Pushups are a beneficial addition to your workout routine, as they build strength and endurance in your core, chest, triceps, and shoulders. Pushups use just your body weight as resistance, so you can gauge your physical fitness based on how many reps you’re able to complete with solid form. We spoke with Eric North, aka The Happiness Warrior—a wellness speaker, coach, and advocate redefining what it means to age with purpose, strength, and emotional vitality, to learn the magical number of pushups you need to do after 45 to determine whether your upper-body strength is top-notch.
Why Pushups Are a Reliable Benchmark for Upper-Body Fitness
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“Pushups are a reliable benchmark for assessing upper-body strength in adults over forty-five because they simultaneously test a combination of muscular strength, endurance, and core stability, using only the body as resistance,” North tells us.
This makes pushups a productive and accessible tool to test functional strength and measure your body’s ability to preserve muscle and stability with age.
After you hit 45, upper-body strength naturally declines due to sarcopenia, the natural loss of lean muscle, and slower biological processes.
“Pushup performance reflects these changes because the exercise requires a combination of muscle mass, strength, endurance, and neuromuscular coordination, all of which are affected by the natural aging process,” North explains.
The Muscles Responsible for Pushup Performance
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The main muscles activated during pushups include the triceps brachii (back of the upper arm, anterior deltoids (front of the shoulders), and pectoralis major and minor (chest).
“These muscles are vital for midlife strength and health because they build upper-body and core strength, contribute to a healthy heart, and help maintain good posture, which can lower the risk of heart attack or stroke and support daily activities,” North tells us.
If You Can Do This Many Pushups After 45, Your Upper Body Strength Is Top-Tier
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So, how many pushups signals “top-tier” upper-body strength?
According to North, males 45+ should be able to perform 35 to 45 consecutive pushups with solid form, while females should be able to do 15 to 20.
“Elite strength can be defined by performing 50+ pushups, while 25 to 30 pushups is considered advanced for men and 10 to 15 for women,” North adds. “Use proper form or the number of repetitions doesn’t count.”
Why Form Matters
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Form matters above all else, as it directly affects whether the exercise will target the intended muscle groups—chest, triceps, and shoulders—and whether you’re doing it safely. Poor form, such as flaring elbows or a sagging chest, can transfer your body weight to other joints or muscle groups.
“Practicing good form ensures that we are building true upper-body strength, while bad form can reduce muscle engagement, limit the effectiveness of the exercise, and increase the risk of injury,” North tells us.
In addition, make sure you move through the full range of motion to boost strength gains.
“Lower the chest to the ground and fully extend the elbows at the top of the movement,” North instructs. “Only doing half reps corrupts the full range of motion and limits the work our muscles do and is not an accurate measure of strength.”
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is a content strategist, editor, and writer based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has 11+ years of experience creating content for travel, lifestyle, fitness, wellness, F&B, home, and celeb news publications. Read more about Alexa
