Max push-ups test
A push-up test needs no gym, no bar and no spotter, which is why it is the pressing test in the netball, boxing and MMA batteries. It is also the test most easily inflated by letting the standard slide.
The standard decides the score. Chest to about fist height, full lockout, rigid trunk — a strict set of thirty is a better result than fifty loose reps, and the two are not comparable.
The set ends when the form goes, not when the arms do.
The point of the test
Pressing endurance and the trunk control to hold a rigid line while you do it.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Pressing endurance and trunk control with no kit required.
How to run it
Chest to fist-height, full lockout, no sagging hips. One set to failure — stop when the form goes, not when the arms do.
- What you need
- A floor
What is a good score?
We are not going to publish a precise-looking table for this test. Reported ranges vary too much with protocol, equipment, level, age and sex for a single table to be honest, and most of the tables in circulation for it are uncited copies of each other.
The comparison that actually changes your training is against your own last score. That is not a consolation prize — it is what the monitoring literature supports, and it is what Train Smart does: re-test every four weeks under the same conditions and let the trend, not the percentile, drive the program. The papers behind that are here.
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Sagging hips.
- A push-up is a moving plank. When the hips drop, the trunk has stopped working and the reps stop counting.
- Partial range.
- Chest to about fist height, full lockout at the top. Half reps at the end of a set are the usual way a score gains ten.
- Stopping when the arms fail rather than when the form does.
- The rule is the opposite: the set ends when the form goes.
How to actually move the number
Push-up numbers respond to frequency more than to intensity. Several sets short of failure, most days, beats one all-out set twice a week. Add a weighted or elevated variation once you are past about thirty clean reps, because at that point you are training endurance rather than strength.
The movements that build a max push-ups test
Testing tells you where you are; these are what change it. Each one carries the coaching cues, the sets and reps Train Smart prescribes it at, and ranked alternatives — and in the app the weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Why it is programmed |
|---|---|
| Incline DB Press | Upper strength for shielding the ball |
| Weighted Dip | Heavy pressing that loads the triceps and lower chest together |
| Bench Press | Pushing strength in contests |
| Dip — bottom stretch hold | Pec and front-shoulder length under real load — the range a press never visits and a fall or a hand-off finds immediately |
| Med Ball Chest Pass | Upper-body power with no deceleration phase — you release instead of stopping |
| Pike Push-Up | Overhead pressing strength for handstands |
| Push-Up | Upper strength for lifts + partner work |
| Barbell Bench Press | Primary chest mass + pressing strength |
More: chest exercises · tricep exercises
max push-ups test — questions
How many push-ups is good?
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OpenThe testing battery
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