How many pushups can you do right now?

I'm up to about 7 right now. I think, following the 10% rule, I'll be make progress soon by New years

wish that was it wrote:

physics/engineering folks wrote:

To get an idea of how much weight you are actually "benching" place your hands on a bathroom scale while remaining in pushup position. For me the reading is about 70% of my body weight. For everyone it will be more than 50%. For men, in general it will be a slightly higher percentage than for women because men's weight is more concentrated in their upper body as compared to women's relatively higher concentrations around the hip area.

Good explanation!

Also interesting is while on the scale, hold the up position (around 70% of my body weight), and then hold in the down position (around 76.5% of my body weight).

And, while holding in the up position - switch between good form (straight back) and poor form (sagging back). I was surprised to see the weight go up with the poor form.

Good point. The angle at which you are holding your body impacts how much weight you are supporting with your arms. The greater the angle (higher your head relative to your feet) the lower the amount of weight that your arms are bearing (think of continuing to increase the angle to where your head is directly above your feet [you are standing up]. In this position your arms are bearing 0%.)

I do not see how it is possible to be resting in the bottom pushup position with arms at 90 degrees.[/quote]

I agree with you totally. It just happens to be one of the legal resting positions for the Navy PRT.

Ninety degrees is the standard for down position?... Really? When did this happen?

Right this moment? I can do like 15. Tired. Fresh I can do a little over 100 with decent form (touching chest and nose with straight back). Not sure how many diamonds I can do, but can get 3 claps in one push-up, it's hard though.

5'8 130lbs

Runningart,

Serious question, as I am in the same boat as you. I was a competetive runner (obciously not nearly as fast as you) who switched over to weight ttraining after running. Though my running prs are much "better" than my lifting prs, I fond much more satisfaction in setting a new lifting pr than i ever did with running. Although your lifting prs and running prs are probably further apart in quality than mine, are you more proud/satisfied with your lifting prs or running prs?

How about everyone else?

Bad Wigins wrote:

Chest-to-floor is also ridiculous because it pushes the range of motion of the involved muscles well beyond what the kinetic chains employing them involve. There is a stretch reflex that kicks in at around 90 degree elbow flexion, anything below that and it becomes a useless isolation exercise. It's like doing plyometric bounds, but each time you land you turn it into a one-legged squat before bounding again. Functionally useless.

And again, adding points of support allows you to stop and rest. If your chest is on the ground, your arms are not bearing your weight at all. You are the cheater, Brian.

Right angle, full extension but no locking, means your arms are bearing at least half your weight the entire time through their natural range of motion.

Not true - you don't stop on the ground. There is no rest. If I go just to 90 degree flexion, I can do 100 too (that is several inches off the floor). Do you just go to 90 degree flexion when you bench? Is that what accounts for skinny guys saying they can bench a ton? Chest to floor is equivalent of bar to chest. A pushup is a bench press in reverse and you use powerlifting rules. Bar on the chest for a 1 count and arms locked at the top. You can't seriously think one can do more pushups going from floor to locked than just to 90 degree flexion...hold on a minute...I just did 75 in my work clothes your way without going to failure. Ridiculous. That is a half pushup. The micro second pause on the floor is not rest.

If you don't go to locked, people just arbitrarily pick a point that is subjective. Same with going to the floor. I have been in these pushup pissing contests before and what people call a pushup is ridiculous. Barely a few inches range of motion.

Same as the football players I see that are in the 400 club who don't remotely follow powerlifting rules. If you don't start and finish locked with no spotters and pause on your chest, you didn't bench it.

90 degree arms at bottom is over a foot off the floor to me - I can do twice as many that way easily. Those are non-pushups. That is like benching and stopping the exercise a foot off your chest or using a bodybuilder chest press machine and setting the seat so far back you start a foot off your chest. Not remotely as hard.

I will always be more proud of my running PRs as they are worlds above anything I've ever done lifting. My Running PRs are 5-10 years old now. If I stopped lifting and started running a lot of miles I could within a year get back pretty close to where I was, even at 36 years old...provided I stayed healthy. I just don't want to do that. I enjoy lifting, but I enjoy running also. I enjoy always being the fastest guy on the APFT in whatever company I'm in. Because of that, and my age, I will probably never be able to reach my ultimate lifting potential...and I'm also ok with that as I'm still stronger than 99% of dudes I see in the gym. I'm still able to make gains in strength if I stay consistent...and I'm ok with that.

Currently I am trying to improving lifting PRs while also staying in sub 3 hour marathon shape. I'm back to the lifting PRs I had in '08-09 when I was lifting more seriously. I'm at a 245 bench, 345 deadlift, 285 squat, at a bw of 165. Not earth shattering...but solid for an old with a running habit..:)

Alan

Just finished testing myself and only got to 39, I probably could have gutted out a couple more if there was something at state. I use to be able to do 68 with in 2 minutes on my aprt, which was many-many years ago. I wasn't able to a single diamond push. Pathetic I know

Brian I agree with you 100% on this, and disagree with Wigins.

Yes, what he is calling a push-up might be what most people do, but I agree with your main points that:

a) touching the floor with chest for 1/10th of a second is no "rest"

b) going full range is not somehow "useless" or ineffective as Wigins seems to suggest

c) your main point: if you don't touch chest to floor, and don't lock out or at least come 99.9% into the lockout position (you don't have to hold, a extremely brief pause will work), there is no way to judge if people are doing the same work.

d) going to "90 degree angle" puts people with long arms way off the floor, and not locking out can keep people from not coming close to full upright, i.e., as you said, a lot of 1/2 push-ups.

e) to reiterate and repeat: people do push-ups fast and there is no way to judge if each and everyone is a "full push-up" unless you have strict rules that can easily be judged with the naked eye (touch chest), full range, and very slight pause at top to make sure each push-up is the same as the other guy's push-up.

So yes, this whole conversation is dumb because not only do most people lie, but everyone has a different judgement on what constitutes a push-up, and most are doing less than a full one. So again, pointless discussion.

10,507

I can do as many as I want.

Luckily, I want for nothing.

3

bout 50. been doing them consistantly for about 3 months now and seem to be stuck at that number. ten years ago I would go on one of these push-up kicks and would soon be able to get up to 70, even as high as 90. I guess that's the difference between being 42 and 32. Still feels good though and gives you good definition.

Mike Robertson, Eric cressey, rick kaselj, Dos Remedios, BJ Gaddour are the ones whose advice you should be following not letsrun experts. Dos as far as I know is the only one who advocates touching the floor with the chest. The others say bring the chest toward the ground and their pictures tend to have the upper arm parallel to the floor about 90 degrees at the elbow. The upper arms should be at a 45 degree angle from the torso not all the way out, 90 degrees from the torso invites shoulder issues. Look them up rather than arguing over the correct method. The fitness gram test, which PE teachers around the country administer, states that at the bottom position the upper arms should be parallel to the floor and at the top position the upper arms are fully extended. Those who don't extend their arms and do half push-ups are not really using the serratus anterior. The push up test is also done slowly. I have students who knock out 80 + incorrect push ups do about 40 "fitness gram" push ups.

Army fm 7-22. Google it. Find apft procedures. Lower your body to ground as one unit until upper arms are even with upper back...ie break the plane. Return to starting position. Front leaning rest and modified front leaning rest are only authorized rest position.

Any questIons read the fm. This is the way to do pushups. Any other way is just not the correct way.

Do as many as u can in two minutes. 75-78 will max the pushup event...depends on age. I need to do 75. I can do 80-83. Min standard is like 40-50 depends on age. I've seen a handful if real tiny duded crank out 90-100

Alan

I read the manual, it stated that your chest can touch the floor as long as it doesn't create an advantage ie. bouncing up. A lot of variation here regarding how low one can go. the fitness gram cadence is slow (down-up- one, down-up-two etc up until 75).Try it and see the difference