For most adults, being able to do 15 to 20 pushups in a row puts you in solid shape. But the specific number that counts as “good” shifts quite a bit depending on your age and sex. A 25-year-old man hitting 28 consecutive pushups is right at the good fitness mark, while a 55-year-old woman reaching 10 is at the same relative level.
Benchmarks by Age and Sex
The Mayo Clinic publishes pushup targets that represent good overall fitness. These aren’t elite numbers or minimums. They’re the point where you can feel confident about your upper-body muscular endurance.
- Age 25: 20 for women, 28 for men
- Age 35: 19 for women, 21 for men
- Age 45: 14 for women, 16 for men
- Age 55: 10 for women, 12 for men
- Age 65: 10 for women, 10 for men
If you’re beating these numbers, you’re above average. If you’re below them, they make a reasonable first goal.
How Fitness Professionals Rank Pushup Counts
The benchmarks above give you a single target, but fitness testing standards used in exercise science break performance into finer categories. For adults in their 20s, the widely used scale looks like this:
- Excellent: 30+ for women, 36+ for men
- Very good: 21 to 29 for women, 29 to 35 for men
- Good: 15 to 20 for women, 22 to 28 for men
- Fair: 10 to 14 for women, 17 to 21 for men
- Poor: 9 or fewer for women, 16 or fewer for men
These categories were originally developed by the Canadian Association of Sport Sciences and are still referenced in fitness textbooks today. They apply to people in their 20s, so if you’re older, the age-based Mayo Clinic targets above are more relevant to you. The general pattern holds across all ages: the gap between “fair” and “good” is usually only 5 to 8 reps, which means a few weeks of consistent practice can bump you up a category.
The 40-Pushup Threshold and Heart Health
One of the more striking findings in pushup research comes from a 10-year study of more than 1,100 male firefighters published in JAMA Network Open. Men who could complete more than 40 pushups had a 96% lower risk of cardiovascular events (heart attacks, heart failure, and similar problems) compared to men who could do fewer than 10. That’s a massive difference tied to a simple bodyweight exercise.
This doesn’t mean pushups themselves prevent heart disease. Pushup capacity is a proxy for overall fitness, the kind of functional strength and cardiovascular health that comes from being active. But it does mean your pushup count is a surprisingly useful snapshot of where you stand. If you can hit 40, your body is telling you something good about your overall conditioning. If you’re well below 10, it’s worth paying attention to your fitness more broadly.
What Counts as a Real Pushup
These benchmarks assume proper form, and sloppy reps can inflate your count by 30% or more. A valid pushup has a few non-negotiable elements: hands slightly wider than shoulder width at chest level, feet about hip-width apart, and a straight line from your head through your hips to your heels. Your lower back should keep its natural slight curve, not sag toward the floor or pike upward.
Depth matters most. Your chest, nose, and belly button should all lower to the same height, getting as close to the floor as possible. Half-reps where your elbows barely bend don’t count in any standardized test and won’t build the same strength. At the top, your arms should be fully extended with your triceps engaged. If you’ve been counting reps with shallow depth, your “real” number is probably lower than you think, but that’s fine. It just gives you a more honest starting point.
Starting From Zero or Close to It
If you can’t do a single full pushup yet, modified versions are a legitimate path forward. Knee pushups load about 50 to 60% of your body weight compared to roughly 65 to 70% for a standard pushup. In practical terms, two to three knee pushups produce similar muscle work to one full pushup. That means doing sets of 15 to 20 knee pushups is genuinely building the strength you need to transition to full reps.
Wall pushups are even more accessible, engaging about 30 to 40% of your body weight. Three to five wall pushups roughly equal one standard pushup in total effort. Incline pushups on a bench or sturdy surface split the difference at about 55 to 65% of your body weight, where 1.5 to 2 incline reps equal one floor pushup. A natural progression is wall to incline to knee to full, spending a few weeks at each level until you can do three solid sets.
How to Build Your Number Up
The most effective approach is straightforward: practice pushups three to five times per week, with rest days in between so your muscles can recover and adapt. Training every single day often backfires because your chest, shoulders, and triceps don’t get the repair time they need.
A simple protocol is to do three sets at about 80% of your goal number. If you’re aiming for 25 pushups in a row, do three sets of 20 with one to two minutes of rest between sets. When that starts feeling manageable, bump the number up. This works whether you’re doing full pushups, knee pushups, or any modified version. The key is consistent volume close to your target, not occasional max-effort attempts.
Most people can add 5 to 10 reps to their max within three to four weeks of regular training. Beginners often see faster gains because the early improvements come largely from your nervous system learning the movement pattern, not just from muscle growth. Plateaus are normal once you’re past the beginner stage, and that’s when adding variety (wider hand placement, slower lowering, or pausing at the bottom) helps push through.