Demi Doing One-Arm Push-UPS? Seals Don't

In the movie "G.I Jane," Demi Moore is armed and dangerous as she attempts to become the first female member of the SEALs, the Navy's elite special-forces unit.

She's also one-armed.

The plot has Moore performing one-arm push-ups as part of "the most brutal physical and emotional exercises of her life," according to Hollywood Pictures' hype machine. "It's only in Demi's workout because SEALs don't do them," says Kara Witzke, a spokeswoman for the San Diego-based American Council on Exercise.

She should know. Her husband is a SEAL. "I have no doubt that the movie shows her doing them purely for shock value," Witzke adds.

One-arm push-ups have always been a macho thing. You rarely see them done, unless it's Jack Palance during the Academy Awards or by a college football mascot on a Saturday afternoon after his team makes a score.

Why? "Because they're extremely strenuous and awkward to do," says Witzke, who has a doctorate in exercise physiology. "I've only seen a couple women do them, and those are at the National Aerobics Championships. And there you might see a woman doing one. I'm a rock-climber and do strength training and I can't even come close."

She adds there's just no reason to do them, other than to show off.

"What's the point?" Witzke asks. "It's like doing a one-arm pull-up. There are better ways to train. The aim is for muscular balance. If you strengthen one side more than the other, you're asking for back and spinal alignment problems."

The fact that it's not a practical exercise is why the SEALs don't do them, Witzke says. Her husband told her they do between 500 and 1,000 push-ups a day during the nine-month weeding-out process.

To make them more difficult, the SEALs place their index fingers and thumbs together to form a diamond. With each push-up, they put their noses within 6 inches of those diamonds. That places more stress on the triceps.