How many pushups should you be able to do?

I was never much for physical activity when I was young. Don’t get me wrong. I tried. I was just always behind my PE classes. My muscles would not respond to being pushed. I was lucky if I came out at the average according to the numbers on this chart, courtesy of Physical Living- http://physicalliving.com/how-many-pushups-should-i-be-able-to-do/

Push Up Test Norms For Men

Age	17-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
Excellent	> 56	> 47	> 41	> 34	> 31	> 30
Good	47-56	39-47	34-41	28-34	25-31	24-30
Above average	35-46	30-39	25-33	21-28	18-24	17-23
Average	19-34	17-29	13-24	11-20	9-17	6-16
Below average	11-18	10-16	8-12	6-10	5-8	3-5
Poor	4-10	4-9	2-7	1-5	1-4	1-2
Very Poor	< 4	< 4	< 2	0	0	0

Push Up Test Norms for Women

Age	17-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
Excellent	> 35	> 36	> 37	> 31	> 25	> 23
Good	27-35	30-36	30-37	25-31	21-25	19-23
Above Average	21-27	23-29	22-30	18-24	15-20	13-18
Average	11-20	12-22	10-21	8-17	7-14	5-12
Below average	6-10	7-11	5-9	4-7	3-6	2-4
Poor	2-5	2-6	1-4	1-3	1-2	1
Very Poor	0-1	0-1	0	0	0	0

 

You know what? If I had seen this information before I started my return of strength recently, I may not have pushed it as fast, or as far as I have. My muscles, I knew, were not very good at responding to exercise. As it is, it took a number of months of daily exercise to get a response that would have been in the consistently “Good” range for a 60-65 year old male. Now, at 50 twice a day, I am close to “Excellent” for a 17-19 year old and way above “Excellent” for my age.

My goal for now? No limit. I will keep doing pushups as long as my body allows me to. My appetite is way better than it has been. My stamina is increasing for the first time is years. And my weight is increasing. Why limit it?

Avoid long term magnesium use- Push-ups now up to 40?

For those interested in my magnesium use, it would probably be best to warn you to keep it at a minimum, ongoing, or stop it all together as soon as you can do so.

In fact, I had stopped my magnesium supplements from time to time, only to restart when I felt suddenly worse overall. Now, I have no plans to ever use it again.

My primary doctor agrees that anyone with a neuromuscular disorder should limit use of magnesium or any other long term muscle relaxer. There is, as it turns out, a possible long term use detriment.

My own update as far as strength is this: Last night, and again earlier today, I did 40 pushups.

Yep. That is still a bit hard for me to believe, since at the height of my magnesium use, I almost never did more than 5 at any one time, and 5 was a hard stretch.  
 
Now, the 40th one is a hard stretch. But it is 40!!!! When did I ever do 40 push-ups in my life? Never, that I can remember. So much for my friends suggesting that I was unable to do push-ups because “We are just getting too old. Face it”.