One Arm Dip

How to do the One Arm Dip

1. 1Sit on the edge of a sturdy bench or chair with your hand placed directly beside your hip, fingers pointing forward or slightly outward.
2. 2Extend the working-side arm fully and shift your weight onto that hand, lifting your hips off the bench. Keep your non-working arm extended away from your body or rested across your lap for balance.
3. 3Walk your feet out so your legs are extended in front of you, knees at roughly a 90-degree bend or straighter for greater difficulty.
4. 4Brace your core and engage your quadriceps to keep your hips level and your torso upright throughout the movement.
5. 5Inhale and slowly bend the working elbow, lowering your hips toward the floor in a controlled descent. Keep the elbow tracking close to your torso rather than flaring outward.
6. 6Lower until your upper arm is approximately parallel to the floor, or as deep as shoulder mobility and strength allow without pain.
7. 7Pause briefly at the bottom, then exhale and press forcefully through the palm to straighten the elbow and return to the starting position.
8. 8Lock out the elbow at the top without shrugging the shoulder, then immediately begin the next rep or lower your hips back onto the bench to end the set.
9. 9Finish all reps on one side before switching arms, and rest fully between sets on each side.

Form tips

• Build up to this movement by mastering standard two-arm dips for at least 15 clean reps before attempting the single-arm variation — the force demands are roughly double.
• Keep the elbow close to your side throughout; even slight outward flare dramatically increases shoulder stress and can cause impingement over time.
• Control the descent over 2–3 seconds. Dropping too quickly reduces triceps time under tension and increases the risk of shoulder or elbow injury at the bottom.
• Use a spotter or place your free hand lightly on your knee for assistance during your first attempts — a partial assist lets you feel the movement pattern before going fully unassisted.
• Stop any set immediately if you feel sharp pain in the shoulder, elbow, or wrist; the load on one arm is extreme and the margin for form breakdown is low.

Common mistakes

• Allowing the elbow to flare wide during the descent, which shifts load away from the triceps and onto the shoulder capsule, raising injury risk.
• Dropping the hips too quickly with no eccentric control, which removes triceps tension and places a sudden impact load on the elbow at the bottom of the range.
• Hiking the shoulder toward the ear during the press, which recruits the levator scapulae instead of the triceps and can compress the shoulder joint over time.
• Placing the hand too far from the hip or with the fingers pointing backward, which puts the wrist in a mechanically weak and strained position for the entire movement.
• Attempting the one arm dip before building sufficient two-arm dip strength, leading to compensatory body swinging that defeats the purpose and risks acute injury.

Frequently asked questions