01Foundation
5 reps, hands on a bench
The eleven tests / Push-up
Test 01 of 11 · Strength
How many push-ups should a man over fifty be able to do?
The rule. Strict. Body in one line from ear to ankle, chest to fist height, no sag and no pike. One set, the clock stops at the first rep that breaks form, not the first rep that hurts.
Push-ups are the test everybody thinks they can pass. The number that comes back is almost always lower than the number in your head, because the first rep that breaks form usually arrives long before the first rep that burns.
The four rungs
Find yourself on one of these.
Your level on this test is the highest rung you can hold cleanly today. Not the one you could hit on a good day five years ago.
02Working
15 reps from the floor
03Strong
30 unbroken
04Standard
50 unbroken
Where it goes wrong
The two that cost people a rung.
Mistake 01
The hips arrive first
Watch the video back and the hips will be rising ahead of the chest, or sagging behind it. Either way the rep stopped being a push-up and became a worm. One line, ear to ankle, the whole way down and the whole way up.
Mistake 02
Half depth counted as full
Chest to fist height is the standard. Most men stop three or four inches early once fatigue arrives and never notice. Put a fist on the floor under your sternum and touch it every rep, or the count means nothing.
Moving up
How to earn the next rung.
- 01
Raise the hands, not the standard
If fifteen from the floor is not there yet, put your hands on a bench or a stair. Same strict form, easier angle. Lower the surface one step every two weeks.
- 02
Six sets, not one
Volume builds this faster than failure does. Six sets of a number you can hit cleanly, three times a week, beats one set to failure every time.
- 03
Fix the wrist before it stops you
At thirty reps and up the wrist gives out before the chest does. Rotating handles or parallettes keep the joint straight and take that ceiling away.
What this test needs
The kit that helps with this one.
Links go to Amazon and a purchase through one pays me a small commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what gets recommended. The full list, with what each piece is actually for, is on the gear page.
Before you ask
Two questions that come up every time.
Is 20 push-ups good for a 50 year old man?
Twenty clean reps from the floor puts you above the Working rung and inside the range most men land in. It is a respectable number. Thirty unbroken is Strong, and fifty is the Standard, which is rare at any age.
Do knee push-ups count?
They count as training, not as a test. For the test, raise your hands onto a bench instead. Hands up on a bench keeps the body in one line, which is the thing the test is actually measuring.
Going deeper on this one: The Over 50 Standard: The Field Manual
Read about itOn the channel
Watch the push-up tested at every rung.
What Foundation looks like next to Standard, filmed from the side so the form is actually visible. Every one of the eleven gets its own video.