Every number here is a percentile, not an opinion. The 50th percentile is the median adult in that cohort: half of them do fewer. These tables compare you against all adults, not against the people who happen to be in a gym on a Tuesday, which is why the medians read lower than gym-floor talk.
Pick your cohort for full push-ups, or take a ladder variant if a full rep is not there yet. Nobody scores zero.
1 camera-verified results and 1 guesses were on the board when this page was last built. Includes the seeded baseline dataset
| Cohort | Beginner (10th) | Novice (25th) | Median (50th) | Advanced (75th) | Elite (90th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men 18-29 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| Men 30-39 | 4 | 10 | 17 | 26 | 35 |
| Men 40-49 | 3 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 30 |
| Men 50+ | 2 | 5 | 10 | 16 | 24 |
| Women 18-29 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 16 | 24 |
| Women 30-39 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 14 | 20 |
| Women 40-49 | n/a | 2 | 5 | 11 | 17 |
| Women 50+ | n/a | 1 | 4 | 8 | 14 |
Reps at each percentile. "n/a" means the published table for that cohort starts higher up the ladder. See the full push-up standards page.
The ladder exists so a zero is never the answer. These four are scored against every adult who takes them, with no split by age or sex, so each one has a single table.
| Test | Measured in | Median (50th) | Top published rung |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall push-ups | reps | 35 reps | Intermediate, 35 reps |
| Incline push-ups | reps | 19 reps | Intermediate, 19 reps |
| Knee push-ups | reps | 11 reps | Advanced, 32 reps |
| Plank hold | seconds | 47 seconds | Elite, 176 seconds (2:56) |
On the entry rungs the published table stops at the median, which is the cue to move up a rung rather than to chase a bigger number there. Provisional reference table. The same curve scores you when you take the test, and it compares you against all adults rather than gym regulars. These numbers are our own working estimate, not a published dataset: they are here to place you roughly, and they get replaced by camera-verified results as the board fills.
It depends on the cohort, which is why there is no single answer. The median man aged 18-29 does 20 push-ups in one set and the median woman the same age does 9. By 50 and over those medians are 10 and 4.
The 75th percentile is the honest bar for "good": it beats three out of four people in your cohort. For men aged 18-29 that is 30 reps, and for women aged 18-29 it is 16 reps. The 90th percentile (40 and 24 for those two cohorts) is the top 10%.
No. They compare you against all adults in your cohort, most of whom do not train. That is exactly why the medians look lower than what gym conversation suggests, and why a number that feels unimpressive can still sit above average.