How Many Push-Ups Should I Be Able to Do? The Ultimate Guide

Push-ups are one of the first exercises you learn to perform. Whether you grew up in a fit household, were drawn to training from an early age, or tried your first exercise in your school PT class, chances are you started your strength training journey with push-ups. 

Furthermore, most of us have been in a push-up challenge growing up. And these strength check exercises are no joke. Teens use it to find the alpha among themselves, and you have to live with the results for the rest of your life. 

As soon as an individual starts performing push-ups, one of the first questions they have is, “how many push-ups should I be able to do?” 

This question is profound as it can help you assess your fitness levels and compare them to your peers. However, the number of push-ups you can do will depend on factors including age, weight, sex, and training experience. Meaning, although it is good to know how you measure up to your peers, you shouldn’t punch above or below your weight. 

Benefits of Push-Up

Given below are the advantages of adding push-ups to your daily routine: 

1. A Great Warm-Up Exercise and Finisher

The push-up is a great exercise to loosen up before a training session. It helps warm up your upper body for intense resistance training routines. The push-up is also a potent finisher exercise to be done at the end of a chest-training routine. It’ll help you end your training session with a muscle-ripping pump. 

2. A Functional Exercise

The push-up is a compound exercise that works your chest, shoulders, triceps, back, and core. Doing this exercise can help you improve at performing day-to-day activities. 

3. Helps Build Muscle Mass

Push-ups can help induce muscular hypertrophy. However, for consistent progress, you need to incorporate progressive overload principles in your training regimen to avoid hitting a plateau. Advanced training principles like dropsets, intraset stretching, rest-pause sets, and weighted push-ups are a few ways to make push-ups harder. 

4. Improve Core Strength

Performing push-ups requires you to balance your torso on your toes and arms. Plus, you are in a high plank position at the contraction point, which engages and helps build a stronger core. 

5. Test Your Muscle Strength and Endurance

The push-up might look easy but will have you begging for mercy by the time you are done with it. It will give you a fair idea of your muscle and strength endurance levels. You could compare your results with the averages listed below to assess how you stack up against your peers. 

6. Low-Impact

Most push-up variations are low-impact and help you achieve optimal upper-body muscle fiber recruitment without overworking your joints, tendons, and ligaments. 

7. Improves Posture

Adding push-ups to your routine can help counter the ill effects of sitting on your computer screen or slouching over your phone for the entire day. However, ensure you follow the correct push-up technique to make the most of its posture-improving characteristics. 

8. Can Be Done Anywhere

The push-up is a bodyweight exercise that can be done anywhere, whether at home, in the gym, or at the airport. Push-ups leave you no logistical excuses to skip a training session.

What muscles do push-ups work?

The push-up is a compound exercise that works the following muscles:

1. Chest: Push-ups primarily target the pectoralis major and minor muscles. It helps add size, width, and thickness to your pecs. 
2. Abs: Since you spend a lot of time in the high plank position while performing the push-up, it engages your abdomen muscles. Plus, the core muscles help keep your spine straight to maintain optimal form when performing the push-up.
3. Shoulders: The push-up primarily engages the anterior deltoids due to its location on the front of the shoulder joint.
4. Triceps: The triceps is the primary mover that helps you complete a push-up. For better pectoral engagement, make sure your elbows are not pinned to your sides.

How To Perform a Push-Up

This is how to perform push-ups with perfect form:

1. Assume a high plank position on the floor with your hands under your shoulders, legs straight, elbows extended, and head in a neutral position. 
2. Your hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and your body should be in a straight line at the starting position.
3. Slowly descend to the floor by retracting your shoulder blades and unlocking your elbows.
4. Lower your upper body until your chest is a few inches off the floor.
5. Explode back to the starting point by driving your palms into the floor and extending your elbows.
6. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

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Pro Tip: Do not slouch your back while performing the push-up as it can put unnecessary stress on your lower back.

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Check out our complete push-up guide!

How To Know How Many Push-Ups You Can Do

Now that you know the correct technique to perform a push-up, there are two ways of determining how many push-ups you can do:

1. Perform Push-Ups To Failure: Use the technique mentioned above to perform as many push-ups as you can in one go. Stop your set as soon as you notice your form deteriorating. 
2. Time Your Push-Ups: Set a time goal for yourself and perform as many push-ups as possible with the perfect technique during the time duration.

For a better assessment, ask your training partner to check your form. Ask them to stop counting reps when your technique starts to falter. 

Average Push-Ups

Below you’ll find the average push-ups for men and women based on their body weight and age:

Average Push-Ups for Men by Age

Given below are the number of push-ups an average man can do based on their age:

Age	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
15	< 1	11	30	54	80
20	< 1	16	39	66	95
25	1	18	41	68	99
30	1	18	41	68	99
35	1	18	41	68	99
40	1	18	41	68	99
45	< 1	15	37	63	92
50	< 1	12	33	57	85
55	< 1	10	28	51	76
60	< 1	7	23	44	67
65	< 1	4	18	37	58
70	< 1	< 1	13	30	49
75	< 1	< 1	9	24	40
80	< 1	< 1	6	18	33
85	< 1	< 1	2	13	27
90	< 1	< 1	< 1	9	21

Average Push-Ups for Men by Bodyweight

Check out the number of push-ups an average man can do depending on their weight:

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
50	< 1	16	42	73	108
55	< 1	17	42	72	105
60	1	18	42	70	102
65	2	19	42	69	99
70	3	19	41	67	96
75	4	19	41	66	93
80	5	20	40	64	91
85	5	20	39	63	88
90	5	19	39	61	86
95	6	19	38	60	83
100	6	19	37	58	81
105	6	19	37	57	79
110	6	19	36	56	77
115	6	18	35	54	75
120	6	18	34	53	73
125	6	18	34	52	71
130	6	17	33	51	70
135	6	17	32	49	68
140	6	17	32	48	66

Overall Average Push-Ups for Men

Here are the combined average push-up for men:

Strength Level	Reps
Beginner	1
Novice	18
Intermediate	41
Advanced	68
Elite	99

Average Push-Ups for Women by Age

Women can do the following number of push-ups on average as per their age:

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
15	< 1	< 1	12	27	43
20	< 1	5	18	35	54
25	< 1	5	19	37	56
30	< 1	5	19	37	56
35	< 1	5	19	37	56
40	< 1	5	19	37	56
45	< 1	4	16	33	51
50	< 1	1	14	29	46
55	< 1	< 1	10	25	41
60	< 1	< 1	8	20	35
65	< 1	< 1	5	15	28
70	< 1	< 1	1	11	22
75	< 1	< 1	< 1	7	17
80	< 1	< 1	< 1	4	12
85	< 1	< 1	< 1	< 1	9
90	< 1	< 1	< 1	< 1	5

Average Push-Ups for Women by Bodyweight

Here is the data on the push-ups average women can do based on their weight:

Bodyweight	Beginner	Novice	Intermediate	Advanced	Elite
40	< 1	4	19	39	61
45	< 1	5	20	38	59
50	< 1	6	20	37	57
55	< 1	6	20	36	54
60	< 1	7	19	35	52
65	< 1	7	19	34	50
70	< 1	7	18	33	48
75	< 1	7	18	31	46
80	< 1	6	17	30	45
85	< 1	6	16	29	43
90	< 1	6	16	28	41
95	< 1	6	15	27	40
100	< 1	6	15	26	38
105	< 1	5	14	25	37
110	< 1	5	13	24	36
115	< 1	5	13	23	35
120	< 1	4	12	22	33

Overall Average Push-Ups for Women

The combined average push-up for women looks something like this:

Strength Level	Reps
Beginner	< 1
Novice	5
Intermediate	19
Advanced	37
Elite	56

According to a 2021 study, males can perform more push-ups than females. It is mainly because they perform their push-ups faster due to their body weight distribution. [1]

Are you still wondering if you should add push-ups to your training regimen? What you’ll read next might convince you to make it a staple in your training regimen. 

According to a 10-year-long study on middle-aged male firefighters (average age 39), men who could do 40 or more push-ups in a day were 96 percent less likely to experience a cardiovascular event than those who could do only 10 or fewer. [2]

In other words, push-ups can help assess your cardiovascular health besides gauging your aerobic endurance, stamina, and strength. 

Calories Burned During Push-Up

Besides helping you build muscle and core strength, performing push-ups burns a lot of calories as it is a compound (multi-joint) exercise. According to estimates, performing a push-up can help you burn between 0.3 and 0.6 calories.

Per the estimates, an average person weighing 190 pounds will burn the following calories while performing push-ups:

Number of push-ups	20 push-ups per min	25 push-ups per min	30 push-ups per min	35 push-ups per min	40 push-ups per min
10 push-ups	3	2	2	1.6	1.4
20 push-ups	6	5	4	3	3
30 push-ups	9	7	6	5	4
40 push-ups	11	9	8	7	6
50 push-ups	14	11	10	8	7
80 push-ups	23	18	15	13	11
100 push-ups	29	23	19	16	14
200 push-ups	57	46	38	33	29

Want to learn more? Use our convenient online calories burned while performing push-ups calculator.

Exercises to Improve Your Push-Up

If you cannot perform the average number of push-ups based on your gender, body weight, and age, adding the following exercises to your training regimen can help improve your performance:

1. High Plank

Adding high planks to your training regimen improves your core strength, which will carry forward to push-ups.

Steps:

1. Place your hands directly under your shoulders on the floor and get into a push-up position.
2. Balance your lower body on your toes and squeeze your glutes and core to stabilize your body. 
3. Neutralize your neck and spine by looking at a spot on the floor between your hands. 
4. Your head to your toes should be in a straight line.
5. Hold the position for the recommended time.

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Pro Tip: As you get better at this exercise, add variations like the high plank single-arm reach to your exercise arsenal to ensure you don’t hit a plateau.

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2. Dumbbell Chest Press

Since push-ups require pushing strength, resistance training exercises like dumbbell chest presses should be a part of your training regimen.

Steps:

1. Sit on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand placed on your thighs. 
2. To get into position, lay back and keep the weights close to your chest. 
3. Once settled in position, press the dumbbells to lockout at the top.
4. Slowly lower the dumbbell toward the floor until the dumbbells are at your chest level.
5. Push the dumbbells back up to the starting position.
6. Pause and squeeze your pecs at the top.
7. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

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Pro Tip: Explode through the concentric part of the rep to build pushing strength. 

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Check out our complete dumbbell chest press guide!

3. Kneeling Push-Up

The kneeling push-up is a great exercise for beginners who cannot perform the conventional bodyweight push-up. 

Steps:

1. Begin in a hands-and-knees position. Your hands should be shoulder-width apart, and your knees placed together on the floor.
2. Your lower legs should not be touching the floor while performing this exercise.
3. Slowly lower your torso toward the floor by bending at your elbows until your chest is a couple of inches off the floor.
4. Explode back to the starting position.
5. Pause and contract your pecs at the top.
6. Repeat for recommended reps.

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Pro Tip: You can place your toes on the floor if you have trouble performing the knee push-up as it can help you generate additional power.

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4. Incline Push-Up

The incline push-up is another beginner-friendly push-up variation that can help you build a solid foundation.

Steps:

1. Stand in front of a bench. 
2. Bend down and place both hands shoulder-width apart on the bench.
3. Assume a push-up position. 
4. Slowly lower your torso towards the bench until it is a few inches away from touching it. 
5. Explode back to the starting position.
6. Pause and contract your pecs at the top.
7. Repeat for recommended reps.

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Pro Tip: If you do not have access to a flat bench, you could use an elevated platform like a bed or sofa.

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5. Wall Push-Up

Wall push-ups are arguably the easiest push-up variations. It is also a great exercise to incorporate into muscle rehabilitation programs. 

Steps:

1. Stand about arm’s length from a wall. 
2. Place your palms flat on the wall with your arms extended, and shoulders pulled down and back. Your hands should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
3. Brace your abs and take a small step back, so you are leaning against your hands. 
4. Bend at your elbows to lower your nose toward the wall until your chest is a few inches from touching it.
5. Explode back to the starting position.
6. Contract your chest at the top.
7. Repeat for desired reps.

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Pro Tip: Do not lock out your elbows at the top to keep constant tension on your pecs.

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Check out our complete wall push-up guide!

If you are new to training, perform three sets of 10 push-ups each at the beginning of each workout on alternate days throughout the week. You can rest for 1-2 minutes between each set. 

Add two reps to each set every week until you can perform 20 reps in a single set. For example, you should be able to perform three sets of 12 reps in the second week, 14 reps in the third week, and so on. Your ultimate goal should be to hit the 100 push-up mark in a single training session. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it okay to do push-ups every day?

While you could technically do push-ups daily, you should allow your pecs a day to recover between chest workouts. Performing push-ups every day can lead to strength and muscle plateaus. 

How many push-ups should I be able to do?

An average novice female lifter can perform around 19 push-ups in a workout, whereas an average novice male trainer can do around 41 push-ups in a training session.

Can push-ups help me build a broad and muscular chest?

While push-ups can help you put on muscle mass, you shouldn’t expect to build a barrel chest while only performing push-ups. Also, diet and recovery play a vital role in building muscle mass and strength. 

Wrapping Up

Push-ups are a great exercise to add to your warm-up, cool-down, or main training routine. This low-impact functional exercise helps build muscle mass, boost core strength, and improve posture.

Although this article is about maximizing your push-ups, you should ensure that you’re giving your muscles enough time to rest and recuperate between your workouts. Not allowing your muscles time to recover can cause overexertion, which can be counterproductive. 

References

1. Rozenek R, Byrne JJ, Crussemeyer J, Garhammer J. Male-Female Differences in Push-up Test Performance at Various Cadences. J Strength Cond Res. 2022 Dec 1;36(12):3324-3329. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000004091. Epub 2021 Jul 13. PMID: 34265814.
2. Yang J, Christophi CA, Farioli A, et al. Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(2):e188341. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341