Alignment · At the wall

Wall pike hold

Body folded at a right angle, feet on the wall at hip height, hands on the floor. From the side it draws a 7. This is where your shoulders start carrying for real, without you having to go fully upside down.

It has one thing the wall plank does not: your hips pass above your shoulders. Your upper body is already vertical, and your shoulders find out what that asks of them.

Family

Alignment

Equipment

A wall

Type

Hold

Train this exercise in the app

How to do it

1. Sit facing the wall, legs straight, soles of your feet against it.
2. Turn around and put your hands exactly where you were sitting. That's your distance, nothing to measure.
3. Walk your feet up the wall to about hip height.
4. Straight arms, ears between them, push the floor away.
5. Bring your shoulders right over your hands, hips just above.
6. To come out, walk your feet back down the wall.

The two mistakes that empty the drill

Keeping your shoulders behind your hands. That's the comfortable version, and it's also the one where nothing works: the weight stays in your feet, so in the wall. Move your shoulders forward until you feel the weight tip into your hands. If you feel nothing in your shoulders, they aren't far enough forward.

Letting your back arch. Your feet push, your hips travel back, your ribs flare. The position looks taller, and the line you are rehearsing is the wrong one. Pull your ribs in, brace your belly, and accept dropping your feet a few centimeters if that's the price.

Related exercises

Wall plankFeet on the wall at hip height: the first time your shoulders carry your weight overhead.ShouldersHoldWall walksGetting to the wall without a kick-up, walking your feet up while your hands come in.ShouldersRepsChest-to-wall holdChest facing the wall, only the toes touching: the position where you learn the right line.ShouldersHold

All exercises: the catalog