An incline push-up puts your hands on a bench, a step or a kitchen counter. It is the second rung: easier than the floor, harder than a wall, and the fastest way to make full push-ups happen.
The median is 19 reps: half of the adults who take this test do fewer than that. The lowest published rung is Novice at 6 reps (25th percentile), and Intermediate at 19 reps is the highest rung published for this variant.
Ladder variants are scored against every adult who takes them, with no split by age or sex, so this is one table for everybody. The percentile still compares you against all adults rather than gym regulars, which is why the middle of it looks reachable.
| Tier | Reps | Percentile | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novice | 6 reps | 25th | Ahead of the bottom 25%. |
| Intermediate | 19 reps | 50th | The median. Half of this group does fewer. |
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.
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.
Next rung up: Knee push-ups.
The median is 19 reps, so half of adults do fewer than that. Novice starts at 6 reps (25th percentile) and Intermediate at 19 reps is the highest rung published for this variant.
19 reps is where the published table for incline push-ups stops, at the 50th percentile. Clearing the median on an entry rung is the signal to move up a rung rather than to chase a bigger number here.
Because the ladder exists to give everybody a real score, not to slice one into eight thin ones. Full push-ups are the cohorted test, split by age and sex; incline push-ups are published as a single table for all adults.