Are You Doing Pike Push-Ups Correctly? — Key Takeaways
To perform a strict pike push-up, place hands shoulder-width apart with elbows at 45°, lean your head forward of your hands into a tripod position, keep hips high with a vertical elbow, and let your shoulder blade rotate naturally rather than forcing depression.
Key takeaways
Head forward of hands creates tripod shape to load shoulders properly
Head forward of hands creates tripod shape to load shoulders properly
- Head between hands shortens the movement and makes it easier, effectively cheating the shoulder load
- Leaning forward with head ahead of hands shifts tension to the shoulders instead of distributing it away
Hips must stay high to preserve pike shape, not drift into incline push-up
Hips must stay high to preserve pike shape, not drift into incline push-up
- Low hips convert the pike push-up into a pseudo incline push-up that reduces shoulder overload
- Walk your feet toward hands and keep hips elevated throughout the full rep
Yoga blocks as tactile feedback prevent backwards lean during pike push-ups
Yoga blocks as tactile feedback prevent backwards lean during pike push-ups
- Place blocks so correct vertical elbows don't touch them, but leaning backwards makes torso contact them
- Great self-coaching tool for warm-ups and skill learning without a spotter
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In this video
- 1mHand Placement & Head Position
- 1mTorso & Hip Position
- 2mVertical Elbow & Tactile Reference
- 3mScapular Movement
- 3mTempo & Progression
- 4mFeet Position & Closing
“You want to respect natural shoulder movements. This is called scapula-humeral rhythm.”
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