Every number here is a percentile with a published source behind it, or it is not printed at all. 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.
10 camera-verified results and 12 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 | 9 | 19 | 26 | 35 | 40 |
| Men 30-39 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 28 | 34 |
| Men 40-49 | 5 | 11 | 15 | 23 | 29 |
| Men 50-59 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 19 | 25 |
| Men 60-69 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 17 | 22 |
| Women 18-29 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 26 | 30 |
| Women 30-39 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 20 | 23 |
| Women 40-49 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 18 |
| Women 50-59 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| Women 60-69 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Reps at each percentile. "n/a" means no source we could verify covers that cell, so no number is published for it. See the full push-up standards page.
Percentiles are derived from the CSEP-PATH (2019) push-up categories, the same table ACSM publishes under licence. CSEP publishes ordered categories rather than percentiles, so the percentile spacing is our stated assumption. Women testing full push-ups are read against Cooper Institute percentiles, a fitter-than-average sample, which makes that curve the weaker of the two. The same curve scores you when you take the test, and it compares you against all adults rather than gym regulars, which is why the medians read lower than gym-floor talk.
The ladder exists so a zero is never the answer. Wall, incline and knee push-ups are scored against every adult who takes them, with no split by age or sex, so each one has a single table. Sit-ups are the opposite: fully cohorted for both sexes, so their page carries a table per sex and age band. The plank and the bar tests are different again: no percentile norms for them exist in the general adult population, so the plank and pull-ups are published against military standards instead of a curve, and the dead hang, with nothing verifiable published at all, is simply a time.
| Test | Measured in | Median (50th) | Top published rung |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sit-ups | reps | by age and sex | ten cohort tables, both sexes |
| 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 | no published norms | US Marine Corps PFT plank: 1:10 minimum, 3:45 maximum |
| Pull-ups | reps | no published norms | US Marine Corps PFT pull-ups: 5 rep minimum, 23 rep maximum |
| Dead hang | seconds | no published norms | no standards either: time is the score |
On the entry rungs the table stops at the median, which is the cue to move up a rung rather than to chase a bigger number there. PROVISIONAL and unsourced. No published dataset backs these ladder anchors; they exist so a beginner rung still returns a number instead of a zero. Never describe them as published standards.
There are no published percentile norms for the plank in the general adult population, so this hold gets no percentile. The only percentile paper is a few hundred college students with no age bands, which is not a population. What does exist is published military standards, so your time is read against those instead.
Percentiles are derived from the push-up categories published in CSEP-PATH, 2nd edition (2019), the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology resource manual. ACSM licenses the same table, so the "ACSM push-up norms" and these are one table, not two.
CSEP publishes ordered categories, not percentiles. Placing those categories on a percentile scale is our assumption, stated here rather than buried: the category boundaries are theirs, the percentile spacing is ours.
Women testing full push-ups are read against Cooper Institute percentiles, because CSEP scores women on knee push-ups and using that column for a full push-up would quietly corrupt the number. The Cooper sample is fitter than the general adult population, so that curve runs harsh and is the weaker of the two.
CSEP publishes ordered fitness categories, not percentiles. We assume the bottom of Fair is the 20th percentile, Good the 40th, Very good the 60th and Excellent the 80th, then draw a curve through those four points. That mapping is our assumption, not theirs.
CSEP-PATH Resource Manual, 2nd edition (2019)
Men, full push-ups. Men are scored on standard full push-ups, which is what this test asks for. CSEP publishes ordered fitness categories, not percentiles. We assume the bottom of Fair is the 20th percentile, Good the 40th, Very good the 60th and Excellent the 80th, then draw a curve through those four points. That mapping is our assumption, not theirs. Also published by ACSM as the same table under licence. The manual does not state the population the cut-points were built from.
Y's Way to Physical Fitness (Golding, Myers and Sinning), 3rd edition, 1-minute sit-up test (1986)
Sit-ups, both sexes. An older and weaker source than the CSEP tables behind our push-up numbers, disclosed as such. The source publishes seven ordered ratings, not percentiles. We assume the bottom of Poor is the 10th percentile, Below average the 30th, Average the 45th, Above average the 55th, Good the 70th and Excellent the 90th, then draw a curve through those points. That mapping is our assumption, not theirs. The source's age bands (18-25 up to 65+) differ from ours (18-29 up to 60-69), so its values are interpolated across age and read at the midpoint of each of our bands. That remap is our construction. Note the bodies that publish fitness standards have retired sit-up testing (CSEP dropped curl-ups, and the US Army and Marine Corps both replaced sit-ups and crunches with the plank), so this curve cites what WAS published, not a current institutional standard.
Cooper Institute push-up percentiles, full push-ups
Women, full push-ups. Real percentiles rather than categories, and women are scored on FULL push-ups, which is what this test asks for. It is the weaker of our two sources: the sample skews law-enforcement and is fitter than the general adult population, so these percentiles read harsh. Edition and year could not be verified, no women 60-69 row could be verified, and the published women 50-59 40th-percentile value is excluded as an internally inconsistent transcription.
CSEP-PATH Resource Manual, 2nd edition, modified (knee) push-up column (2019)
Women, knee push-ups. This is the MODIFIED (knee) push-up column, so it is the right norm for the knee rung and the wrong one for full push-ups. CSEP publishes ordered fitness categories, not percentiles. We assume the bottom of Fair is the 20th percentile, Good the 40th, Very good the 60th and Excellent the 80th, then draw a curve through those four points. That mapping is our assumption, not theirs. Also published by ACSM as the same table under licence.
fitterthanmost provisional ladder ramp, launch mock
Wall and incline push-ups, and knee push-ups for men. PROVISIONAL and unsourced. No published dataset backs these ladder anchors; they exist so a beginner rung still returns a number instead of a zero. Never describe them as published standards.
US Army Fitness Test (AFT), hand-release push-up, 2-minute cap
Push-up benchmarks. A benchmark, never a percentile basis: the population is pre-selected and trains for the test. Only the universal 10-rep minimum and the 17-21 maximums are recorded here. Other age and sex maximums exist and are deliberately NOT reproduced, because we could not verify them.
USMC Physical Fitness Test (PFT), plank
Plank benchmarks. A benchmark, never a percentile basis. Age- and sex-neutral: the same two hold times apply to everybody who takes the test.
US Army Fitness Test (AFT), plank
Plank benchmarks. A benchmark, never a percentile basis. Only the 17-21 age band is recorded here; the other bands exist and are deliberately NOT reproduced, because we could not verify them.
It depends on the cohort, which is why there is no single answer. The median man aged 18-29 does 26 push-ups in one set and the median woman the same age does 18. At 50-59 those medians are 12 and 8.
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 35 reps, and for women aged 18-29 it is 26 reps. The 90th percentile (40 and 30 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.
Percentiles are derived from the push-up categories published in CSEP-PATH, 2nd edition (2019), the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology resource manual. ACSM licenses the same table, so the "ACSM push-up norms" and these are one table, not two. CSEP publishes ordered categories, not percentiles. Placing those categories on a percentile scale is our assumption, stated here rather than buried: the category boundaries are theirs, the percentile spacing is ours. Women testing full push-ups are read against Cooper Institute percentiles, because CSEP scores women on knee push-ups and using that column for a full push-up would quietly corrupt the number. The Cooper sample is fitter than the general adult population, so that curve runs harsh and is the weaker of the two.
There are no published percentile norms for the plank in the general adult population, so this hold gets no percentile. The only percentile paper is a few hundred college students with no age bands, which is not a population. What does exist is published military standards, so your time is read against those instead. US Marine Corps PFT plank: 1:10 minimum, 3:45 maximum. US Army AFT plank: 1:30 minimum, 3:40 maximum.