What muscles do pike push-ups work?

The deltoids do the work, with the triceps straightening the elbows. Your upper back rotates the shoulder blades so your arms can travel overhead, and your chest still contributes because the press is never quite vertical with your feet on the floor.

Are pike push-ups a shoulder or a chest exercise?

It depends on your hips. High hips and a sharp fold make it an overhead press and a shoulder exercise. Low hips leave your torso horizontal, which is a decline push-up and a chest exercise. The same movement covers both.

How do I make pike push-ups harder?

Raise your feet onto a step, then a chair, then a box. That is the big one. Walking your feet closer in and putting your hands on blocks for extra depth are the smaller adjustments.

Are pike push-ups good preparation for handstand push-ups?

They are the same exercise at a lighter setting. The difference is how much of your bodyweight your shoulders carry, and you close that gap by elevating your feet rather than by accumulating reps on the floor.

My hamstrings stop me getting into the position. What now?

Bend your knees. The point of the pike is where it puts your shoulders, not whether your legs are straight, and soft knees get your hips just as high without asking anything of the back of your legs.

Where should my head touch down?

Between your hands, or just behind the line between them. If your head lands in front of your hands, the press has tipped forward and your chest is doing the work instead of your shoulders.

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Bodyweight · intermediate · shoulders

Pike push ups

Also called Pike pushup, Bodyweight shoulder press, Downward dog push-up.

The short answer

A pike push-up starts in an upside-down V with your hips high, then bends the elbows and lowers the top of your head to the floor between your hands before pressing back up. Your shoulders do the work, because folding at the hips turns your torso close to vertical and the press becomes an overhead one. Your triceps straighten the elbows and your upper back rotates your shoulder blades to let your arms travel overhead. It is the bodyweight shoulder press, and how much of a shoulder press it is depends entirely on how high your hips are.

How to do it

Step oneBegin in a downward dog position with your hands shoulder-width apart and hips raised toward the ceiling.
Step twoEngage your core and keep your legs straight throughout the movement.
Step threeBend your elbows and lower the top of your head toward the floor between your hands.
Step fourPause briefly at the bottom, then press through your palms to return to the starting position.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

Your hips are barely raised and it feels like a chest exercise.

WhyIt is one. A shallow pike leaves your torso nearly horizontal, so you are pressing forward rather than overhead, which is a decline push-up wearing a different name.

FixWalk your feet in toward your hands until your hips are stacked high above your shoulders and your body makes a sharp V, then press. If your hips will not get there, that is what to work on before adding anything else.

Your head touches down in front of your hands rather than between them.

WhyThe body has traveled forward as it lowered, so the press points forward at the bottom and your chest takes over from your shoulders.

FixAim the crown of your head at a point on the floor level with your hands or slightly behind that line, and keep your hips over your shoulders the whole way down. Setting your hands slightly further forward at the start makes the target easier to hit.

Your elbows point straight out to the sides.

WhyThe arms have gone square to the body, which is not the line an overhead press travels along, so the movement stops resembling one.

FixLet your elbows travel back and slightly out, no more than about 45 degrees from your torso, so your forearms stay under your hands. Your upper arms should end up roughly alongside your ears.

You cannot fold enough to get a proper pike, and your hamstrings are what stops you.

WhyStraight legs with the hips high asks for a good amount of range at the back of your legs, and that has nothing to do with your shoulders.

FixBend your knees. A piked position with soft knees puts your shoulders in the same place, which is the part you came for, and it removes the constraint entirely. Straighten them later if you want to.

Pike push-up or overhead press

Same pattern, different load source, and the choice comes down to what you can control.

An overhead press with dumbbells or a barbell lets you pick the weight, add to it in small steps, and keep going for years. That is a large advantage and it is the reason loaded pressing exists.

A pike push-up gives you the same overhead pressing pattern with nothing but a floor, and its load is set by your hip angle and how high your feet are. It is adjustable, just in coarser increments and with an upper limit set by your bodyweight.

If you have weights, press with them. If you do not, this is the movement that covers the same ground, and it covers it properly rather than as a substitute.

Pike push-up or handstand push-up

These get talked about as two exercises with a gap between them. They are the same exercise at different points on one scale, and the scale is how much of your bodyweight your shoulders are carrying.

Feet flat on the floor with a modest pike, and your feet are carrying a good share of you. Feet up on a box with your hips stacked, and much more of you is overhead. In a handstand against a wall, your shoulders have all of it.

So the way to close the gap is not to keep doing pike push-ups until one day you can do a handstand. It is to keep raising your feet, a few inches at a time, until there is nowhere left to raise them to.

That also tells you where you actually are. If your feet are on the ground, you are pressing a fraction of your bodyweight, and the number of reps you can do says less than it feels like it should.

Making it harder without going upside down

The pike push-up has more room to grow than most bodyweight exercises, and the ways to use that room are all geometric rather than a matter of adding reps.

Raise your feet. A step, then a chair, then a box. Each one tips more of your weight over your shoulders and steepens the press toward vertical. This is by far the biggest lever and it is the one people skip.

Tighten the pike. Walking your feet closer to your hands rotates your torso more upright at the same foot height, which does a smaller version of the same thing.

Add depth. Hands on two low blocks or a stack of books lets your head travel below the level of your hands, which extends the range at the bottom where the press is hardest.

What none of these will do is give you unlimited load. At the far end of all three you arrive at a handstand push-up, and that is the ceiling. It is a high ceiling and it is still a ceiling, which is worth knowing if pressing strength is the goal and you have access to weights.

What it is for

Pike push ups are a bodyweight exercise targeting the deltoids, with secondary engagement of the upper arms, traps, and chest. Performed in an inverted V-position, the angled pressing motion places the primary load on the shoulders, making this an effective progression toward the handstand push-up.

Questions people ask

What muscles do pike push-ups work?: The deltoids do the work, with the triceps straightening the elbows. Your upper back rotates the shoulder blades so your arms can travel overhead, and your chest still contributes because the press is never quite vertical with your feet on the floor.
Are pike push-ups a shoulder or a chest exercise?: It depends on your hips. High hips and a sharp fold make it an overhead press and a shoulder exercise. Low hips leave your torso horizontal, which is a decline push-up and a chest exercise. The same movement covers both.
How do I make pike push-ups harder?: Raise your feet onto a step, then a chair, then a box. That is the big one. Walking your feet closer in and putting your hands on blocks for extra depth are the smaller adjustments.
Are pike push-ups good preparation for handstand push-ups?: They are the same exercise at a lighter setting. The difference is how much of your bodyweight your shoulders carry, and you close that gap by elevating your feet rather than by accumulating reps on the floor.
My hamstrings stop me getting into the position. What now?: Bend your knees. The point of the pike is where it puts your shoulders, not whether your legs are straight, and soft knees get your hips just as high without asking anything of the back of your legs.
Where should my head touch down?: Between your hands, or just behind the line between them. If your head lands in front of your hands, the press has tipped forward and your chest is doing the work instead of your shoulders.