Pike Push-Up Progression: 5 Levels and an 8-Week Plan

A pike push-up progression moves the weight from your feet onto your hands one step at a time: incline pike, floor pike to a target, full floor pike, feet-elevated pike, then box pike with your hips over your hands. Start once you can do about 10 clean regular push-ups. Train 2-3 days a week, and move up a level when you can do 3 sets of 12 clean reps in two sessions in a row.

The 5 levels at a glance

Each level puts more of your body weight on your hands and makes the press more vertical. Start at the hardest level where you can do at least 6 clean reps.

The ladder and the 3 x 12 rule are our coaching choices. They follow the ACSM position stand on resistance training progression, which recommends that beginners train 2-3 days a week with a load they can lift for 8-12 reps, and add load once they can do one or two reps more than the target. With body weight, "add load" means moving to the next level.

How to do a pike push-up with good form

A clean pike push-up keeps your hips high and lowers your head forward of your hands, so your head and hands form a triangle at the bottom.

1. Start in a push-up position, hands about shoulder-width apart.
2. Walk your feet toward your hands and push your hips up until your body makes an upside-down V. Your arms and back should form a fairly straight line.
3. Bend your elbows and lower the top of your head toward a spot a few inches in front of your hands. Keep your elbows angled back at roughly 45 degrees rather than flared straight out to the sides.
4. Touch the target lightly, then press back up until your arms are straight.
5. Breathe in on the way down and out on the way up. Take about 2 seconds to lower.

The 45-degree elbows and the 2-second lowering are our coaching choices, not a study protocol.

Three faults turn a pike into something easier:

• Hips drop as you lower. The press turns into a regular push-up at an angle. Keep pushing your hips toward the ceiling.
• Head goes straight down between your hands. Aim in front of your hands instead; that triangle is what makes the press closer to overhead.
• Half reps. Count only the reps that reach your target.

If your hamstrings are tight, bend your knees a little or widen your feet. If any rep causes pain in your shoulder, wrist or neck, stop and see a doctor or physiotherapist.

Are pike push-ups harder than regular push-ups?

For most people, yes, and the elevated versions are harder still. No lab study we could find has measured the pike push-up itself, so the numbers below come from the closest test.

Researchers at Marquette University had 23 recreationally fit young adults do push-up variations on a force platform and expressed the peak force through the hands as a share of body weight:

The pattern is simple: raise your hands and your arms press less; raise your feet and they press more. Each person did only two reps of each variation, and all variations kept the body straight, not piked. A pike shifts your hips over your hands, so the load is probably higher than in a regular push-up, and higher again when you elevate your feet. That is an inference from the study, not a measurement. It is also why the ladder starts with your hands on a bench.

What muscles do pike push-ups work?

Pike push-ups most likely shift the work toward the front of your shoulders (anterior deltoids) and away from your chest, while your triceps still straighten your elbows on every rep. The more vertical your torso, the more the press looks like an overhead press.

A 2013 study in 24 women measured muscle activity during dumbbell presses at three angles: flat bench, incline and an upright shoulder press. Front shoulder activity was highest in the shoulder press, then the incline press, then the flat bench. The middle and lower chest (sternal head of the pectoralis major) was more active in the bench and incline presses than in the shoulder press, and on the way up, the upper chest was least active in the shoulder press.

The study used dumbbells, not body weight. Applied to the pike, it suggests that each level of this ladder shifts work from your chest toward your shoulders, because each level tilts your torso closer to vertical.

The 8-week plan

Do this plan 2 or 3 days a week, with at least one rest day between sessions. Use 3 sets, rest 1-2 minutes between sets, and stop each set 1-2 reps before your form breaks.

1. In session 1, find your level: the hardest one where you can do at least 6 clean reps.
2. Do 3 sets at that level. Write down your reps.
3. Each week, try to add 1 rep to each set.
4. When you hit 3 x 12 clean in two sessions in a row, move up one level and drop back to whatever you can do cleanly, at least 6 reps.
5. Finish each session with 2 sets of regular push-ups. They keep your chest training and give you a second number to track.

A beginner who starts at level 1 will usually not reach level 5 in 8 weeks. That is fine: one or two levels in 8 weeks is solid progress. The weeks are a guide, so move faster if your reps say you can, and repeat a week if they don't.

Can beginners do pike push-ups?

Yes, starting at level 1. If you cannot yet do about 10 clean floor push-ups, build those first: our incline push-up guide gives a 6-week plan to the floor, and how to increase push-ups takes it from there.

The 10-rep line is our coaching choice, not a tested cutoff. It means your triceps and the plank position are used to pressing, and the incline pike is a smaller jump from there. If you are new to strength training in general, the beginner bodyweight workout program fits pike push-ups into a full routine.

Do pike push-ups build bigger shoulders?

They can, as long as you take your sets close to failure and keep moving up. No study has tested pike push-ups for muscle growth, but two trials support the method.

• In a 2017 randomized trial, 18 young men did either bench presses at 40% of their max or push-ups adjusted to the same load, 3 sets to failure, twice a week for 8 weeks. Both groups grew their chest and triceps, with no significant difference between them.
• In a 2018 trial, 23 moderately trained men trained 3 days a week for 4 weeks, with either the bench press or a push-up program that moved to harder variations over time. Both groups raised their bench press max. Neither group's muscle thickness changed significantly in that short time.

Both studies were small and short, and neither measured the shoulders. What they show is that bodyweight pressing builds strength when it gets harder over time, which is exactly what the levels are for.

Elevated pike push-ups: when are you ready?

Move to feet-elevated pikes once you can do 3 x 12 full floor pikes with your head touching the floor each time. Elevating your feet most likely adds load on top of the pike, so start low.

A step or a box about 12 inches (30 cm) high is enough at first, since in the Marquette study the 12-inch feet-elevated push-up already put 70% of body weight through the hands. Move to a box or bench about 24 inches (61 cm) high only after 3 x 12 at the low height. At the higher box, walk your hands in until your hips sit almost over your shoulders and your body forms an L. The closer you get to that L, the more the press looks like a handstand push-up.

Use something that will not slide or tip, and put a folded towel under your head the first few sessions.

How many pike push-ups should I do?

Do 3 sets of 6-12 clean reps at your current level, 2-3 days a week. That fits the 8-12 rep range and 2-3 weekly sessions the ACSM recommends for beginners, with a little room at the bottom for the first week at a new level.

More is not better if the reps get sloppy. If you can do 20 easy pike push-ups at one level, you are past the 8-12 range, and the next level is a better use of your time than a longer set. To train push-ups on more days of the week, read our guide to doing push-ups every day first; it covers how hard daily sets should be and when to take a day off.