Pike push-ups are one of the most useful exercises in calisthenics, yet they’re also among the most underrated and poorly executed.

In this article I’d like to go over the benefits of the exercise and the key points for doing it correctly.

Pike push-ups give us a vertical pushing pattern in one of the simplest ways available in calisthenics. Other vertical-push options, such as handstand push-ups, are far more difficult.

Because of this, pike push-ups serve as a middle ground between basic pushing movements like push-ups or dips and advanced skills like assisted or free handstand push-ups.

They’re an excellent way to start working the shoulders in a targeted manner—something that becomes crucial once you aim for an advanced level.

The catch is that you have to perform them with proper form, so let’s look at how to do them.

Step your feet forward in small increments,

 keeping your hands planted while lifting your hips. Walk in only as far as you can while keeping your legs straight. This is your starting pike position.

Bend your arms until your head lightly brushes the floor.

 Keep your neck neutral so that the crown of your head—rather than your forehead or nose—moves toward the ground.

Extend your arms to return to the starting position.

Aim to keep your legs straight. If mobility won’t allow it, a slight knee bend is fine.

Let your elbows track backward as you lower; don’t flare them out to the sides.

Stay on the balls of your feet, not with the whole sole pressed to the ground.

Pike push-up progressions for beginners and advanced athletes

Place your hands on an elevated surface to shorten the distance you have to lower.

Elevate your feet to make the movement more vertical.

Use parallettes or another set of handles to increase range of motion.

If you’d like calisthenics training programs that incorporate this exercise, 

—especially the Handstand program, the Strength-Based Handstand program, and the Intro to Planche program.

Mastering the Pike Push-Up: Proper Form and Key Advantages

When you type “calisthenics” into Google, autocomplete reveals the community’s most frequently asked questions. Some of them make perfect sense; others verge on the hilarious. Below you’ll find the ten most common questions and their answers. I hope they clear things up for you!

1. Can you build muscle with calisthenics?


Yes—and the reason is simple: muscle responds to stimulus, not to the tool you use. It doesn’t matter whether the load comes from dumbbells, a barbell, or your own bodyweight; what matters is the intensity you apply, how often you expose each muscle to that stimulus, and your total training volume. You can set up a calisthenics routine specifically for hypertrophy by working every muscle group under the right amount of tension. When the reps start to feel easy, add weight or switch to harder progressions; the key is to keep challenging the muscle.

Also yes. Fat loss comes down to creating a calorie deficit—spending more energy than you take in. That extra expenditure can come from calisthenics, cardio, cycling, walking… whatever you enjoy. You have two levers: raise the calories you spend through exercise or lower the calories you consume through nutrition (ideally, use both). Your body doesn’t care whether the deficit comes from muscle-ups or running; it only notices that fewer calories are coming in than going out.

It works… as long as you do. The truth is straightforward: calisthenics is effective for building muscle, losing fat, boosting strength, and learning skills. Even with “so-so” programming, most people make decent progress because it’s a very forgiving discipline. Put in consistent effort and you’ll see results.

4. Does calisthenics raise testosterone?


There’s no exclusive “calisthenics bonus.” Any physical activity that improves your muscle mass and overall health supports a positive hormonal profile. Calisthenics doesn’t produce a unique effect that sets it apart from powerlifting or machine-based training.

Primarily it improves your relative strength—your ability to move your own bodyweight. That boost carries over to absolute strength as well. For instance, many calisthenics athletes who can easily crank out push-ups, dips on parallel bars, and bar dips (all relative-strength moves) tend to post a respectable bench-press number the first time they try the exercise. These two kinds of strength are interconnected; progress in one helps the other.

6. How does calisthenics change your body?


It usually delivers lean, aesthetic physiques. Because you need to stay light to perform well, you naturally gravitate toward a lower body-fat percentage, which makes muscle definition pop. The most noticeable changes appear in the chest, shoulders, back, biceps, and triceps. What about legs? That’s where many practitioners fall short: training them with calisthenics requires demanding exercises and plenty of volume, which puts some people off. I encourage you to learn to enjoy lower-body work and break the myth that “calisthenics athletes don’t train legs.”


Yes. It’s defined as a sport built around body-weight training, typically performed on bar parks with hallmark moves such as pull-ups, dips, push-ups, muscle-ups, front lever, planche, human flag, and more. From that foundation, disciplines like freestyle, street lifting (weighted calisthenics), endurance, style, and p-bar flow have emerged.


That depends on your preferences. Decide whether you’re more motivated by training outdoors or indoors, learning gymnastic skills or moving heavy loads. There’s no universal winner and no “worse” option—pick what you enjoy and what aligns with your goal.


Fun fact: in Australia, “calisthenics” is a group dance style with set choreographies. It has nothing to do with pull-ups and dips, but Google sometimes mixes the two worlds, causing confusion in search results.

10. Does calisthenics stunt growth… or make you taller?


Total myth. It neither halts growth nor stretches you like chewing gum. Strength training—calisthenics included—promotes strong bones, healthy muscle, and normal development. All you get is health and functionality.

I hope this helped. Remember, if you want specialized training programs, feel free to check out 

the ones we have available on Calisteniapp.

The Most Frequently Asked Questions About Calisthenics (and Their Answers)

One of the most frustrating things in training is having clear goals and realizing that time passes and you're still not reaching them.

Whether it’s mastering a specific skill, hitting a certain number of reps, or gaining muscle mass, these are common goals we work toward. But sometimes, life throws situations at us that make it hard to achieve them, leaving us feeling discouraged.

The truth is, over time, personal circumstances change. What you originally planned might not go the way you expected. You might get injured, feel some discomfort, fall ill, have a demanding work schedule, or need to focus on other areas of your life and set training aside for a while.

These kinds of “unexpected events” can cause your progress to stall, backtrack, or require you to start over.

That’s why I want to share a perspective that can help you see these situations differently, cope with them more constructively, and—over the long run—actually improve your chances of reaching your goals.

When you set a goal like achieving a muscle-up, doing 20 pull-ups, or gaining 5 kg of muscle, you're aiming for a macro goal—a long-term objective.

If everything goes perfectly and you face no setbacks, you might reach that goal in under a year. But, as we mentioned earlier, that’s rarely the case. Usually, something unexpected happens.

That’s why these macro, long-term goals often extend over a year or more.

Macro goals can be broken down into smaller, medium-term achievements—what we call meso progress. For example, learning to do explosive pull-ups before tackling the muscle-up, or reaching 15 pull-ups on your way to 20. You might also hit an advanced tucked planche on the way to a straddle planche, or gain a couple of kilograms before hitting your muscle-gain goal.

Then, meso progress itself can be divided into short-term micro goals, typically on a week-by-week basis. That could mean getting one more rep in a given exercise, holding a progression a few seconds longer, completing a set you couldn’t before, or sticking to all your planned workouts for the week.

Analyze Your Progress from This Perspective

When one of those setbacks happens—like having to stop training for a couple of weeks due to discomfort or being too busy—getting back to training will feel like a step back. This is where the new perspective comes in.

From a macro point of view, yes, you’ve lost progress and might need months to return to your previous level. But if you look at it from a micro perspective, your first week is about recovery, and by the second week, you’re already improving compared to the first. That means you're making progress again—micro progress—just two weeks in. This is far more encouraging than only focusing on your long-term macro goal.

At the meso level, which we can usually measure in spans of about three weeks, the first three might be about regaining what you lost. But from week four onward, you can already start progressing again at the meso level compared to the previous block. Again, a much more positive way of seeing things.

So, when a problem or unexpected situation threatens your long-term progress, you can quickly shift your focus to short- and medium-term gains. This mindset keeps you motivated, more consistent, and confident in your training.

Time Takes Its Toll—But Also Makes You Wiser

Another important point is that as time goes on, your general knowledge about training—and especially about your own body—will improve. You'll also gain more experience dealing with different situations and bouncing back from them.

So every time you face a setback, you’ll be better equipped to handle it and recover more quickly.

Each injury teaches you how to manage and heal from it. Every time you’re overwhelmed with work or short on time, you’ll learn how to make the most of whatever time you do have.

That means every time you take a step back, you’ll know how to manage it so the impact is minimal and you can quickly get back on track with progress across all timeframes.

That said, some of the “setbacks” or circumstances affecting your training are permanent. Aging, for example—it’s not the same trying to make gains at 20 as it is at 45. Having a family and kids, or dealing with chronic injuries or health conditions that won’t go away, are long-term changes you’ll have to approach differently.

In these cases, you have a couple of options:

You can accept that your long-term goal may still be achievable (if it is), but that it’ll take much longer. Progress at the meso level will also come more slowly. So focus solely on short-term micro progress, within the new conditions you're living with.

Or, you can completely reevaluate your goals in light of your new situation—especially if a chronic injury means your previous goal is no longer realistic. In that case, just shift your focus to a new, attainable goal and start building toward it.

Even when adversity gets in the way of your training, you can choose to face it in the most productive, positive, and effective way possible. That way, you won’t lose motivation, you’ll keep moving forward, and ultimately, you’ll be able to reach your short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

The Best Mindset for Your Training: Macro, Meso, and Micro Progress

After recently talking about technique in weighted dips and the extended range in calisthenics exercises, the topic of whether some exercises are “harmful” or not has come up quite frequently.

It’s true that on social media, in the street, or at the gym, there seems to be an intense, uncontrollable, overwhelming need to say “that exercise is harmful” at the slightest opportunity.

From the point of view of someone like me, who posts training content on social media, every time I post something showing an exercise that could possibly prompt that comment—or someone doing some epic feat—I know with 100% certainty someone will post a warning. It’s as if there’s a fire and this person thinks no one has noticed, so they need to warn everyone before something serious happens.

It always makes me laugh when these are videos of people who have trained for years and fought hard to master a specific exercise or skill—achieving almost superhuman feats—only to get the typical comment: “If you keep doing that... you’ll end up injured.” I picture the person in the video reading that and saying, “WOW! I hadn’t realized! Good thing you just warned me—I was planning to keep doing this thing I’m passionate about and have sacrificed so much for, but now, thanks to your warning, I’m going to quit and get a job as an accountant in an office. Thank you for saving me!”

But Let's Set That Aside—Are Some Exercises Truly Harmful?

That brings me to what I really wanted to talk about today: are there truly harmful exercises? Should we take these opportunistic warnings seriously? What about exercises like behind-the-neck pull-ups, deep range dips, pistol squats, Korean dips, deadlifts, and the like?

Are There Harmful Exercises in Calisthenics?

The first truth I think we need to acknowledge is that some exercises, all else being equal, are more prone to causing injury. It doesn’t matter if you’re using the right intensity for your level or if you’re using perfect technique—these exercises statistically have a higher chance of causing injury compared to the average exercise.

For example, you're more likely to get injured doing behind-the-neck pull-ups than standard pull-ups. This is simply because that position is more compromising for your shoulder and neck joints. Even with good shoulder mobility, careful execution, and appropriate intensity, it places the joint in a position where injury is more likely.

A clear and common example in calisthenics is the supinated grip back lever, which many athletes use when training for the Hefesto, advanced ring skills, and so on. Over the years, these exercises have led to a notable number of biceps tears in well-known athletes, social media creators, and even top-level global competitors.

If there weren’t exercises more prone to causing injury, why are so many people getting injured in exactly the same way? Why with these specific exercises and not others? Some of these athletes are the best prepared, those who plan their training meticulously and take the greatest care with their joints—and yet, they all fall the same way.

The truth is that exercises involving this particular position place the biceps in a very vulnerable, fully stretched state under high tension—making injuries more likely. That’s why you’re more likely to get injured with a supinated back lever than with a pronated one, since with the latter, the arm’s rotation reduces biceps vulnerability.

The same goes for other exercises that tend to trigger warnings in the comments: extended range exercises, deadlifts, behind-the-neck pull-ups, etc. Yes, these have a higher injury probability than traditional movements—but that leads us to the next key point.

Even if an exercise is more prone to causing injury, you can mitigate the risk in several ways:

: Yes, deadlifts have a higher injury risk, but if done with appropriate load, reps, and volume for your level, the risk is neutralized and injury becomes unlikely.

: Supinated grip exercises are more harmful, but if you don’t overdo them—avoiding forced reps, repetition, or frequent competition use—you reduce that risk.

: Performing the movement with impeccable form also lowers injury probability.

: Behind-the-neck pull-ups can be more harmful, but with solid shoulder mobility, proper warm-up, and adequate progressions, that risk can be managed.

Yes, the guy doing front levers on his pinkies or ultra-deep handstand push-ups on Instagram is definitely pushing his joints, but it’s also true that he’s likely trained for months or years to do that—so he’s already done a lot to reduce his injury risk.

By combining these factors, you can turn a potentially dangerous exercise into a safe one.

Given all this, the key question becomes: why use these exercises at all? If you know a variation has a higher injury risk, why choose it?

I think you need to seriously evaluate this and only use one of these exercises if there’s no better option. Let’s look at a few examples:

If you want to compete at the top international level in calisthenics, you’ll likely 

 to use supinated variations like Hefesto from back lever, Maltese planche, or advanced ring skills. This would be the only case where using such exercises seems reasonable.

Similarly, if you compete in powerlifting, you’ll have to deadlift—it’s a required lift. So you have no choice but to train it.

As for behind-the-neck pull-ups, I don’t see any compelling reason to use them. They don’t offer anything significantly different from standard pull-ups. So if you choose to do them, it’s purely subjective—and you’ll have to accept the risk. But they’re not advisable.

Some exercises, by their nature, have a greater tendency to cause injuries. But if you need to use them, taking the right precautions can help you offset that risk and incorporate them safely into your training.

If you want a well-structured training program with safe exercises and injury prevention in mind, I recommend 

checking out the ones we offer in Calisteniapp.

Are There Harmful Calisthenics Exercises? How to Do Them Safely

Recently, I posted an Instagram story showing my friend RSWorkout doing weighted dips with an extended range of motion. He was going far beyond the typical 90 degrees, lowering himself as much as his shoulder joints would allow.

What struck me was that several people replied to the story saying things like, “Now 

 are strict dips,” or “That’s the proper technique,” and that dips done this way are way more effective.

Around the same time, someone in the Calisteniapp Discord shared a video of themselves doing dips and asked if their form was good. Again, they were using a much deeper range than usual.

That got me thinking—it’s worth diving into this topic. Is an exercise really more 

—whether it’s a dip, pull-up, or push-up—if we perform it with an exaggeratedly deep range of motion? Is it really that much more beneficial? Could it actually be harmful in some cases? When should we use an extended range and when shouldn't we? Let’s break it down.

What counts as a strict range of motion in Calisthenics

When we talk about strict form in calisthenics, especially regarding range of motion, we’re referring to specific standards that define when a rep is considered strict. For example:

In dips, the arms should bend to 90 degrees, and the elbows should fully lock out at the top.

In pull-ups, the chin should clear the bar without overextending the neck, and the arms should fully lock out at the bottom.

In push-ups, the elbows should reach a 90-degree angle, and again, lock out fully at the top.

Most of us who care about clean technique go just a little beyond these marks—just a few extra centimeters—to make it obvious that the rep is strict, without needing slow-mo footage to verify it.

This gray area—where the athlete barely reaches the strict threshold, making it hard to judge—is something I’ve long referred to on my channel as "ego range." It means the athlete sticks stubbornly to the bare minimum standard, often to avoid fatigue and squeeze out more reps or lift heavier.

In competitive sports like Streetlifting, specifically in weighted dips, the rules actually require going slightly deeper than 90 degrees—the back of the shoulder must at least reach the height of the tip of the elbow.

Why is that range considered strict, and not some other point?

There are two key factors to consider here:

The movement has to match the definition of the exercise.


Take dips, for example. The movement is defined as starting from a locked-out position, bending the arms to lower the body, and then pushing back up using mainly the chest, front deltoids, and triceps. If your range of motion is too shallow, you’re not really doing a dip anymore—it doesn’t align with the core definition. This becomes even clearer with pull-ups. A clean definition might be: you hang from a bar and flex your arms until you pass the bar. If you don’t fully extend your arms, you’re not really hanging. If your chin doesn’t clear the bar, you’re not truly pulling past it. Also, nothing in that definition includes kicking, swinging, or crossing your legs. So, a strict pull-up is one that follows that clean, minimal definition as closely as possible—no extra movements, no loopholes.


If we say dips should reach a certain depth, or pull-ups should pass the bar, we need objective markers—like a 90-degree angle or clearing the chin. That gives us clear criteria to determine if a rep was strict. That’s why we say elbows must 

 lock out, not “almost” lock out, or that you must reach 90 degrees, not “around 90.” When things get fuzzy, people will start pushing the boundaries of that “almost” to gain an edge in records or challenges.

This is how we define strict execution. And it leads to the big question:

Is using an extended range of motion more strict?

As we've seen, if you’re hitting the proper range—plus a small buffer to avoid debate—then you’re already doing the exercise as strictly as needed.

Going much further than that, like using an exaggerated range of motion, isn’t necessarily stricter or better.

Take dips again: the definition doesn’t require you to lower your shoulders until they’re on the verge of dislocating. The definition of a push-up doesn’t say your chest must drop below ground level. A pull-up doesn’t require you to pull your navel above the bar.

So, an extended range doesn’t make the movement stricter. In fact, it’s best thought of as a variation—just like we have explosive dips or incline dips, there are also partial-range dips and extended-range dips. These are all just variations of the standard dip.

So when can extended range of motion be useful?


If you're looking for a more challenging version of a basic move, using extended range is a simple way to ramp things up.

To improve joint mobility and prevent injury.


Used wisely and without overdoing it, extended range can help strengthen joints—like the shoulders in dips—and make them more resilient. But be careful, because pushing too far can backfire.


Going deeper can shift the load and emphasize certain muscles more than with the strict range. We’ve even been analyzing how extended range might support hypertrophy, especially when training under stretch.


If you’re testing your max reps on dips or pull-ups, and you do them with extended range, you’ll obviously get fewer reps than with the standard range. Same goes for weighted lifts—your 1RM will be lower if you use extended range compared to the strict minimum.


Extended range means more stress on the involved joints and tissues. We all know exercises aren’t inherently dangerous, but as the saying goes, the poison is in the dose. And with extended range, the safe dose is lower.


All of the above suggests that extended range isn’t a great idea for beginners. It’s better suited to advanced athletes.

Extended range of motion adds another option to your toolbox, but it doesn’t mean you’re being stricter, better, or more effective just by going deeper.

In some contexts and for specific goals, it can be a smart choice. But the strict range is defined objectively, aligned with the true essence of the movement—and you don’t need to go beyond it to be doing things right.

, we’ve got training programs for every level and goal. You can download the app right here.

Mastering the Pike Push-Up: Proper Form and Key Advantages

Uses and benefits of pike push-ups

How to do pike push-ups

Pike push-up progressions for beginners and advanced athletes

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The Most Frequently Asked Questions About Calisthenics (and Their Answers)

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Are There Harmful Calisthenics Exercises? How to Do Them Safely

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