Pike Pushups Guide- Benefits, Tips, Variations

So you’ve been looking for a great way to workout shoulders at home without any equipment, and you happened to have stumbled upon the pike pushup. What are they? What do they do? Here’s everything and more you need to know about pike pushups.

What are Pike Pushups?

A pike pushup is a variation of the regular pushup which is performed with your body in a pike position. This position resembles an inverted ‘V’.

What Muscles do Pike Pushups Work?

Like all pushups, the pike pushup is a full body exercise. This is because it works most of the muscles in the body, either directly by pushing or indirectly by stabilizing the joints throughout the body.

However, the major muscles worked by pike pushups are:

• Shoulder muscles- The deltoid muscles are the primary muscles worked in order to facilitate the overhead movement at the shoulder joint.
• Triceps muscles- Triceps brachi functions in order to extend the arm at the elbow during the movement.
• Chest muscles- Pectoralis major and minor plays a minor role in this exercise to adduct the upper arm at the shoulder joint. Serratus anterior also assists to stretch the arms forward.
• Core muscles- The abdominal muscles and gluteal muscles are the key to maintaining the elevated hips of the pike position during this exercise.

Learn how to use pushups to build muscle here.

How to do Pike Pushups?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. ‘Walk’ backwards with your hands, while elevating your hips until your body makes an inverted ‘V’ shape.
3. Place your hands shoulder width apart.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your upper body to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Extend your arms at the elbows in order to lift your upper body back into the pike position.

Tips for Proper Form on Pike Pushups

1. Warm Up Properly

The pike pushup is a challenging pushup variation and it puts a lot of stress on your shoulders, so make sure to warm up your entire upper body and shoulder joint before beginning the exercise.

Try doing some shoulder circles to warm up your shoulder joint and a couple sets of regular pushups to get your upper body warmed up.

2. Don’t Let your Head Touch the Floor

If you allow your head to move up and down during this movement then you’re doing it wrong. This motion will put too much unnecessary stress on your shoulder joint and can lead to injury.

You should allow your head to move forwards as you descend so at the end of the movement it is in front of your hands. Try to go as low as possible without touching the ground so you wont bump your head and get a concussion.

3. Go Slow

Pike pushups put a lot of stress on the shoulders because it is an overhead movement. You want to make sure you perform your reps slow and controlled so that you can focus on proper form and won’t risk getting injured.

4. Engage your Core

Keep your abs and glutes tight during the movement to maintain the pike position. You should aim to form a 90⁰ angle between your upper and lower body.

5. Straighten Up

Although you’re in the pike position you still need to focus on keeping your upper body and legs as straight as possible. If you were to bend then you would fall out of the pike position and risk getting injured. Additionally, this would reduce the effectiveness of the exercise.

Therefore, engage your leg and back muscles to keep straighten your upper and lower body during pike pushups.

6. Don’t Flare your Elbows

If you allow your elbows to flare out far away from your body it will put a lot of stress on the shoulder joint. This increases the risk of injury and makes the exercise much more difficult to perform.

Therefore, try to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible. Try to form an angle of around 45⁰ between your upper arm and your upper body.

7. Space out your Legs

If you’re a tall person with long legs it will be harder for you to get into a perfect pike position without bending your knees. Move your legs further apart to help reduce the distance from your feet to your hips to maintain the ‘V’ shape.

This will also help you to keep balanced during pike pushups.

Benefits of Pike Pushups

1. Great for Shoulders

Short of handstand pushups, the pike pushup is by far one of the best bodyweight shoulder exercises you can do. This is because most of the pushing movement is in an overhead direction, which recruits all heads of the deltoid muscle. Check out some more pushup variations for shoulders.

2. Great for Upper Chest

The upper chest gets a great workout during pike pushups because all of the movement requires your arm to move in an upwards direction. Check out some more pushup variations for upper chest.

3. Bigger Triceps

The triceps muscles are responsible for extending the arms at the elbows, a major component of this exercise. However, because the movement occurs in an overhead direction the long head of the triceps, which is not usually stimulated by pushing exercises, is worked.

The long head crosses the shoulder joint and assists in flexing the shoulder, moving the upper arm downwards in front of you. This is a major movement involved in this exercise and, because the long head is the largest part of the triceps, pike pushups are sure to grow your arms.

Check out some more pushup variations for bigger arms.

4. Builds your Core

In order to keep your hips elevated and maintain the pike position, your core muscles work much harder then when doing regular pushups. This makes it a great exercise to passively develop your abdominal and glute muscles.

5. You can do Pike Pushups Anywhere

Pike pushups require absolutely no equipment to perform. Therefore, you can do them anywhere as long as you have your bare hands.

6. Adds Variety to your Workouts

This is yet another exercise to add to your repertoire in order to keep your home workouts and gym workouts challenging and exciting.

Disadvantages of Pike Pushups

1. Not Ideal for Beginners

The pike pushup is a very challenging pushup variation and it may not be suited for beginners who don’t have the necessary shoulder development to pull it off. Beginners should start off with easier variations.

Pike Pushup Variations

Apply these simple modifications to your pike pushups to add an extra challenge to your workouts.

1. One Leg Pike Pushups

Perform the pike pushup as usual but with one leg elevated in the air. This will really test your core stability and give your abs and glutes an extra workout.

2. Feet Elevated Pike Pushups

This is a harder variation because it forces you to lift even more of your bodyweight with your shoulders. It is the next step in progressing from a pike pushup to a handstand pushup. Perform it with your feet on a higher surface.

3. Hands Elevated Pike Pushups

Use a pushup bar or parallette to elevate your hands. This will allow you to lower your body between the bars and increase range of motion and difficulty of the exercise.

Should You do Pike Pushups?

The pike pushup is a great shoulder exercise and can find its place in any shoulder workout or upper body workout. Whether you include it in your workouts depends on your personal goals and your level of training.

A beginner may struggle to do pike pushups and should opt to do easier pushup variations and other shoulder exercises until they are strong enough to do so.

Conversely, it may be too easy for an advanced trainee to focus on. They may opt to do handstand pushups instead.

However, the pike pushup is still a fantastic exercise for shoulders and once you are able to do it, you’re sure to experience a lot of muscle growth out of it.

References:

Ebben, W., Wurm, B., VanderZanden, T., Spadavecchia, M., Durocher, J., Bickham, C. and Petushek, E., 2011. Kinetic Analysis of Several Variations of Push-Ups. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(10), pp.2891-2894.