Push-up test calculator
Do one honest set to failure, enter three numbers, and find out where you actually sit, not against the internet, against a published standard.
The short answer
Enter your age, sex and maximum push-ups in one set, and this calculator returns your rating band against published push-up norms. The men's table scores a standard push-up from the toes and the women's table scores a modified push-up from the knees, the protocols differ, which is why a raw rep count means nothing without knowing which test produced it.
Score your push-up test
One max set, then three fields. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
The men's table scores a standard push-up from the toes. That is how the norms were collected, and comparing a different movement against them gives a meaningless rating.
How to do the push-up test properly
A push-up test is only worth doing if the number means something, and the fastest way to get a meaningless number is to change the movement halfway through the set. One position, full range, no rests.
Warm up first
Two or three minutes: arm circles, some wrist preparation, and two light sets well short of failure. A cold max test gives you a lower number and a higher chance of an elbow or shoulder complaint.
Set your position
Hands roughly shoulder-width, body in a straight line from head to heels. Men's norms assume the toes; women's norms assume the knees. Pick the one matching the table you are scoring against and stay in it.
Full range, every rep
Chest descends toward the floor, arms lock out at the top. A partial rep is not a rep. See the form guide for what depth should look like.
No pauses
No resting at the top, no dropping to a plank to recover. When you stop moving, the set is over and that is your number.
Stop at technical failure
Stop when the next rep would break form, not when it starts to burn. Grinding out three ugly reps inflates the number and teaches a bad movement.
The protocol difference nobody mentions
Almost every site reprinting push-up norms leaves out the single most important caveat: the men's and women's tables measure different movements. The men's norms score a standard push-up from the toes. The women's norms score a modified push-up from the knees. They are not two views of the same test, and comparing a number from one against the other tells you nothing.
This matters practically. A woman who trains full push-ups from the toes is badly served by the knee-based table. Her honest full push-up max will read as far worse than it is. If that is you, the branch-standard tables in the military push-up standards guide use one movement for everyone and give a cleaner comparison.
Push-up norms for men
Men's norms below, by age band, for a standard push-up from the toes. Two things are worth noticing. The top of the table is not extreme, 36 reps rates Excellent at 20 to 29, and plenty of people who train regularly clear it. And the whole table drifts down by roughly four to six reps per decade through the middle bands, so the same absolute number climbs a rating every ten years without you doing anything.
| Rating | 15-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent | 39+ | 36+ | 30+ | 25+ | 21+ | 18+ |
| Very good | 29-38 | 29-35 | 22-29 | 17-24 | 13-20 | 11-17 |
| Good | 23-28 | 22-28 | 17-21 | 13-16 | 10-12 | 8-10 |
| Fair | 18-22 | 17-21 | 12-16 | 10-12 | 7-9 | 5-7 |
| Needs improvement | 17 or fewer | 16 or fewer | 11 or fewer | 9 or fewer | 6 or fewer | 4 or fewer |
Push-up norms for women
Women's norms below, by age band, for a modified push-up from the knees. These are reproduced exactly as published, including the 60-69 column where the bands overlap oddly. That is what the source says, and smoothing it would be inventing data.
| Rating | 15-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excellent | 33+ | 30+ | 27+ | 24+ | 21+ | 17+ |
| Very good | 25-32 | 21-29 | 20-26 | 15-23 | 11-20 | 12-16 |
| Good | 18-24 | 15-20 | 13-19 | 11-14 | 7-10 | 5-11 |
| Fair | 12-17 | 10-14 | 8-12 | 5-10 | 2-6 | 2-4 |
| Needs improvement | 11 or fewer | 9 or fewer | 7 or fewer | 4 or fewer | 1 or fewer | 1 or fewer |
What to do with your rating
- Needs improvement or Fair. The fastest gains available to anyone are here, and most of them are neural rather than muscular. Three structured sessions a week will move this in weeks. Start with the beginner progression if full push-ups are still hard.
- Good. You are past the beginner phase, which is exactly where unstructured training stops working. This is where the 2-for-2 rule starts earning its keep.
- Very good or Excellent. The norms have stopped being a useful yardstick for you. Switch to a harder target: the route to 100 consecutive push-ups, or harder variations.
Whatever band you landed in, the useful move is the same: write the number down and re-test in two weeks. A single test is a data point; two tests are a trend, and a trend is the only thing that tells you whether your training is working.
Sources
- Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (2019), push-up norms as reprinted by the American Council on Exercise
- Men's norms use a standard push-up from the toes; women's norms use a modified push-up from the knees.
Frequently asked questions
How many push-ups should I be able to do?
It depends on your age and which test you are doing. For men aged 20 to 29 doing standard push-ups from the toes, published norms put 22 to 28 reps in the Good band and 36 or more as Excellent. The tables on this page cover ages 15 to 69 for both protocols.
How many push-ups is average for my age?
Average sits around the Good and Fair bands, and it drops with age. Men's norms fall by roughly four to six reps per decade through the middle bands. Enter your age and max above and the calculator returns your exact rating rather than a single average number that hides the spread.
What is a good push-up test score?
Anything in the Good band or above is a genuinely solid result for a general population standard. Excellent is a meaningful achievement but not an extreme one, for men aged 20 to 29 it starts at 36 reps, which regular training reaches. Excellent at 50 to 59 starts at 21.
How do you perform a push-up test?
Warm up, then do one unbroken set to technical failure with full range on every rep, chest toward the floor, lockout at the top, no pausing and no resting in a plank. When you stop, the set is over. That number is your max.
Are push-up norms different for men and women?
Yes, and not only in the numbers. The men's norms score a standard push-up from the toes while the women's norms score a modified push-up from the knees. Because the movements differ, scores from the two tables are not directly comparable at all.
Is 20 push-ups good?
For a man aged 20 to 29 doing standard push-ups, 20 falls in the Fair band. For a man aged 50 to 59 the same 20 is nearly Excellent. Twenty consecutive reps is also the first milestone most structured push-up plans aim at, so it is a genuine marker regardless of the band it lands in.
Is 50 push-ups in a row good?
Fifty consecutive standard push-ups is well above the Excellent threshold in every age band on these tables. It is also the point where the norms stop being a useful yardstick, and the sensible next target becomes 100 in a row.
How often should I re-test my push-up max?
Every two weeks is a sensible cadence, often enough to catch real progress, far enough apart that you are measuring adaptation rather than day-to-day noise. Testing more often mostly measures how fresh you are, and a max set is itself a hard session.
Does the push-up test calculator save my results?
No. Everything is computed in your browser, nothing is transmitted, and there is no account. If you want the number kept, write it down or let the app track it for you.
Why do the norms only go up to age 69?
Because that is where the published tables stop. Rather than extrapolate a band the source never measured, the calculator says so and gives no rating outside 15 to 69. An invented number would be worse than no number.
Do knee push-ups count for the test?
They count against the women's table, which was collected using the modified knee push-up. They do not count against the men's table or against a full push-up test, both of which assume push-ups from the toes. Whichever you use, use the same one every time you re-test.