Concentration Pushups - Exercise Database

Are you ready to up your pushup game?

Let's make pushups a little tougher... but with purpose.

The goal of a concentration pushup is to focus on one arm and drastically increase the load so you can boost:

Strength
Joint control
Eventually even power

Plus I'll show you some really cool modifications to go even further.

Let's get into it and break concentration pushups down.

Concentration Pushup Exercise Breakdown

Kindal in the top of the pushup plank to set up the concentration pushup.

Kindal moving her non-working or weight baring arm out and try to get the hand on the finger tips.

Kindal goes down into the pushup leaning into her working or concentrated arm. She tries to keep her other hand on the finger tips to make things even more intense.

Kindal at the bottom of the concentration pushups and you see how she is actively leaning into her working arm.

Step 1

Get into the top of a pushup plank. (Obviously!)

Let's focus on your **strong arm for this breakdown**.

Just to learn these... let's do these [pushups from our knees](/blog-post).

And keep in mind you can do these as elevated pushups off the back of a couch, table or box... but it needs to be pretty wide.

Take your weak arm and extend it out to the side... straight out... in line with your shoulder line.

Rather than put your palm on the ground... (try to) only put your finger tips on the ground. It's like you're making a tent with your hand.

Step 2

Lean into your strong arm as you go down into the bottom of your pushup.

Make sure your elbow goes straight back... staying really close to your body.

Focus hard on:

Locking your legs out
Keeping your core pulled in tight
Keeping your fingers of your weak arm on the ground (no palm)

This is not easy... so take it slow and listen to your body.

Remember you can elevate your upper body to help decrease the resistance and make this easier.

intensity tip

One thing you need to realize when doing concentration pushups is the load you'll have on your wrists.

Think about it... your one arm will be holding a vast majority of your weight.

This means there will be more strain on your wrists. So it's really important you warm up your wrists during any workout warm up.

Read my post where I show you wrist mobility exercises . These are great to do daily if you can make the time.

If you already suffer with wrist pain... you probably should not do concentration pushups.

Rather let's get your wrists stronger and fixed up .

Step 3

Tighten up your body a little more because coming up tends to stress your body more.

Most women let their hips fall here so focus on locking out your legs and engaging your core.

Push straight up over the arm your leaning into.

Lock out at the top and then come straight back down for your next rep.

Kindal doing concentration pushups from her knees. This is a great way to learn and start building strength if you can't do the full pushup yet.

Kindal at the bottom of knee concentration pushups. Notice how she is keeping her butt down and in line with her body.

Kindal showing how to do concentration pushups off of a bench and it works the same for any elevated surface.

Kindal at the bottom of bench concentration pushups. Notice how she keeps her body in line and does not let her hips drop too low.

Kindal side lunging and working out hard to get out of a workout rut.

have your

results stopped?

and now you're...

stuck in a

workout rut?

And lose 1 to 2 inches

and 5 pounds...

or you don't pay!

Break Me FREE!

Concentration Practice Tips

This is a very tough pushup variation.

If you're interested... you should check out one of my older posts highlighting 10 advanced pushup variations .

Here's the thing about advanced variations like the concentration pushup...

They take practice.

Like, you actually have to set aside time to just play and try reps...

Do negatives
Do holds
Do a rep... shack it out... and try another

No structured workout. Just practice and play.

So take the time to practice and make sure you respect your wrists and elbows... which we'll talk about next.

Warm Up

Besides a normal warm up... which I have two great 5 minute warm ups:

I want you to focus on wrist mobility. It's really important your wrists are ready for the extra load they will have to support.

Click here and ready about wrist mobility and strength .

Also keep a trigger ball near.

Roll behind your elbow and below your tricep. You will probably feel this immediately.

It's a very common spot that gets tight and can cause elbow pain. This will prevent and even solve that.

Concentration Pushup Modifications

Are you ready to make this even harder?

Yeah... harder!

Proceed with caution.

Mod 1 - Barbell Concentration

Kindal at the top of barbell concentration pushups with her hand on the barbell ready to roll out. Body is fully engaged and tight.

Kindal fully extends her non-working arm out and that forces her body down into the pushup. Her body remains tight and locked out.

Get a barbell and put a weight on one end. The other end has no weight. It helps if you put it up in the corner... to minimize rolling.

Step 1

Whichever arm you would have out to the side... on your finger tips... placed that hand on the end of the barbell. Grip it like a handle.

Have the barbell close to your body like you're doing a close grip pushup.

As you would expect... you're in the top of a pushup plank. Body engaged.

Step 2

As you go down into the pushup...

Roll the barbell away from your body until the arm that is on the barbell is straight out to the side.

Very very tough!

And now it gets harder because you have to push back up and bring the barbell back close to your body.

You have to seriously squeeze the barbell to help engage your arm. This will make it more manageable to bring it back in.

Mod 2 - Kettlebell Concentration

This is very similar to the normal concentration pushup... but you're just putting your hand on a kettlebell... or kettlebells.

Let me show you.

Let's cover both ways you can do this one... one hard... and two, harder.

The arm that you are putting out to the side... put your hand on a kettlebell instead.

Tip the kettlebell over so it's on its side. Put your hand on the bell.

If you want to go more hardcore...

Put both hands on a kettlebell... but this is very tough and requires serious wrist strength.

Mod 3 - Single Arm Pushups

Kindal at the top of the single arm pushup with her legs wider to help give this pushup a more balance base to work from.

Kindal at the bottom of the single arm pushup. But notice how she has to kick her hips out to the side again to help with balance while locking her body out.

This is the hardcore... major badass version.

I actually don't expect you to do these. I can do one or two... but I never actually use these in a workout.

It's more of just for show.

have your

results stopped?

and now you're...

stuck in a

workout rut?

And lose 1 to 2 inches

and 5 pounds...

or you don't pay!

Break Me FREE!

Ready To Learn More - Get Trained - And Get Strong?

I hope you play around and try the concentration pushup.

It's a tough one... but it can be the perfect strength test to work on over the course of a month.

At the end of the month... you can see how much you've improved.

But if you want to speed up your results... and who doesn't...

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This is a growing collection of 30 day workout programs ... where each workout is created using a special design called MicroHITS.

If you want to get pushed and build the ultimate in workout consistency... Habit is your solution .

Now go practice and play around with concentration pushups. Let me know how it goes in the [YouTube comments](/youtube)... I'm here to help where I can.

And make sure you follow me on my socials because I'm constantly bringing the hottest tips and tricks to help you get strong and eat healthier.