Muscular endurance testing, most commonly push-up and pull-up counts, measures your ability to sustain repeated submaximal effort, distinct from pure one-rep maximal strength. Push-up counts in particular carry longevity evidence of their own. It's a simple, equipment-free way to gauge upper-body endurance, but the honest number that counts as "good" varies substantially by age and sex, a single flat target misrepresents what's actually a strong result for most people.
- Measures sustained submaximal effort, distinct from pure one-rep maximal strength.
- Benchmarks differ substantially by age and sex, no single flat target applies to everyone.
- Equipment-free, easy to test consistently over time to track real progress.
- Form quality matters, strict reps with full range of motion, not momentum-assisted partial reps.
Push-up benchmarks by age and sex
| Age | Male (Top 10% / Top 5% / Top 1%) | Female (Top 10% / Top 5% / Top 1%) |
|---|---|---|
| 20-40 | 40 / 50 / 60 | 20 / 30 / 40 |
| 40-50 | 30 / 40 / 50 | 15 / 20 / 30 |
| 50-60 | 22 / 30 / 40 | 9 / 15 / 20 |
| 60-80 | 15 / 20 / 30 | 4 / 8 / 15 |
| 80+ | 7 / 10 / 15 | 1 / 3 / 8 |
These bands are Longevity Coach IQ percentile tiers, not published normative data.
These reps are strict, full range of motion, chest to near-floor, no momentum or partial reps, a strong result at any age reflects the actual movement quality, not just a raw count.
Pull-up benchmarks by age and sex
| Age | Male (Top 10% / Top 5% / Top 1%) |
|---|---|
| 20-40 | 10 / 15 / 20 |
| 40-50 | 5 / 10 / 15 |
| 50-60 | 4 / 8 / 12 |
| 60-80 | 3 / 6 / 10 |
| 80+ | 2 / 4 / 8 |
These bands are Longevity Coach IQ percentile tiers, not published normative data. That applies to the male bands as well as the single all-ages band for women.
For women, a single all-ages benchmark applies given the smaller available data, roughly 1 rep for top 10%, 2 for top 5%, and 3 for top 1%, reflecting how genuinely demanding a strict pull-up is regardless of age for most women without a specific training background in the movement.
What push-up capacity predicts
Yang and colleagues followed 1,104 active male firefighters in Indiana from 2000 to 2010, mean age 39.6 and mean body mass index 28.7, recording 37 cardiovascular outcomes over 8,601 person-years.
Men completing more than 40 push-ups had an incidence rate ratio of 0.04 (95% CI 0.01–0.36) against those completing fewer than 10, a 96 percent lower rate of cardiovascular events. Men completing 21 to 30 push-ups had a 75 percent lower rate than the same reference group.
All but one of the 37 events occurred in men who completed 40 or fewer push-ups at baseline. Push-up capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular risk than fitness estimated from a submaximal treadmill test.
The limitations are substantial and worth holding alongside those numbers. The cohort was entirely active male firefighters from Indiana and predominantly white, so the findings may not transfer to women, older adults or sedentary people. Roughly a quarter of eligible participants did not complete the push-up test, reducing statistical power. The analyses were not adjusted for multiple comparisons.
How to perform the push-up and pull-up tests consistently
A rep count is only comparable over time if the movement standard is identical. Most people's improvement across a year is smaller than the variation introduced by sloppy technique, which makes standardization the difference between a measurement and a guess.
Push-up test standard
- Start position. Hands slightly wider than shoulders, body in a straight line from head to heels, feet no more than hip-width apart.
- Depth. Chest descends to within roughly a fist's height of the floor, or upper arms reach parallel with the ground. This is the standard most often violated as fatigue sets in.
- Body position. Hips must not sag or pike. A repetition where the torso arrives before the chest doesn’t count.
- Cadence. Continuous, controlled, no pausing at the top to rest. The test ends at the first failed repetition or the first break in form, not at the point of exhaustion.
Pull-up test standard
- Grip. Overhand, shoulder-width or slightly wider. Chin-ups with an underhand grip are a different and easier exercise, so they aren’t interchangeable in a test.
- Range. From a full dead hang with elbows straight to chin clearly above the bar. Partial repetitions at either end invalidate the comparison.
- No kipping. Swinging or driving with the hips converts a strength test into a coordination test and typically doubles the count.
Controlling the conditions
Test at a consistent time of day, at least 48 hours after heavy upper-body training, and after a standard warm-up. Retest every 4 to 8 weeks. More frequent testing mostly measures how rested you are, and it accumulates fatigue that competes with the training producing the improvement.
Interpreting a low count
These tests measure relative strength, so bodyweight is part of the result. Losing fat improves the score without any change in absolute strength, which is legitimate — relative strength is what determines whether you can move your own body — but it is worth knowing which factor changed.
A low push-up count in someone with reasonable absolute strength usually reflects trunk stability or bodyweight rather than pressing strength. A low count alongside low compound lifts is a general strength problem, and the fix is progressive overload rather than practising the test.
Testing against your own age band
Popular writing quotes a single flat target, “aim for 20 push-ups,” without acknowledging how much that number’s difficulty varies by age and sex.
Test push-ups and pull-ups to genuine failure with clean form rather than stopping at a round number. A partial rep counts for nothing here.
Read the result against the benchmarks for your own age and sex. A generic target overstates the difficulty for some people and understates it badly for others.
The app benchmarks your results against your own age and sex tier, not a flat number.
Sources
Key references for the claims on this page. Where a figure is attributed to a specific study or body, it is named here.
- Yang J, Christophi CA, Farioli A, et al. Association between push-up exercise capacity and future cardiovascular events among active adult men. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(2):e188341. 1,104 active male firefighters followed from 2000 to 2010. The evidential basis for the push-up findings on this page. DOI
Frequently asked
What is the best push-up count for longevity?
The target is the top 10 percent band for your age and sex rather than a fixed number, since the benchmarks shift considerably across both. Yang and colleagues, in a study of 1,104 active male firefighters found substantially lower cardiovascular event rates above roughly 40 push-ups, though that population isn’t representative of everyone.
What does a push-up test measure?
Upper-body muscular endurance, sustained submaximal effort, distinct from pure maximal strength.
Why do benchmarks differ by age and sex?
Baseline strength and endurance differ by sex and decline gradually with age, so a flat target misrepresents difficulty.
How many push-ups is good?
Depends heavily on age and sex, for men 20-40 roughly 40 reps is strong, for women 60-80 even a few strict reps is strong. What matters more than the absolute count is whether yours is rising or falling over time.
Why can't I do a pull-up?
Pull-ups require moving your entire bodyweight through a large range, so the strength requirement is high relative to most gym exercises. Assisted variations and slow lowering phases are the standard route in, and they work.
Do push-ups build real strength?
They build strength effectively until they no longer challenge you, which for most people happens somewhere past twenty reps. Beyond that, the exercise becomes an endurance test and needs loading or a harder variation to keep progressing.
Does muscular endurance matter for longevity?
The tests are useful chiefly as an accessible proxy for overall strength and work capacity, both of which are associated with better outcomes. Endurance in isolation is less predictive than maximal strength.
How often should you retest push-ups?
Every four to eight weeks is sensible. That is roughly the interval over which genuine change appears, and testing more often mostly measures how well rested you are on the day.