the tension.
Move slowly and keep your core tight so your hips do not sag or twist as you shift.
Reduce the width or the depth if you cannot control the loaded arm at the bottom.

Variations

Common mistakes

The straightening arm locks out hard at the elbow, so the joint carries the weight at end range instead of the arm staying softly loaded as a support.
Shifting fast and bouncing off the bottom of each side turns a slow lateral grind into a series of small hops, and the tension that makes this worth doing is gone.
Hands get set far too wide on the first attempt, and the bottom position ends up somewhere the shoulder cannot press out of on its own.
The hips rotate to follow the chest, so the torso corkscrews toward the bent arm and the loaded pec gets less than the shift suggests.
Feet stay close together, which leaves no base to resist the sideways drift, and the whole body sways instead of the chest travelling cleanly.

Frequently asked

How many typewriter push-ups should you start with?: Do 20 strict push-ups and hold the bottom of a wide push-up for 20 seconds before you attempt these. Then start with three sets of two or three passes, counting a pass as one shift to each side. Build passes per set before you widen the hands, and end the set the moment you cannot hold the low chest position.
How do you make the typewriter push-up easier or harder?: To scale it down, narrow the hands, stay higher off the floor during the slide, or put your hands on a bench so the angle is kinder. Raising the feet, widening the hands, or pausing two seconds over each hand makes it much harder. The hardest version stays a couple of inches off the floor for the whole set, which is where one-arm push-up strength is built.
What is the typewriter push-up good for, and who should skip it?: It builds one-sided pressing strength and a lot of time under tension near the stretched position, which is why it appears in calisthenics progressions toward the one-arm push-up. It is not an efficient way to add chest size, because the reps are few and slow. Skip it if your shoulders or wrists complain in a wide, deep bottom position and work through archer push-ups first.

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