Thread: How much weight are you pressing in a Pushup?

It depends on your body and the angle you form with the ground. The more vertical you are, the more BW you are pressing. The best way to tell is to put your hands on a scale and see how much it is. Then again, this can't really be compared to the bench press very accurately because of grip variations and other things that are fundamentally different about the lifts. They are very similar, but a comparison will be ball park at best IMO.

Put your hands on a bathroom scale and find out!

Maybe rather then comparing it to a Bench press, how about a Machine press?

Why would you compare it to something that pathetically tries to mimic free weights?

Machines suck. It would be comparable, but the push up would be somewhere between the machine and the bench press IMO in terms of functional strength.

Still not the same, as you are incorporating back, and ab, and calf, and leg, and glute, muscles in the pushup

i just tried the pushup experiment on the scales and i got about 75% of my bodyweight. doesn't that seem kinda high? i mean, given that i have two hands on the scales and two feet on the ground? i would have expected it to be closer to 50% than 75%...

maybe my scale is wrong...it sure doesn't feel as hard to do pushups as to bench press 75% of my bodyweight.

It shouldn't feel that hard. You don't have to stabilize as much as you do with a bar. I've heard before it's around 75% so I'd say that's reasonably accurate.

You're also going against gravity with the bench.

Example: you're pushing the weight up, against gravity, verses the pushup where you're only pushing your body weight away from you.

The bench is like a doubling effect to the weight (feels like), which is probably why you can hold yourself in a pullup position for a lot longer than you can hold your body weight above your head with free weights.

You mean, with the bench press it's you vs. gravity; with the push up, it's you vs. gravity with the help of a lever?

that makes a lot of sense

Not really a level, but think of it like this.

You weigh 100 pounds. When you do a pushup, you're doing 75 percent of your body weight, so it's 75 pounds.

You're pushing against 75 pounds, so 75 pounds are pushing against you (laws of physics).


Now, when you're benching, you're pushing against the weight, which is also pushing against you, but, you're also holding the weight up.

You're lifting 75 pounds of weight, so you're pushing with 75 pounds of pressure, however, that weight is pushing with more force because we're not in a perfect vacuum... there's gravity.

Imagine doing a pushup up-side down. You're pushing up 75 pounds (no bar), instead of pushing against the ground. Harder, isn't it?

What I meant was that you don't need to stabilize yourself nearly as much during a push up as during the bench press. Your body can only really go from side to side, which is fairly easy to overcome. The bar, however, can go up and down more easily, from side to side, and change in height more easily. That's what I was referring to. Plus, when you're doing a push up, you are basically the lever, from what I understand. With the bench press, you have to hold the bar, which is more difficult, and there is no advantage except putting yourself into the best possible position for the press.

Originally Posted by Gardon

You're also going against gravity with the bench.

Example: you're pushing the weight up, against gravity, verses the pushup where you're only pushing your body weight away from you.

you are pushing your body weight against gravity....gravitational pull works the same with a push up as it does with a bench press. It acts upon the object being moved. Unless of course we are talking about exercising on the moon.

Originally Posted by P-funk

you are pushing your body weight against gravity....gravitational pull works the same with a push up as it does with a bench press. It acts upon the object being moved. Unless of course we are talking about exercising on the moon.

Yeah, I've never heard of gravity doubling on a barbell but I have a habit of misunderstanding posts...

Not doubling, but really think about it. You're holding weight up above your head, rather than pushing against that weight on the floor.

If you hooked up a weight to yourself and did a pushup, making the resistance 200 pounds total, you'd have an easier time than hanging 200 pounds above your head.

but you aren't pushing against the weight on the floor...you are pushing agains the floor but the weight is moving in space, the weight is you!

Originally Posted by silencer

Maybe rather then comparing it to a Bench press, how about a Machine press?

You can't, as already stated its not a linear measurement because it depends on the angle. When I was 11 or 12 with virtually no training I could do 60 pushups.

Help with an experiment.......

Someone asked about this a while ago. Most people seemed to be in the 70-75% range of their body weight.

Originally Posted by P-funk

but you aren't pushing against the weight on the floor...you are pushing agains the floor but the weight is moving in space, the weight is you!

Just ask this man

I'd be curious to know the discrepancy between the maximum amount of Pushups an individual is able to achieve and the maximum amount of reps he is able to do on a bench press with the weight of the bar and plates being equal to 70-75% of his total bodyweight. I can roughly do between 40-50 Pushups, I weight 205lbs, So I would be benching 150 lbs....If anybody knows the difference please post, I will try and see how many I can max to failure sometime this week. I suspect I will obviously do less with the bench press, but the difference should be interesting.

Push ups are 70% of your weight and then devide the weight by 50% for each arm. So if you do one arm push ups you can get a decent workout (70%) of your body weight for that one arm.

Originally Posted by jerryjb5959

Push ups are 70% of your weight and then devide the weight by 50% for each arm. So if you do one arm push ups you can get a decent workout (70%) of your body weight for that one arm.

that's nice and everything, but that's not what we are trying to find out

Sounds to me from your first question that is what you wanted to know.

200 x .7 = 140 given the 70% estimate. However again its not linear, so you can for example take a weight measurement at the top and bottom of the repetition and average them, but then the movement itself is not balanced.

yea I'm a tiny bit confused , if anyone can post some figures on the discrepancy it would be nice, then we can base a theory around those figures

How much you weigh, how tall you are and how long your arms are all going to effect these values.

Get a scale and find out for yourself.

Yes, and lets say you elevate you feet so that @ full contraction of the pushup
your body is parallel to the ground...

Whats the % then?

And the natural tendoncy is to push with the upper chest, however, you could use the same range if you have the flexibility in you wrists