Your shoulder blades move
On a bench the pad pins your shoulder blades in place. In a push-up they slide around the rib cage, so the muscles that steer them share the work and the press is not quite the same movement.
Free training tool
Turn your push-ups into a bench press number.
Enter your body weight, the push-up version you tested and your clean reps to failure. You get the load your hands carried and an estimated one-rep bench press, with a plain note on how far to trust it.
- No account
- No saved answers
- Six push-up versions
Calculator
Your push-up test
The load figures come from force plate measurements of six push-up versions. The one-rep estimate uses the Epley formula. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Still to enter: your body weight and your clean reps. Nothing you type leaves this page.
How it works
Two published numbers, multiplied.
Load at your hands is your body weight times the share each version puts through the hands. Ebben and colleagues measured that share on a force plate in 23 recreationally fit adults, 14 men and 9 women, and found no difference between the sexes. Height made a difference only with the hands on the 60 cm box.
The estimated bench press is that load run through the Epley formula: load x (1 + reps / 30). Rep formulas are most accurate at 10 reps or fewer. Past 12 the calculator says the number is mostly endurance, and past 30 it shows no one-rep figure at all.
| Version | Share of body weight | Load at the hands |
|---|---|---|
| Hands on a 60 cm box | 41% | 32.8 kg (72 lb) |
| Knee push-up | 49% | 39.2 kg (86 lb) |
| Hands on a 30 cm box | 55% | 44.0 kg (97 lb) |
| Regular push-up | 64% | 51.2 kg (113 lb) |
| Feet on a 30 cm box | 70% | 56.0 kg (123 lb) |
| Feet on a 60 cm box | 74% | 59.2 kg (131 lb) |
The honest part
Why a push-up is not exactly a bench press.
The same muscles press in both, which is why the estimate is useful. Four things keep it an estimate.
Your trunk holds a plank
A push-up is also a plank. If your hips sag or pike before your chest and arms tire, the set ends early and the estimate comes out low.
Your arms are part of the load
On a bench your arms travel with the bar, so you lift part of their weight on top of the plates. In a push-up your hands stay planted. The calculator does not take arm weight off, so the bar you could lift is a little lighter than the estimate.
The load changes through the rep
People hold more of their weight on their hands at the bottom of a push-up than at the top, and the gap is larger on the knees. The shares here are peak values from a moving push-up, not an average across the rep.
Before you test
Get a number worth using.
- Test freshAt the start of a session, after a few easy reps of an easier version, not at the end of a workout.
- Pick a version you can do 10 or fewer timesThat is the range where rep formulas hold up best. If you pass 12, test the next harder version on another day.
- Count clean reps onlyBody in one line, chest close to the floor, arms straight at the top. The first rep that sags, stops short or needs a pause ends the set.
Questions
Questions people ask
How many push-ups equal benching your body weight?
On paper, about 17 regular push-ups to failure. A regular push-up puts about 64% of your body weight through your hands, and the Epley formula gives 0.64 x (1 + 17 / 30) = 1.00 times your body weight. With your feet on a 60 cm (24 in) box the hands carry about 74%, and the same sum reaches one body weight at 11 reps. Both counts sit past the 10 rep mark where rep formulas start to drift, and a push-up is not a bench press, so read them as a rough match, not a promise.
Push-up to bench press calculator: how accurate is it?
It stacks two estimates, so treat the answer as a weight to work up to, not a test result. The share of body weight on your hands is an average from 23 people on a force plate, and your build moves it a little. The one-rep figure comes from the Epley formula, which had the smallest standard error of four methods checked against measured bench press maxes in 20 trained lifters. Rep formulas lose accuracy as the reps climb, and one study of 70 adults advises using 10 reps or fewer. Test the hardest version you can do 10 or fewer times and the estimate is at its best.
Can push-ups replace the bench press?
For general strength and muscle, yes, as long as the push-ups keep getting harder. Trained students who did banded push-ups at a 6 rep max for five weeks gained strength on a par with a group that benched at a 6 rep max. Four weeks of progressively harder push-up variations raised bench press 1RM in moderately trained men, as bench training did. If the goal is a bigger bench number for a test or a meet, bench: a maximal lift rewards practice at that exact lift.
Evidence and limits
An estimate, with its edges shown.
Every share on this page is from Ebben and colleagues (2011). The change through the rep is from Suprak and colleagues (2011). The rep limits follow Reynolds and colleagues (2006) and Mayhew and colleagues (2008), who found rep formulas work best at 10 reps or fewer. The Epley choice follows Nickerson and colleagues (2020). The training comparisons are Calatayud and colleagues (2015) and Kotarsky and colleagues (2018).
This is not a bench press test and does not replace one. Stop the test if a shoulder, elbow or wrist hurts, and have sharp or worsening pain checked by a professional.
Sources
- Kinetic analysis of several variations of push-upsJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2011
- The effect of position on the percentage of body mass supported during traditional and modified push-up variantsJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2011
- Prediction of one repetition maximum strength from multiple repetition maximum testing and anthropometryJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2006
- Accuracy of prediction equations for determining one repetition maximum bench press in women before and after resistance trainingJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2008
- Evaluation of load-velocity relationships and repetitions-to-failure equations in the presence of male and female spottersJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2020
- Bench press and push-up at comparable levels of muscle activity results in similar strength gainsJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2015
- Effect of progressive calisthenic push-up training on muscle strength and thicknessJournal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2018
Aion Coach for iPhone
Log the reps. Aion sets the next step.
Aion builds your push-ups and presses into a plan around the kit you have. When a logged session goes well, the next card goes up one small step. Miss twice and it backs off.