Aleks Salkin - Free kettlebell and bodyweight workouts
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    • The 7 Most Frequent Questions About Kettlebells
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    • It's not about the bell: 3 Lessons From an RKC Workshop in Israel
    • How To Choose The Right Personal Trainer
    • How To Make Your Snatch Test Easier
    • 40 Days, (Almost) 40 Lessons
    • What is Fitness Minimalism?
    • Clean up your kettlebell clean in 2 steps
    • Why you MUST make your resistance training harder
    • Get Fitter WITHOUT Beating Your Body Up
    • Get Stronger WITHOUT Adding Weight
    • Original Strength For Brute Strength
    • How To Leap Forward After A Layoff
    • 6 Workout Tips For The Newbie Lifter
    • How to persuade your body to hand over new results
    • Best Exercises You're Not Doing: The Pullover
    • How To Break Plateaus In Your Training
    • 5 20-minute, fat-blasting workouts >
      • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Get Strong
      • The 3 Things Your Personal Trainer Forgot To Tell You
      • The 2 Lessons You MUST Learn To Improve Your Fitness
    • The Surest Path To Success
    • The 3 Cheapest Ways To Get Fitter And Healthier
    • How to avoid a shitty personal trainer
    • When should I jump to a new program?
    • Get noticeably stronger in 10 seconds
    • Should you abandon the basics?
    • 1 Simple Reason To Love Kettlebells
    • How to build "Old Man Strength"
    • Improve your recovery for faster gains
    • Secrets of Old School Strength
    • You HAVE to train your core
    • A Few Honest-To-God Strength Shortcuts
    • How To Succeed With A Personal Trainer
    • The Fast/Slow Program For Superior Gains
    • The Crawl and Carry Workout that Boosts Strength and Muscle
  • Free Calisthenics Info
    • How to get your first pullup at 50 years old
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight: Mining the 1-arm/1-leg pushup for a heavier press
    • The Anytime, Anywhere Bodyweight Strength Program
    • Primal Move: Answer The Call
    • Capture The Flag
    • Crawl your way to a 1-arm pushup
    • What's a Joint Like You Doin' In a Person Like This?
    • Improve your back flexibility with one move
    • 2 handstand "hacks" for faster progress
    • It's Hip To Grip
    • From Body Weight To Heavy Weight
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight Pt. 2: Calisthenics For Iron Domination
    • Unjack Your Back
    • Handstand pushups: for legendary upper body power
    • How To Prepare For Your First Handstand
    • How to Kick Ass At Bodyweight Workouts
    • Improve your cardio with 2 bodyweight drills
    • The 10-Second Ab Workout
    • Roll, Rock, and Crawl Your Fat Off
    • Bodyweight Detours For Greater Strength
    • Your Eyes, Your Legs, and Bodyweight Strength
    • Dead Bugs For Life! >
      • The #1 Bodyweight Exercise For Bigger Shoulders and Arms
      • The #1 Step Toward Greater Fitness
    • "Do I really NEED to stretch?"
    • You DON'T need a gym to get fit
    • Find The Right Trainer/Program: Pt. 1
    • Little Things Add Up
    • Fit In A Few Minutes (No Excuses Workouts)
    • Bigger Arms With Bodyweight: Rope Climbing
    • Get better at 1 arm pushups (without doing them)
    • Stop Looking For Fitness Hacks
    • Old School Health and Strength Done Right
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Be Obsessed With Bodyweight Training
    • A Cool Crawling Workout
    • How (and Why) To Train Around An Injury
    • Exercise Vs. Movement: Which is better?
    • How to Build Brute Strength With Bodyweight Only
    • Five 20-Minute, No Equipment Workouts
    • Why Bodyweight Training Is Important
    • The Fast/Slow Method For Steady Strength Gains
    • Crawl your way to better fitness
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU should be obsessed with calisthenics training
    • The "Suicide Solution" For Conditioning Gains
    • The No-Equipment Workout To Improve Your Cardio
    • Thank You KBBW
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The #1 Bodyweight Exercise For Bigger Shoulders and Arms

One you've never even tried, I reckon.
The Best Bodyweight Exercise You've NEVER Done.

Wanna build some upper body beef and turn those shoulders into SWOLE-ders? How about them triceps into...well, bigger triceps? And how would you like to improve your handstand pushups/military pressing strength along the way?

Got your attention yet?

Good. Then look no further than perhaps THE most underrated bodyweight exercise OF ALL TIME. So underrated no one's even doing it. How do I know? Because I've been doing them for years but as far as I know I invented them, as I've never seen them done anywhere else (save for a few colleagues of mine from around the world who have put their students through them to great results).

I call them souped-up pike pushups. They're done like a regular pike pushup (body piked, legs on an elevation), only unlike your regular, run-of-the-mill pike pushup which is pretty easy to bang out tons of reps on, these mofos require that you elevate your hands as well, adding an additional challenge that - as I've found - builds not only an exceptional amount of strength, but an appreciable amount of muscle as well - and in a relatively short amount of time. Despite muscle building not currently being on my agenda, in the last few weeks that I've started doing these again I've been pleasantly surprised to find that my shoulders are more and more resembling cannon balls while my triceps are looking even horse shoe-ier.
If you're working on handstand pushups, these are a perfect addition to your program for a number of reasons:

1) They allow for a higher number of reps, and in overhead pressing movements, more volume = more strength

2) They will greatly enhance your strength in handstand pushups. The increased range of motion that you get from souped-up pike pushups has a massive carryover into the standard handstand pushup, wherein your range of motion is restricted to your head on the floor. For example, when I first started doing these years ago, I went from 5 to 9 handstand pushups within ONE WEEK of practicing these. Nearly doubling your strength in a given exercise in one week? I'll take that.

If you're working on the military press, this move is similarly good as an assistance movement of sorts for the following reasons:

3) It will allow you to build up more volume in your pressing groove (similar to point 1) WITHOUT the stability challenge required of your legs and glutes, which must be kept tight sometimes to the point of cramping as your military pressing loads get heavier and heavier.

4) Unlike the handstand pushup - a typical favorite assistance exercise for the military press - with the souped-up pike pushup you'll get a full range of motion un-available to you in the standard handstand pushup (unless you're doing those with a full range of motion, in which case there's not much more I can teach you about handstand pushups because you've arrived!)

Give these bad boys a shot and watch in amazement as your upper body pressing strength and raw muscularity starts going through the roof, previously stalled progress starts chugging forth once again, and your friends/family/co-workers seethe with jealousy. You know they've already got all eyes on you and your training journey as it is. You might as well give them something to talk about.

And if you'd like, check out my quick YouTube tutorial on the souped-up pike pushup.  Don't forget to share your secret with your friends when they start asking why you're busting out of your shirt all of a sudden.

Happy training! And as always, enjoy crushing weakness.
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  • Home
  • Meet Aleks
  • Workshops
  • Free Kettlebell Info
    • The 5 Point Kettlebell Checklist
    • The Most Asked Question
    • The Most Asked Question: Part 2
    • 6 Things Most Kettlebell Instructors Don't Know
    • 10 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Start A Kettlebell Workout
    • How Much Should I Pay for Kettelbell Workouts Training?
    • How to put 100 lbs over your head with 1 arm
    • How Do I Know if Kettlebells Are Right for Me?
    • The 7 Most Frequent Questions About Kettlebells
    • The 90-year plan
    • How to become a T-1000 (a review of Flexible Steel)
    • It's not about the bell: 3 Lessons From an RKC Workshop in Israel
    • How To Choose The Right Personal Trainer
    • How To Make Your Snatch Test Easier
    • 40 Days, (Almost) 40 Lessons
    • What is Fitness Minimalism?
    • Clean up your kettlebell clean in 2 steps
    • Why you MUST make your resistance training harder
    • Get Fitter WITHOUT Beating Your Body Up
    • Get Stronger WITHOUT Adding Weight
    • Original Strength For Brute Strength
    • How To Leap Forward After A Layoff
    • 6 Workout Tips For The Newbie Lifter
    • How to persuade your body to hand over new results
    • Best Exercises You're Not Doing: The Pullover
    • How To Break Plateaus In Your Training
    • 5 20-minute, fat-blasting workouts >
      • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Get Strong
      • The 3 Things Your Personal Trainer Forgot To Tell You
      • The 2 Lessons You MUST Learn To Improve Your Fitness
    • The Surest Path To Success
    • The 3 Cheapest Ways To Get Fitter And Healthier
    • How to avoid a shitty personal trainer
    • When should I jump to a new program?
    • Get noticeably stronger in 10 seconds
    • Should you abandon the basics?
    • 1 Simple Reason To Love Kettlebells
    • How to build "Old Man Strength"
    • Improve your recovery for faster gains
    • Secrets of Old School Strength
    • You HAVE to train your core
    • A Few Honest-To-God Strength Shortcuts
    • How To Succeed With A Personal Trainer
    • The Fast/Slow Program For Superior Gains
    • The Crawl and Carry Workout that Boosts Strength and Muscle
  • Free Calisthenics Info
    • How to get your first pullup at 50 years old
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight: Mining the 1-arm/1-leg pushup for a heavier press
    • The Anytime, Anywhere Bodyweight Strength Program
    • Primal Move: Answer The Call
    • Capture The Flag
    • Crawl your way to a 1-arm pushup
    • What's a Joint Like You Doin' In a Person Like This?
    • Improve your back flexibility with one move
    • 2 handstand "hacks" for faster progress
    • It's Hip To Grip
    • From Body Weight To Heavy Weight
    • From Bodyweight To Heavyweight Pt. 2: Calisthenics For Iron Domination
    • Unjack Your Back
    • Handstand pushups: for legendary upper body power
    • How To Prepare For Your First Handstand
    • How to Kick Ass At Bodyweight Workouts
    • Improve your cardio with 2 bodyweight drills
    • The 10-Second Ab Workout
    • Roll, Rock, and Crawl Your Fat Off
    • Bodyweight Detours For Greater Strength
    • Your Eyes, Your Legs, and Bodyweight Strength
    • Dead Bugs For Life! >
      • The #1 Bodyweight Exercise For Bigger Shoulders and Arms
      • The #1 Step Toward Greater Fitness
    • "Do I really NEED to stretch?"
    • You DON'T need a gym to get fit
    • Find The Right Trainer/Program: Pt. 1
    • Little Things Add Up
    • Fit In A Few Minutes (No Excuses Workouts)
    • Bigger Arms With Bodyweight: Rope Climbing
    • Get better at 1 arm pushups (without doing them)
    • Stop Looking For Fitness Hacks
    • Old School Health and Strength Done Right
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU Should Be Obsessed With Bodyweight Training
    • A Cool Crawling Workout
    • How (and Why) To Train Around An Injury
    • Exercise Vs. Movement: Which is better?
    • How to Build Brute Strength With Bodyweight Only
    • Five 20-Minute, No Equipment Workouts
    • Why Bodyweight Training Is Important
    • The Fast/Slow Method For Steady Strength Gains
    • Crawl your way to better fitness
    • The Top 5 Reasons YOU should be obsessed with calisthenics training
    • The "Suicide Solution" For Conditioning Gains
    • The No-Equipment Workout To Improve Your Cardio
    • Thank You KBBW
  • Store
  • What Others Are Saying
  • Free 1-Arm Pushup Report
  • Contact