This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched what they called the “Pete and Bobby Challenge,” which involves doing 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups in under ten minutes. The two cabinet members said they hoped to inspire American youth to take up the challenge as part of Mr. Kennedy’s ongoing effort to “make America healthy again.”
Such tests are nothing new, but push-ups do seem to be in the ether.
Earlier this year, the podcast host Mel Robbins aired an interview with Dr. Vonda Wright, an orthopedic surgeon, who claimed that every woman should be able to do 11 push-ups on her toes — not on her knees. The clip went viral, and many women felt inspired (or spooked) enough to try it themselves. On a recent episode of her show, Ms. Robbins said 60,000 women have now shared videos of themselves attempting the task.
But for many adults, these challenges are out of reach without proper training, according to fitness experts. Push-ups typically require strength training, but only about a third of Americans meet official muscle-training guidelines, said Melissa Bopp, a professor of kinesiology at Penn State. This can make push-ups especially challenging as we get older, when muscle mass declines.
Also, while many Americans are asked to perform push-ups from a young age, they are not always taught how to do them with proper form, Dr. Bopp added. And when “we have really bad form, that makes it harder,” she said.
Although there isn’t much research on how many push-ups most adults can do, one small study of college-age women found that, on average, participants were able to complete just nine push-ups, and about 11 percent of participants couldn’t do a single one. A 2019 study of 1,104 male firefighters found that 6.9 percent of participants could complete fewer than 10. And personal trainers told The Times they often work with clients who start out unable to do even one.
Are push-ups an effective measure of fitness?
Push-ups can be a valuable test of your upper body endurance and pushing strength. They also require core strength and stability, as well as quad and glute strength.
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