How Many Push-Ups Should You Be Able to Do?

The push-up is one of the best exercises for your chest, arms, shoulders and core. The benefits of push-ups for a strong upper body include being able to carry your groceries, pick up a heavy box off the floor, grab something from a high shelf or open that stubborn jar of pickles. (More on the benefits of push-ups below.)

Some organizations even use and track a 1-minute or max push-up test to gauge strength. However, a 2021 survey of 2,000 people commissioned by Gymless.org found 53.8 percent of adults can't do more than 10 push-ups in a row.

While push-ups are a limited measurement of your overall fitness, they do provide a good understanding of your upper-body muscular endurance.

So, if you're wondering, "how many push-ups should I be able to do?" take a look at what the average number of push-ups are for men and women by age to get an idea of where you stand — and learn how to improve your score.

The average number of push-ups adults can do varies by age range and gender. The norms provided by the Kinesiologists.Ca Studios — which offers kinesiology and active rehab services in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada — break up the results into the following categories:

• Poor
• Below average
• Average
• Above average
• Excellent

Wondering how many push-ups you should be able to do? Check the chart below to get an idea of the average number of push-ups most women can perform by age.

Of course, the average varies greatly across the general population due to diverse lifestyles, careers and health conditions. Barring a medical condition or injury that prevents you from exercising, consider improving your muscular endurance if you can't hit the average for your age group.

The average number of push-ups for adult men are higher than the average scores for their female counterparts. Take a look at the chart below to learn the average number of push-ups for men by age group.

As with the women's scores, you can also take a look at the men's scores that are considered to be in the "poor" category.

The push-up test is sometimes used by schools for testing upper-body muscular endurance in children, with the aim of helping them develop lifelong physical fitness habits.

If you're wondering how your child stacks up, you can find the average number of push-ups for kids below. The tables are organized by age and percentile. The children were tested in 30 seconds, according to a March 2016 study in the ‌British Journal of Sports Medicine‌.

Key to building up your push-up endurance and increasing how many push-ups you can do is by perfecting your form.

Here's how to perform a proper push-up:

If you were unable to meet the minimum or average number of push-ups for your age group and sex assigned at birth, or you just want to improve your push-up score, you can build muscle and strength with other exercises and push-up variations.

The push-up mainly targets your pectoralis muscles in your chest, but also uses your deltoids, biceps, triceps, quadriceps and core.

Push-ups get easier the more you do them. But it's worth noting there are some disadvantages to practicing push-ups every day. Not only do you risk an overuse injury, but you also miss out on crucial rest between sessions. During rest days, your body repairs the damage done to your muscle fibers during your workout, building them back bigger and stronger.

Strengthen your core and improve your stability with exercises like plank reaches, per the American Council on Exercise.

A single-arm chest press will also help strengthen your pecs and core.

You can also add easier push-up variations to your workouts, like wall push-ups. Starting with this push-up variation is a good way for a beginner looking to get better at the exercise to eventually be able to do a full push-up.

If you need more challenging variations, try doing push-ups with your feet elevated (aka a decline push-up) or add weight to increase the resistance as you do the exercise.

Remarkably, this one exercise strengthens all your major muscle groups. When you're able to do plenty of push-ups, you don't have to add a ton of other exercises to your gym session if you don't have the time.

The amount of push-ups you can do is also linked to a lower risk of developing heart disease, according to a February 2019 study in ‌JAMA Network Open‌. Those who were able to do more than 40 push-ups were significantly less likely to get heart disease over a 10-year period compared to those who could do fewer than 10 push-ups.

However, only men participated in the study, and it's worth noting that correlation doesn't equal causation. In other words, we can't necessarily be sure someone's ability to do push-ups was the sole reason they did or did not develop heart disease, and we need more research that includes women.

Do push-ups build muscle? Yes! Push-ups are a full-body strength exercise that work the following muscle groups, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM):

• Chest muscles (pectorals)
• Shoulder muscles (deltoids)
• Shoulder-support muscles (serratus anterior, trapezius, rotator cuff)
• Arm muscles (biceps and triceps)
• Core muscles
• Glutes

Those with shoulder, wrist or elbow injuries should avoid doing push-ups. If you're new to push-ups, get the green light from your doctor before adding them into your workout routine.