Archer Push Up

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The archer push up is a fairly advanced push up progression exercise. It gets its name from how the bottom of the rep looks similar to drawing a bow. Instead of pushing yourself up equally with both arms, one arm does a majority of the work and the other has to be kept straight, which limits how much assistance it can provide. As with the other archer movements, assisting with the straight arm takes a bit of practice. However, once you've got the form down, the archer push up is a great way to effectively add resistance and continue to improve your pushing strength.

The Basics

The archer push up is primarily used as a strength exercise. It is classified as a horizontal upper push movement. It is more generally classified as a upper push movement. Since it involves significant activation of multiple muscle groups, it is considered a compound exercise.

Form

Set Up

• Get down on all fours and extend your legs back so that you're in plank position
• Place your hands outside shoulder width apart, so that one arm can remain straight throughout the whole exercise
• Arms should be straight but not locked
• Make sure that your shoulders are above or slightly in front of your hands
• Place your feet about hip width apart
• Brace your core, keeping a neutral spine
• Your shoulders, hips and legs should form a straight line

Execution

• Lower yourself under control down and towards your primary arm by bending at its elbow
• Keep the assisting arm straight
• Lower your entire body as a straight line, keeping your core engaged
• Your body should shift over towards the primary arm so that it's alongside it at the bottom of the rep
• Go as low as comfortable, allowing the chest to open up and the shoulder blades to come together
• Push back up by pushing the ground away
• Allow the shoulder blades to come apart as you rise
• End with your arms straight but not locked

Common Mistakes

Rotation

In addition to putting more weight on one of your arms, the archer push up adds in a degree of rotational instability. While shifting your body towards your primary arm, try to keep your body from twisting by keeping a tight core.

Hips Too High or Low

While the archer push up is a upper body pushing exercise, keeping a braced neutral core is important. Allowing the hips to sag is not good for your lower back and is a sign that you should work on your core strength. Holding the hips too high, while not as dangerous, makes the push up more difficult by shifting emphasis from the larger chest muscles to the smaller front delts.

Shoulder Blades Together at the Top

While it's good form to have your shoulder blades come together at the bottom of the rep, it's not as stable of a position at the top of the rep. So, as you lower yourself down and your elbows come more in line with your torso, you can let your shoulder blades come together. As you come up though, focus on protracting them as your arms straighten out.

Additional Info

How much of my bodyweight am I moving?

As with the standard push up, you're pushing about 70% of your bodyweight when doing an archer push up. You can decrease this to about 54% by doing bent knee archer push ups, or increase this all the way up to 75% by then elevating your feet about 30cm. This would be with your body parallel to the ground at the top position of the archer push up.

However, you're using mostly just one of your arms to push yourself up with an archer push. While the assistance provided by the assisting arm can vary, in general, you'll be pushing between 50% to 60% of your bodyweight with your primary pushing arm.

Making it Easier

The jump in difficulty from standard push ups to archer push ups is pretty large, but archer push ups can be made easier using the same techniques as push ups.

There are two primary ways to adjust the difficulty of the archer push up. The first is the height of your hands in relation to your feet. The closer in height that your hands and your feet are, the harder the move will be since more of your bodyweight has to be moved by your chest and arms. Using gymnastics rings, a bench, or a barbell on a rack are all good ways to adjust the height and difficulty.

The second and often quicker way of adjusting the difficulty is by having your knees on the ground rather than your feet. This places the fulcrum closer to your hands, reducing how much of your bodyweight you have to push up.

Making it Harder

The archer push up can be progressed by adding weight. Weight vests or a sturdy backpack can do the trick, but the best long term solution is to use a dip belt and a way to elevate your feet and hands so that the weight can hang.

The archer push up can also be progressed without weight using the more difficult variations. In most cases, this involves working towards a one arm push up or planche push ups.

No Equipment Needed

All you need to do archer push ups is enough floor space. As such, they can be easily done when you don't have access to a gym but still want to work on your pushing.

Related Exercises

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Performance Standard Ranks

The ranks assume that you are generally healthy, with no underlying health conditions or injuries and have the mobility to perform the exercise correctly. You can determine your rank by comparing your numbers to the tables below. Your rank is also tracked automatically when using our Workout Log feature.

Strength Standards

The tables show the one rep max* in pounds needed to reach each rank at different body weights (also in lbs). The 1RMs on the table are based on world records, balanced ratios, and the average time needed to attain each rank. To see personalized strength standards for every exercise, check out the Strength Standards page. You can also find your Strength Score to see how you rank as part of our Fitness Score System.

*Added weight if positive, assistance if negative. The planche and levers are also notable exceptions as they show the moment at the shoulder, not weight. For more info, check out the Moment Calculator page.