How many push-ups should I be able to do?

For a healthy adult, a good target is about 20 to 30 push-ups in a row for men and about 10 to 20 for women, with full range of motion. Fewer than that is normal, especially if you haven't trained, and the number goes up quickly with practice.

These are rough guides. Age, body size and arm length all change the number. Taller people with long arms have further to go on every rep, and heavier people are moving more weight. Compare yourself to your own past counts first.

How age changes it

Expect the numbers to drift down as you get older, and don't read much into that. A 55-year-old doing 12 clean push-ups is doing well. If you're over 60, 10 or so in a row is a solid result, and incline push-ups are a perfectly good version.

Doing 40 or more with clean form puts you well above average at any age.

What counts as a rep

A real push-up has a straight line from head to heels. Your chest goes down to about a fist from the floor (or touches it) and your elbows lock out at the top. Sagging hips, flaring elbows and half-reps don't count. Fewer clean reps are better than lots of sloppy ones.

Why it's a decent test

Push-ups work your chest, shoulders, triceps and core together, and you need no equipment. That's why they show up in fitness tests. It's not a complete measure of fitness, though. Plenty of strong people have mediocre push-up numbers if they've never practiced them.

If your number is low

Don't worry about it. Start with incline push-ups against a bench or a counter, work down toward the floor, and train them two to three times a week. Check out how to do more push-ups for a plan.

Retesting

Test your max once a month at most, on a fresh day, and write the number down. Testing every day just wears you out and tells you nothing new.

Max mode in League of Fitness is a solo 60-second push-up attempt with the phone camera counting reps, which makes a monthly retest easy to repeat under the same conditions. There are also live push-up races against a real opponent if you'd rather test yourself against someone.

If you feel chest pain, dizziness or sharp joint pain while you do push-ups, stop and get it checked by a doctor.