Press ups shocker! how many

solsurf

In my youth I used to to a couple of 20 press ups sets just to warm up in the gym before doing the weights, now for some reason this morning I wanted to see how many press ups I could do in one go, I struggled to do 20 proper press ups. (cheated towards the end)

I wondered how many others could do?

kettrinboy

when i was in my early thirties and into excercise i had a best of 62 full press ups in a minute, now i,d struggle to do 25, but if i started training again i could get up to 40 plus again, but i cant be bothered with press ups these days, cycling, a few sit ups, and a bit of pumping iron is enough for me.

a_n_t

http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

a_n_t

Anonymous

We used to have to do pressups in fitness tests in the cops, I got it to 60 in 43 seconds (full locked out down to the pti's clenched fist). Then used to do all sorts in kung fu (wide, narrow, knuckles, fingertips etc.) We'd do about 300 in total each training session.

Could probably now do about 25.

Frank the tank

I too used to do martial arts and like Nap D the press ups were of a varied variety. It was more a case of keep doing them until you were told to stop. In a two hour session the count would be in the region of 300-500 in addition to all the other physical stuff, squats, burpees, leg raises,sit-ups allsorts of stuff.

The last time I did any press ups I got about 30 done :roll:

john-e-big-guns

In my 20's I do sets of 50's...which lead up to sets of 100's...chins on scaffold bars........then got into weightlifting /bodybuilding....PB's of 420lbs bench...560lbs squats...that was in my 30's/40's....but my PB's nower days at 62..my last bench 320lbs..and a 400lbs squat...not done press-ups for a long time only for a few warm-ups but I recon I could knock a straight 50+out

a_n_t

john-e-big-guns wrote:

In my 20's I do sets of 50's...which lead up to sets of 100's...

I dont doubt that for a second. If Mr Guns says it's Thursday, it's Thursday!

Pokerface

I can't do any press-ups. I do push-ups.

gkerr4

john-e-big-guns wrote:

In my 20's I do sets of 50's...which lead up to sets of 100's...chins on scaffold bars........then got into weightlifting /bodybuilding....PB's of 420lbs bench...560lbs squats...that was in my 30's/40's....but my PB's nower days at 62..my last bench 320lbs..and a 400lbs squat...not done press-ups for a long time only for a few warm-ups but I recon I could knock a straight 50+out

much respect to you John - if thats you in the pictures on Flickr then you know your stuff - excellent work there!

Crapaud

Jebus!!! What's your power output on the bike with these thighs Mr Guns, sir?

In my teens / early 20s I could do 100 press ups in one go, pull ups with one arm and 150 sit ups. I always started to get bored at around 100 sit ups and stopped at 150 though I coould have gone on.

These days I can get out of a seat on my own and need their co-operation to get women into bed.

TMR

NapoleonD wrote:

We used to have to do pressups in fitness tests in the cops, I got it to 60 in 43 seconds (full locked out down to the pti's clenched fist). Then used to do all sorts in kung fu (wide, narrow, knuckles, fingertips etc.) We'd do about 300 in total each training session.

Could probably now do about 25.

You were in the Police? Or still are?

Anonymous

Still am.

The fitness test to get in the cops now pretty much consists of walking for 4 minutes then breaking into a jog for about 30 seconds. It's level 5.4 on the bleep test.

We used to do the ones we did weekly during initial training and every time we went on a course in the first two years. You had to score a certain number of points from press ups, sit ups and burpees (max of 60, 60 and 35) and level 8 on the bleep test. It was quite easy.

These days I have to do a firearms physical which is more like an assault course but thats just due to the specialisation.

Fitness of some new recruits is astoundingly bad.

dilemna

Frank the tank wrote:

I too used to do martial arts and like Nap D the press ups were of a varied variety. It was more a case of keep doing them until you were told to stop. In a two hour session the count would be in the region of 300-500 in addition to all the other physical stuff, squats, burpees, leg raises,sit-ups allsorts of stuff.

The last time I did any press ups I got about 30 done :roll:

Yeah right ............................. who was your instructor - Steven Segal or Claude Van Damme?

Tom Butcher

Does seem a bit excessive but if you are doing some of the competitive martial arts - kick boxing and stuff - they do spend a lot of time of fitness. I used to do a circuit class with a load of university academics and we used to do several hundred in each session so I can well believe a load of kick boxers or similar doing twice that. If you did maybe 3 sets of 2 minutes each you could get through a lot.

TMR

NapoleonD wrote:

Fitness of some new recruits is astoundingly bad.

Was the same when I left the Army 7 years ago. Standards were lowered at Depots just to make sure the numbers were there. Some of them were right mouthy little sh*ts as well...didn't happen when I were a lad!

Anonymous

dilemna wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

I too used to do martial arts and like Nap D the press ups were of a varied variety. It was more a case of keep doing them until you were told to stop. In a two hour session the count would be in the region of 300-500 in addition to all the other physical stuff, squats, burpees, leg raises,sit-ups allsorts of stuff.

The last time I did any press ups I got about 30 done :roll:

Yeah right ............................. who was your instructor - Steven Segal or Claude Van Damme?

:?

We used to do ours in the first 45 mins of a lesson. We'd jog on the spot and do sets of anything from 15-25. It only takes 20 sets of 20 to get 400 (obviously) and we did the same with situps...

It's quite normal for a martial arts lesson to be structured in this way.

rake

taller heavier people have more trouble with pressups because of the weight and leverage.i can nearly keep up with my mate on his multigym but he destrys me at pressups because hes shorter. i make him look like a cripple on leg curls though as he isnt a cyclist

solsurf

a_n_t wrote:

http://hundredpushups.com/index.html

Thanks right I'm up for the challenge I will let you know how I get on, so by december I should be able to do well over 100 proper push/press ups. Then I can move onto the pull ups.

Meanwhile I got out of early today and went over the Kirkstone pass, wow its been a three weeks since I've been up there and it was wild, winter is coming guys and gals

Frank the tank

dilemna wrote:

Frank the tank wrote:

I too used to do martial arts and like Nap D the press ups were of a varied variety. It was more a case of keep doing them until you were told to stop. In a two hour session the count would be in the region of 300-500 in addition to all the other physical stuff, squats, burpees, leg raises,sit-ups allsorts of stuff.

The last time I did any press ups I got about 30 done :roll:

Yeah right ............................. who was your instructor - Steven Segal or Claude Van Damme?

It was not a case of 300-500 in one go but throughout the session. I assume by your sceptisim you've never been to a serious martial arts training session. Why on earth would I make something like that up, it's not like I need to impress anyone on here. I'm now a middleaged crap cyclist so what?

father_jack

The question is why would you want to?

balthazar

n+1

Frank the tank

Father Jack wrote:

The question is why would you want to?

Why would I want to what, do loads of press ups, do martial arts, try to impress anyone on here or ride a bike?

That's assuming the question was aimed at me.

solsurf

Father Jack wrote:

The question is why would you want to?

Over the last few years I've been getting more bike and running fit and I like to think of my self as fit so it was a bit of a shock that I had lost my upper body strength. My arms are quite toned (from pulling hard on the handle bars to get up the hills around here) so I was surprised that I couldn't do more than probably the average man in the street.

don_don

solsurf wrote:

Father Jack wrote:

The question is why would you want to?

Over the last few years I've been getting more bike and running fit and I like to think of my self as fit so it was a bit of a shock that I had lost my upper body strength. My arms are quite toned (from pulling hard on the handle bars to get up the hills around here) so I was surprised that I couldn't do more than probably the average man in the street.

...but the average man in the street could probably only do 3 or 4, so you are still ahead

Tom Butcher

The thing about counting press ups is you can make them that much harder or easier with quite small shifts in bodyweight, where you position your arms, how far down you go etc.

Frank the tank

Tom Butcher wrote:

The thing about counting press ups is you can make them that much harder or easier with quite small shifts in bodyweight, where you position your arms, how far down you go etc.

When I did TKD the speed would be varied from fast to very painfully slow, it was a killer, oh to be that fit again.

EX DH

When 'chuck norris' does a push up he's not lifting his own body weight, he's pushing the world away from him!!!

bompington

Like a lot of us here, it seems, I used to be good at press-ups: when I was 16 and seriously into rugby, a schoolfriend and I used to do sets every night for about a year that built up to around 600-800 in total. If I had bars to hold onto I could do 100 in a minute.
After several shoulder injuries and a long time without much training, I can just about do 20 now if I really want to cripple myself :oops:

Firecrakka

How many you can do in 60 seconds is not the real test.
How many you can do in cadence until failure is the way to go.

Homer J

To give you something to aim for i think the record for non stop press ups is 10507.
Good luck