Short answer: for a man in his twenties, the widely used Canadian fitness norms put 17 to 21 consecutive push-ups at "average" and 29 or more at "good"; for a man in his fifties, average is 7 to 9 and good is 13 or more. For women the same protocol uses the modified (knee) push-up and puts a woman in her twenties at average with 10 to 14 and good at 21 or more. The number 40 that circulates comes from a 2019 study of 1,104 male firefighters in which men who could do 40 or more had a 96% lower rate of cardiovascular events over ten years than men who managed 10 or fewer. That finding is real, and it is also about firefighters, not about you, and about push-ups as a marker, not a cause.
Both sets of numbers are below, with the protocol, because a push-up count without a protocol is not a measurement.
The norms by age
These ratings come from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology's fitness appraisal protocol, the source that nearly every "push-ups by age" table online reproduces, usually without saying so. The test is maximum consecutive push-ups without rest, to a fixed depth, at a steady pace. Men perform full push-ups; in this protocol, women perform the modified push-up from the knees, which is why the two tables are not comparable with each other.
Men, full push-ups, maximum consecutive:
| Age | Excellent | Good | Above average | Average | Below average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | ≥36 | 29–35 | 22–28 | 17–21 | 12–16 | ≤11 |
| 30–39 | ≥30 | 22–29 | 17–21 | 12–16 | 8–11 | ≤7 |
| 40–49 | ≥25 | 17–24 | 13–16 | 10–12 | 6–9 | ≤5 |
| 50–59 | ≥21 | 13–20 | 10–12 | 7–9 | 4–6 | ≤3 |
| 60–69 | ≥18 | 11–17 | 8–10 | 5–7 | 3–4 | ≤2 |
Women, modified (knee) push-ups, maximum consecutive:
| Age | Excellent | Good | Above average | Average | Below average | Poor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | ≥30 | 21–29 | 15–20 | 10–14 | 8–9 | ≤7 |
| 30–39 | ≥27 | 20–26 | 13–19 | 8–12 | 5–7 | ≤4 |
| 40–49 | ≥24 | 15–23 | 11–14 | 5–10 | 2–4 | ≤1 |
| 50–59 | ≥21 | 11–20 | 7–10 | 2–6 | 1 | 0 |
| 60–69 | ≥17 | 12–16 | 5–11 | 2–4 | 1 | 0 |
Three cautions belong with these tables rather than after them.
They are ratings, not percentiles. The categories were set by the protocol's authors as fitness bands, and the sample behind them was a few hundred Canadian adults tested decades ago. Treat "average" as "middle of a tested Canadian sample", not as a population median.
The women's table is a different exercise. A woman doing 15 full push-ups is not "below average"; she is doing an exercise the table does not rate. If you test with full push-ups, use the men's table as a rough guide and expect it to be conservative.
The decline with age in the table is partly a decline in activity. As with VO2 max and grip strength, the gap between a trained and an untrained 55-year-old is far larger than the gap between the age bands. A 60-year-old who trains sits in the "good" band of the 30s table without anything unusual happening.
The study behind the 40
Yang and colleagues (2019) followed 1,104 male firefighters, average age about 40, in Indiana, who had a push-up test at a baseline medical and were then tracked for ten years. The outcome was major cardiovascular events: diagnoses of coronary disease, heart failure, sudden cardiac death and the like.
| Push-ups at baseline | Cardiovascular events over 10 years | Relative to ≤10 group |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Highest rate | Reference |
| 11–20 | Lower | — |
| 21–30 | Lower | — |
| 31–40 | Lower | — |
| >40 | Lowest | 96% lower incidence rate |
The graded relationship held after adjusting for age and body mass index, and push-up capacity predicted events better than the treadmill test the same men took. That is a striking result and it is why the paper was covered everywhere.
What it does not show, and what the authors said it does not show:
It is about firefighters. Active, employed, mostly white men in one state, who had passed a fitness screen to get the job. The 40 threshold is meaningful within that group. Whether it means anything for a 58-year-old woman, or for a sedentary office worker, was not tested.
It is a marker, not a mechanism. Men who can do 40 push-ups at 40 are, on the whole, lean, active, non-smoking and metabolically healthy. The push-ups are a readout of all of that. Nothing in the study suggests that training from 10 push-ups to 40 would move your risk by 96%; that would need a trial nobody has run.
Only 37 events occurred. In a study of 1,104 people over ten years, that is a small number to divide across five groups, and the confidence intervals around the 96% are wide.
Participants able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significantly lower risk of incident cardiovascular disease events compared with those completing fewer than 10 push-ups.
Yang et al, JAMA Network Open, 2019
Why a strength marker predicts anything
The push-up finding is one instance of a much larger pattern. García-Hermoso and colleagues (2018) pooled studies covering roughly two million adults and found that higher muscular strength, measured mostly by grip, was associated with lower all-cause mortality, with a dose-response and after adjustment for the obvious confounders. Kodama's meta-analysis of cardiorespiratory fitness found the same for endurance. Push-ups sit in between: they load the upper body and core, they require a certain body composition to do in numbers, and they need some endurance to do many of.
The honest reading is that push-up count is a cheap, reasonably good composite index of whether a person is strong, lean and active. It is not a cardiovascular test, and it is not a target with magic at 40. It is a number you can measure on any floor, which is why it is worth having.
How to test without fooling yourself
A push-up count is only comparable to a table if the push-up is the same push-up. The differences between people's versions are large enough to move someone two categories.
Position. Hands under the shoulders, body a straight line from head to heels, feet together or close. Modified version: knees on the floor, same straight line from head to knees.
Depth. Chest to within about a fist of the floor, or to a fixed object of that height. Elbows to 90 degrees is the usual instruction. Half-depth push-ups roughly double the count and mean nothing.
Lockout. Arms fully straight at the top of every repetition.
Pace. Steady, about one per two seconds. The firefighter study used a metronome at 80 beats per minute, one push-up per two beats. No pausing at the top to rest; the test ends at the first pause or the first repetition that fails on depth or form.
Stop criteria. Sagging hips, lifted hips, incomplete depth, or a rest of more than a moment ends the count.
Test rested, not after a workout, and test the same way each time. The number is yours to compare with yourself; the table is context.
How to raise the number
Push-ups respond to two things: doing them and getting lighter. The second is out of scope; the first has a reliable recipe.
Frequency over volume. Schoenfeld and colleagues' meta-analysis found muscles trained twice a week grew more than once a week at matched volume. For push-ups, three short sessions a week beats one long one.
Sets short of failure. Three to five sets stopping one or two reps before form breaks, three times a week. Going to failure every set produces soreness and not much more.
Grease the groove. Several sub-maximal sets spread through a day, never to failure, is a well-worn method for a bodyweight skill and works well for push-ups specifically.
Regress to progress. If full push-ups are under five, do incline push-ups with hands on a bench or counter, then lower the surface over weeks. The knee version also works; the movement pattern is the same.
Expect weeks, not days. The neural part of the gain comes quickly, as in any new lift; the strength and endurance to double a count takes a couple of months.
Most people who test in the "below average" band and train three times a week reach "good" within eight to twelve weeks. The firefighters' 40 is a different order of task for most adults and does not need to be the goal.
Where this sits among the home tests
| Test | What it indexes | Best evidence for prediction | Minutes needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Push-ups | Upper-body strength-endurance, body composition, activity | One cohort, firefighters | 2 |
| Grip strength | Overall strength | Very large cohorts, mortality | 1, needs a dynamometer |
| 30-second sit-to-stand | Lower-body strength and power | Older adults, falls and function | 1 |
| VO2 max estimate | Cardiorespiratory fitness | The strongest mortality predictor of the four | A run, or a watch estimate |
Push-ups are the weakest of these as a predictor and the easiest to do. That makes them a good habit and a poor diagnosis.
Questions people ask
How many push-ups should I be able to do? By the Canadian fitness norms, a man in his twenties is average at 17 to 21 consecutive full push-ups and good at 29 or more; a man in his fifties is average at 7 to 9 and good at 13 or more. Women are rated on the modified push-up: average at 10 to 14 in their twenties and 2 to 6 in their fifties.
How many push-ups should a 40-year-old man be able to do? Average is 10 to 12, good is 17 to 24 and excellent is 25 or more, using the CSEP norms and a strict full push-up.
How many push-ups should a woman be able to do? On the modified (knee) push-up used in the norms, average for ages 20–29 is 10 to 14 and good is 21 to 29; for 40–49, average is 5 to 10. There are no widely used age norms for women doing full push-ups; a woman doing 15 full push-ups is well above the modified "good" band.
Is 40 push-ups good? It is excellent for any age band in the norms. In the firefighter study, men over 40 push-ups had a 96% lower rate of cardiovascular events than men at 10 or fewer, though that finding is specific to that group and describes a marker rather than a cause.
Do push-ups predict heart health? Within a cohort of male firefighters, push-up capacity predicted ten-year cardiovascular events better than a treadmill test. Outside that population the evidence is indirect: muscular strength in general is associated with lower mortality across about two million adults.
How many push-ups a day should I do? For building capacity, three or four sets short of failure, three times a week, beats a daily maximum. Several small sets through the day also works. Daily maximal sets mostly produce soreness.
Why can't I do a single push-up? Usually a combination of upper-body strength, core control and body weight. Incline push-ups against a wall or counter, lowered over weeks, or knee push-ups, build the pattern; most adults reach a full push-up within a couple of months of consistent practice.
How fast can I increase my push-ups? Doubling a count from 10 to 20 typically takes six to ten weeks of training three times a week. Early gains are partly neural and come fast; the rest is muscle and endurance.
Are the age tables accurate? They are ratings from a fitness protocol, based on a modest Canadian sample, not population percentiles. They are useful for placing yourself roughly and useless for fine distinctions.
Do push-ups build muscle? For untrained people, yes, in the chest, shoulders and triceps, with the same timeline as other resistance training. Once you can do 30 or more, they become an endurance exercise and you need added load or harder variations to keep building.
This article covers fitness assessment for general information and is not medical advice. If you have shoulder, wrist or back problems, or cardiac history, get individual advice before maximal testing.
References
- Yang, J., Christophi, C.A., Farioli, A., et al. (2019). Association Between Push-up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events Among Active Adult Men. JAMA Network Open, 2(2), e188341. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.8341
- Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. CSEP Physical Activity Training for Health (CSEP-PATH): push-up test protocol and normative ratings for adults 20–69. csep.ca
- García-Hermoso, A., Cavero-Redondo, I., Ramírez-Vélez, R., et al. (2018). Muscular Strength as a Predictor of All-Cause Mortality in an Apparently Healthy Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Data From Approximately 2 Million Men and Women. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 99(10), 2100–2113. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2018.01.008
- Schoenfeld, B.J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J.W. (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(11), 1689–1697. doi:10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8
- Kodama, S., Saito, K., Tanaka, S., et al. (2009). Cardiorespiratory fitness as a quantitative predictor of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in healthy men and women: a meta-analysis. JAMA, 301(19), 2024–2035. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.681
The weekly readout
One email each Thursday: what we tested, which claim collapsed under a closer look, and the one number worth paying attention to.