Pushups for Shoulders – 7 Variations for Bigger Delts

So you can’t make it in the gym today. You don’t need all of those heavy weights and fancy machines to get the defined shoulders that you want. You can get those boulder shoulders with nothing but your bodyweight. Here are 7 pushups for shoulders that will give you the capped delts that you want. No equipment required!

1. Handstand Pushups

This one is no surprise as it’s one of the best pushups for shoulders. In fact, it’s one of the best exercises overall for developing your shoulders. You’ll have to be really strong to support your entire bodyweight and every muscle in your body needs to be engaged to keep balanced.

If you have difficulty getting in a handstand position or keeping balanced you can just do handstand pushups with your feet supported against a wall. You’ll still get a great shoulder workout without all of the core strength.

You can do this by leaning against a wall, placing your hands on the ground and walking up the wall with your feet as you walk backwards with your hands.

How to do Handstand Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Get into a handstand position.
2. Bend your hands at the elbows in order to lower your head to the floor.
3. Stick your chest out as you descend.
4. Pause at the bottom.
5. Squeeze your shoulder muscles and extend your arms at the elbows in order to raise yourself back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 5 repetitions. This is a hard exercise so if your shoulders aren’t strong enough to support your body you can work on them with the exercises we’ll get to next.

2. Pike Pushups

This twist on the regular pushup modifies your body position to take most of the load away from chest and put most of it on the shoulders. This makes the pike pushup one of the best pushup variations for beginners to train shoulders, as it isn’t as difficult as the handstand pushup.

How to do a Pike Pushup for Shoulders?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your hands shoulder width apart.
3. Elevate your hips and ‘walk’ your hands backwards until you form a ‘V’ shape with your body. This is the pike position.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your head to the floor just between your hands.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your shoulders and extend your arms at the elbow in order to lift your body back into the pike position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. Perform the repetitions slowly and controlled to emphasize the eccentric phase of the shoulder contraction to get the most shoulder growth out of pike pushups.

3. Elevated Pike Pushups

This harder modification of the pike pushup puts more emphasis on the shoulders. You’ll need an elevated surface to place your feet.

How to do Elevated Pike Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Place your hands on the floor in front of the elevated surface.
2. Lift your legs onto the elevated surface one at a time.
3. ‘Walk’ your hands backwards until your body forms an ‘L’ shape.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your head to the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your shoulders and extend your arms at the elbows in order to lift yourself back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 12 repetitions before advancing into handstand pushups.

4. Decline Pushups

This is a great exercise for upper chest and deltoid development, as both muscles work together to lift your bodyweight at this angle. Once, again you’ll need an elevated surface to place your feet, but keep in mind the higher you place your feet the better these pushups are for shoulders.

How to do Decline Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Place your hands shoulder width apart, just in front of the elevated surface.
2. Lift your feet, one at a time, onto the elevated surface.
3. Tighten your abs and glutes in order to straighten your body.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows in order to lower your chest to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Squeeze your shoulder and chest muscles in order to extend your arms at the elbows and return to the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to be able to perform at least 10 repetitions. To get the most shoulder growth out of this exercise, ensure that your hands are in front of your shoulders in the bottom position. Lean your shoulders into your hands as you descend. Learn more about decline pushups here.

5. Pseudo-Planche Pushups

This puts a twist on the classic pushup by incorporating a bit of inspiration from calisthenics. Your shoulders will need to be engaged during this entire movement, making it one of the best pushups for shoulder growth and development.

How to do Pseudo-Planche Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your feet close together.
3. Place your hands, facing downwards at the level of your upper abdomen. Your elbows should be bent.
4. Flex your shoulders and extend your arm at the elbows in order to lift your body upwards and forwards.
5. While keeping your shoulders engaged, slowly bend your arms at the elbows to lower your chest until your elbows are at 90⁰. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 10 repetitions. Perform the movement slow and controlled to get the most shoulder growth out of this pushup.

6. Scapula Pushups

This pushup engages the serratus anterior muscle as the primary mover, but with focus on the eccentric part of the movement it will work the scapular and smaller shoulder muscles. This translates into greater power production, injury prevention, and more shoulder growth in the long term.

How to do Scapula Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Get down on all fours and get into position to do a pushup.
2. Your hands should be shoulder width apart and under the level of your shoulders.
3. Push into the floor and allow your shoulders to roll forwards.
4. Pause for a few seconds.
5. Slowly pull your shoulders back as if you were squeezing something between your scapulae.
6. Hold this position for a few seconds. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 15 repetitions of scapula pushups.

7. T-Pushups

This variation works all of the muscles as the regular pushup, but includes a movement at the end that involves the posterior deltoid and isometrically loads the medial deltoid. This makes it a great pushup for shoulder growth and core strength.

How to do T-Pushups for Shoulders?

1. Get down on all fours in pushup position.
2. Perform a pushup.
3. When you reach the top of the pushup lift a hand off the floor.
4. Rotate your torso and lift the arm into the air until your body forms a sideways ‘T’ shape.
5. Hold this position for a few seconds.
6. Repeat the movement on the opposite side.

Tips: Aim to perform at least 15 repetitions of T-pushups.

Those were 7 pushups for shoulders that don’t require any equipment whatsoever and are sure to lead to a lot of gains. Check out these variations for bigger arms. Learn how to use pushups to build muscle and strength here.

References:

Cogley, Robert M ; Archambault, Teasha A ; Fibeger, Jon F ; Koverman, Mandy M ; et al . Comparison of Muscle Activation using Various Hand Positions during the Pushup Exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research ; Champaign  Volume 19, No. 3,  (Aug 2005): 628-33. DOI: 10.1519 / 00124278-200508000-00024

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.

Moore, K., Agur, A., & Dalley, A. Clinically oriented anatomy.