‘G.I. Jane’ Moore Makes Mark With 1-Armed Push-Up

What do you get when you put Demi Moore and Jack Palance side by side and face down on the floor?

A half-bald, four-legged, two-armed push-up machine with a Hollywood-size ego and Rambo-size triceps.

First, there was the famously gruff Palance, flexing his 72-year-old muscles on the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion during the 1992 Oscars ceremony.

Throwing himself prone, the actor performed the seldom-seen one-armed push-up before millions of viewers.

Now there’s the famously buff Moore, who, in her latest screen incarnation as “G.I. Jane,” also conquers the one-armed push-up.

Attempting to become the first female Navy SEAL, Moore’s character subjects herself to a grueling physical regimen.

At SEAL level, the movie might have one believe, two-armed push-ups are child’s play - only for those wimps in basic training.

Actually, one-armed push-ups play no part in qualifying for SEAL training, according to the Navy SEALs web page and the fitness-test rules quoted on the recording at recruitment headquarters.

In real life, SEAL candidates need to perform at least 42 regular push-ups in two minutes, 50 sit-ups in two minutes and eight pull-ups in no set time. They also have to swim 500 yards of breast stroke or side stroke in 12 minutes 30 seconds and run 1.5 miles in boots and fatigues in under 11 minutes 30 seconds.

Those are the minimum requirements.

Conquering the one-armed push-up, Moore forces herself above the bottom rung and should be commended on her brute strength, according to fitness experts.

“If she’s really doing them, that’s impressive,” says Lee Pinac, a personal trainer at the Baylor Tom Landry Center in Dallas. “It’s one of those things you’ve got to train for, even if you can bench-press 300 to 400 pounds. It’s real specific.”

Don’t even think about throwing one arm behind your back unless you’ve mastered regular push-ups, professionals stress.

Traditional push-ups mainly work the chest, shoulder and tricep muscles. One-armed push-ups work the same group, except twice as hard. Proper positioning changes, too.

“With regular push-ups your feet are going to be next to each other … and your hands are a little bit forward of the shoulder, even with the ear,” explains Pinac.

With one-handed push-ups, “the center of gravity is key,” notes Laurie Cingle, Wellness director at the Maryland Athletic Club and Wellness Center in suburban Baltimore. Feet are spread wider and the supporting hand sits out further in front of the head.

“You’re like a triangle,” says Cingle, who also sits on the board of advisers for IDEA: the International Association of Fitness Professionals. People who perform one-armed push-ups have strong abdominal and erector spinae (back) muscles that “hold your torso very stable.”

And they aren’t in a hurry.

“If you go too fast, the hand behind your back will fall and you’ll never get back up again,” Cingle says.

The only time Cingle has seen one-armed push-ups done successfully is during aerobic competitions, and even those individuals perform only up to four.

“I’ve never had anyone in my career say they wanted to learn a one-armed push-up,” she says.

And though Cingle says she’s “not really impressed by anything Demi Moore does, I have to give her a lot of credit. … I can’t do them myself.”