How Many Push Ups Can You Do?

The push up fitness test is a good way to test your overall fitness. This simple exercise engages muscles throughout the entire body -- from  head to toe -- in order to maintain a rigid position. Doing push ups will test your strength and endurance in the muscles of the upper body, specifically the chest, shoulders, triceps and core.


While performing push ups, you lift nearly 75% of your total body weight. Using a modified push-up position reduces this amount to about 60% of your total body weight.



Goal: Do as many pushups as you can in one minute.


Execution: Men will assume a traditional pushup position and females can use the modified pushup position (on knees). When the pushups start, so does the clock! Press yourself up with arms fully extended and lower yourself back until your chest is three inches from the floor (but do not touch your body to the floor). Repeat as many times as you can in one minute. You may rest only in the “up” position if necessary.





Scoring: Here are the age-adjusted standards for men and women.

Hope you do really well. But even if you aren’t able to do enough reps to register on the chart, it’s OK. We all have to start somewhere. Keep at it and your results will improve gradually over time from where you started. Remember, you are looking for improvement in yourself, regardless of what a chart says or how many repetitions someone else can do.