What’s a respectable number of pushups?

Bare minimum/fair

Men 15

Women 10

Healthy/acceptable

Men 30

Women 20

Respectable/fit

Men 50

Women 30

Very fit/strong

Men 80

Women 50

Is doing lots of high reps of things like pushups bad for your joints/tendons though? Or is that just a myth?

Bet your form sucks

In my college gym class, I did 59 til failure (which isn't that much, I'm a skinny distance runner) and that was the 3rd most in the class. Some kids couldn't even do 5 pushups. The average population is a lot weaker than you think. Anyways, I'd say

20 bare minimum

50 healthy

80 respectable - the guy goes to the gym

100+ fit

Wrong.

More reasonable.

Most healthy men can NOT do 30 push-ups with proper form. Nor can most healthy women do 20.

The majority of the top 50 finishers at a local 5k probably can't do 20.

Time for a real skinny-upper-body runner to chip in. I can barely do 10. Since doing some chest press machine at the gym I can now do almost 15.

Moreover, I can't do one pullup. Not a single one, never have been able to. I weigh 145.

I always knew I was in the bottom 10% for upper body strength, but I'm top 10% for leg strength, so I'm just very unbalanced.

Most people aren’t healthy in my opinion and runners arent an accurate representation of upper body strength norms as most of us, including myself admittedly, neglect our upper bodies.

spaghetti arms wrote:

In my college gym class, I did 59 til failure (which isn't that much, I'm a skinny distance runner) and that was the 3rd most in the class. Some kids couldn't even do 5 pushups. The average population is a lot weaker than you think. Anyways, I'd say

20 bare minimum

50 healthy

80 respectable - the guy goes to the gym

100+ fit

Were those proper form?

Push ups are not agood measure of upper body strength, upper body endurance maybe, but strength is different. I would assess a person’s bench press 1 rep max to rest their total upper body strength.

Ackley wrote:

Drainthefecesswamp wrote:

You are too high if you are talking push ups using correct form. My best during the PFT when I was in the Army was 85. I was in very good all around shape and specifically trained to be able to Max (100 points) the push up part of the PFT and not a lot of people in my Battalion were better. (The 2 Mile run and sit up parts came easier.)

These appear to be the current standards:

http://www.apft-standards.com/pushup-male.html

Ya, stupidly high, stupidly humble brag attempt 1/10.

Many woman cannot do a single pushup and do pushups from the knees instead. Intesting post from US Army, thanks! Body fat tolerance is pretty liberal, did they increase it over the years?

US Army Male Body Fat Standards

As Per Army Regulation 600-9, Males are allowed the following Body Fat Standards.

However, all personnel are encouraged to achieve the more stringent DOD goals which

is 18 % body fat for males and 26 % body fat for females.

Age Group 17-20: 20% Body Fat

Age Group 21-27: 22% Body Fat

Age Group 28-39: 24% Body Fat

Age Group 40+: 26% Body Fat

I can do 60 while holding my breath, literally. I have a blood pressure monitor and it spikes my blood pressure up extremely high, but the net effect is that I almost always burst out laughing for no apparent reason about 10-15 seconds after I finish. It feels really good and forces me to do them pretty quickly.

50 with perfect form.

Healthy person wrote:

family doctor and running coach wrote:

Wrong.

More reasonable.

Most healthy men can NOT do 30 push-ups with proper form. Nor can most healthy women do 20.

The majority of the top 50 finishers at a local 5k probably can't do 20.

Most people aren’t healthy in my opinion and runners arent an accurate representation of upper body strength norms as most of us, including myself admittedly, neglect our upper bodies.

50% of people are healthier than average. About 50% will live past 80.

I guarantee you that less than 10% of men in your city or town can do the "healthy/acceptable" 30 pushups you listed, or even the "bare minimum" 25 pushups the first dummy mentioned. Many, many people who can't do 30 pushups are healthy.

With impeccable form:

Men : 15

Women: 1

Ehsin wrote:

Bet your form sucks

I go from straight arms until my ear just barely touches the carpet. Obviously to do that many, I have to go fairly quickly, these aren't slow pushups. My hand width is about even with my elbows when my elbows are at 90 degrees.

I dont know if this is "good" or "bad" form. The world record is literally over 10x my best..

most of y'all are probably using your shoulders and not going all the way down. If you are using your chest, and going all the way down, you will get a much better stretch, and you will be doing much less reps. 20 REALLY solid, chest dominate pushups is a good number for men. If form is not that big of a deal, then 30 is pretty good. But who really cares? What is the point of doing (xy) amount of reps if you aren't "feeling" each rep, getting a good stretch, which will ACTUALLY lead to hypertrophy gains.

Here is colleen quigley doing some shoulder-dominant pushups, the way like 90% of everyone else does them

https://www.instagram.com/p/BppJDkfHDnA/

Not as many as i could once do, but at 60 y.o., a couple times a week, i do two sets of 20.

So, simply 2 x 20.

Next time i'll try one set to failure, and my bet is about 28.

I can do my age without taking a break @ 53

10/10 by far the best reply

0/10

Juvenile and attention seeking. Not impressed at all.