Hello and happy Wednesday! It’s time for a new Home Exercise of the Week and this week I have a challenging variation of the pushup for you to try called the Pike Pushup.

The Pike Pushup primarily works your shoulders and triceps but it also works your upper pecs, upper back, and serratus muscles. I won’t sugarcoat it, the Pike Pushup is tough! It requires a fair amount of shoulder strength so start with regular pushups and other shoulder strengthening exercises and work your way up to this move.

Let’s take a look at the key performance points of the Pike Pushup.

• start in a full plank position with your feet shoulder width apart and hands a little wider than your shoulders
• while keeping your legs straight, walk your hands back towards your feet as far as you can without rounding your back and stopping just before your knees start to bend
• keep your abs tight and bend your arms at the elbow to slowly lower your head towards the floor
• stop just before your head touches the floor and then push back up to the starting position 
• keep a slight bend in the arms and don’t lock them out at the top of the movement to keep tension on the muscles throughout the exercise
• make sure to keep your head and neck in line with your spine throughout the movement as well
• repeat for your desired amount of reps or time

So there you have the Pike Pushup. This one will take some practice but it is a great exercise to build strength and muscle in your shoulders especially if you are working out at home and don’t have any weights. And if eventually doing handstand pushups is a goal of yours then this is the exercise to start with!

Let me know how you do in the comments below or if you have any questions.

See you next week with another new exercise!