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 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.
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.