Rep Rank

Source

Cooper Institute. Physical Fitness Assessments and Norms for Adults and Law Enforcement. Dallas, TX; 2013. Percentile tables as reproduced by FitnessNorms and in a law-enforcement copy of the Cooper tables, cross-checked against the NYS Park Police Cooper norms.

Reference group

Men: 2,397 members of an employee wellness program. Women: more than 1,000 US Army soldiers tested in the 1990s.

Test

Full push-ups counted over 60 seconds. Hands slightly wider than shoulders, body straight, chest down to a fist or a 3-inch sponge, arms locked out at the top. Rest only in the up position.

Caveats

• Neither group is a random sample of US adults. Comparing women with Army soldiers makes the women's ranks especially demanding.
• There is no women's table past age 49 and no table under 20, so those ages are compared with the nearest group.
• Per-age sample sizes aren't published in the copies available, so the oldest groups may rest on few people.
• This is a 60-second test. An untimed max set is a different test.
• The monograph is an institutional publication, not a peer-reviewed paper.

How your rank is worked out

Between two published percentiles, your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down. Outside the published range (5th to 99th for men, 1st to 99th for women) the page says "below" or "above" instead of guessing. Bands use Cooper's names: Very poor under the 20th, Poor from the 20th, Fair 40th, Good 60th, Excellent 80th, Superior 95th.

Career firefighters, 60-second push-ups

Men averaged 36.7 ± 12.8 (n = 1,136) and women 24.0 ± 11.5 (n = 145), mean age about 39, in one large mid-Atlantic US department tested 2019 to 2021. Same 60-second format, but one occupation with ages pooled, and averages can't be turned into percentiles.

Martin J, Toczko M, Miller AD, Caswell SV. Firefighter years: mediating effects of years of service on physical fitness. Research in Health and Medicine 2025;5(1). Full text.

Why not the common ACSM / CSEP chart

The widely shared CSEP-PATH chart (reproduced by ACE and ACSM) rates an untimed set with women on their knees, and gives rating bands such as "Very good" rather than percentiles. Its bands can't be read as a position in a population, so it isn't mixed into this rank.

ACE push-up assessment protocol (CSEP-PATH norms)

Source

Cooper Institute. Physical Fitness Assessments and Norms for Adults and Law Enforcement. Dallas, TX; 2013. Percentile tables as reproduced by FitnessNorms and in a law-enforcement copy of the Cooper tables, cross-checked against the NYS Park Police Cooper norms.

Reference group

Cooper Clinic patients in Dallas: 4,425 men and 845 women aged 20 and up, plus a separate under-20 group.

Test

Bent-knee sit-ups counted over 60 seconds. Knees at about 90 degrees, fingers laced behind the head, a partner holding the feet. Elbows touch the knees at the top, shoulder blades touch the mat at the bottom. Rest only in the up position.

Caveats

• Clinic patients are a self-selected group, not a random sample of US adults. The women's sample is fairly small.
• The source doesn't publish a usable 99th percentile, so anything past the 95th shows as "above the 95th".
• Changing the hand position, doing it without a foot hold, or doing crunches or cadence curl-ups makes it a different test.
• The monograph is an institutional publication, not a peer-reviewed paper.

How your rank is worked out

Between two published percentiles (5th to 95th), your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down. Outside that range the page says "below" or "above" instead of guessing. Bands use Cooper's names: Very poor under the 20th, Poor from the 20th, Fair 40th, Good 60th, Excellent 80th, Superior 95th.

Source

Aandstad A. Reference data on anthropometrics, aerobic fitness and muscle strength in young Norwegian men and women. European Journal of Applied Physiology 2021;121:3189–3200. doi:10.1007/s00421-021-04784-4. Percentiles from the online supplement.

Reference group

18,847 men and 11,927 women aged 17 to 21 (mean about 19), tested in person during Norway's military selection between autumn 2017 and spring 2019, before any military service.

Test

Overhand grip on a convex 2 × 6 inch wooden beam, arms and legs straight, chin over the beam, back down to full extension, no kipping or swinging. Anyone who couldn't do one did an easier horizontal pull-up instead; this page counts them as zero.

Caveats

• Everyone was 17 to 21, so your age isn't factored in.
• Only about a third of each age group is called in for testing, after a questionnaire that screens out people who rate themselves less fit. The author notes fitter people are overrepresented, so these percentiles run high.
• A wooden beam is harder to hold than a round bar for some people.
• Most young women couldn't do one vertical pull-up: the 80th percentile was still in the horizontal group, so women's ranks only separate the top 20%.
• The published range is the 5th to 95th percentile. Above the 95th the page says so instead of guessing.

How your rank is worked out

Between two published percentiles your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down. The source doesn't name bands, so this page borrows Cooper's: Very poor under the 20th, Poor from the 20th, Fair 40th, Good 60th, Excellent 80th, Superior 95th.

Source

Strength Level. Pull Ups Standards for Men and Women. Accessed October 2026. Built from 1,348,109 qualifying results out of 4,852,758 logged lifts, December 2016 to March 2026.

Reference group

People who log their training on Strength Level and chose to record pull-ups. Results are self-reported.

Caveats

• Everyone in this group trains, and people who can't do a pull-up are less likely to log one. A middle-of-the-pack rank here is likely well above average for adults in general.
• Self-reported reps can drift on form, so the upper levels may run generous.
• The age table is published by decade. Ages in between are interpolated, men under 20 use the age-20 row, women under 30 use the age-30 row, and data past 70 are thin.
• It's the only age-adjusted option, which is why it's offered despite its weaknesses.

How your rank is worked out

Strength Level's five levels mark lifter percentiles: Beginner 5th, Novice 20th, Intermediate 50th, Advanced 80th, Elite 95th. Between them your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down.

Career firefighters, mean age about 39

Men averaged 6.0 ± 5.2 pull-ups (n = 1,136) and women 1.9 ± 3.0 (n = 145), one large mid-Atlantic US department, 2019 to 2021. Chin over the bar, full extension, no momentum.

Martin J, Toczko M, Miller AD, Caswell SV. Research in Health and Medicine 2025;5(1). Full text.

Polish fighter pilots, mean age 37

120 men averaged 9.1 pull-ups. The paper doesn't describe its pull-up protocol in detail.

Tomczak A, Haponik M. Physical fitness and aerobic capacity of Polish military fighter aircraft pilots. Biomedical Human Kinetics 2016;8(1):117–123. Article.

Active-duty US Marines, mean age 22.5

19,678 enlisted men averaged 18.0 ± 5.0 pull-ups on the Physical Fitness Test, a group that trains for and is scored on pull-ups.

Keefer M, DeBeliso M. A comparison of United States Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test and Combat Fitness Test results. International Journal of Exercise Science 2020;13(4):1741–1755. Article.

How to read these

Each is one selected occupation, and an average says nothing about the spread. They're here as context, since no study gives pull-up percentiles for the general adult population.

Source

Hoffmann MD, Colley RC, Doyon CY, Wong SL, Tomkinson GR, Lang JJ. Normative-referenced percentile values for physical fitness among Canadians. Health Reports 2019;30(10):14–22. Statistics Canada. Article · PDF (Table 1).

Reference group

A national household sample of Canadians tested in person in cycle 5 of the survey, 2016 to 2017. 5,071 people aged 6 to 79 had grip measured; this page uses the adult rows, ages 20 to 79.

Test

Smedley analogue dynamometer, standing, testing arm held about 45 degrees out from the body. Two squeezes per hand, alternating hands. The score is your best right-hand reading plus your best left-hand reading.

Caveats

• The fitness tests had strict safety exclusions and it's a health survey, so healthier people may be overrepresented. The authors say values may run higher than in the whole population. The response rate was 48.5%.
• It's Canadian, not US, data.
• Spring (Smedley) and hydraulic (Jamar) dynamometers can read differently. Use the standing position and add both hands, or the comparison won't hold.
• The norms aren't linked to health outcomes, so a percentile isn't a health verdict.
• The survey stops at 79, and this page starts at 20, so other ages use the nearest group.

How your rank is worked out

The article publishes the 5th, 10th, 20th through 90th, and 95th percentiles for each 5-year age group. Between them your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down. Bands borrow Cooper's names: Very poor under the 20th, Poor from the 20th, Fair 40th, Good 60th, Excellent 80th, Superior 95th.

Source

Tomkinson GR, Ortega FB, Cadenas-Sánchez C, and the iGRIPS Group. International norms for adult handgrip strength: a systematic review of data on 2.4 million adults aged 20 to 100+ years from 69 countries and regions. Journal of Sport and Health Science 2025;14:101014. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2024.101014. Values from Table 2 of the open-access paper.

Reference group

2,405,863 adults from 100 studies in 69 countries and regions, pooled by sex and 5-year age group with population weighting.

Test

Hydraulic hand dynamometer (Jamar-style), seated, elbow bent, forearm neutral, handle fitted to your hand. Three squeezes per hand; the score is your single best reading from either hand.

Caveats

• These are international norms, not US ones. Most data come from countries with high human development; Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and Oceania are thin.
• Source studies used different dynamometers and protocols. The authors adjusted everything to the protocol above, but not every variation could be corrected.
• Mixes probability and convenience samples, and the samples were probably healthier than average, so a low score may rank a little lower here than among everyone your age.
• For clinical context, the European sarcopenia working group (EWGSOP2) treats a best grip under 27 kg in men or 16 kg in women as low strength.
• The norms start at age 20, so younger people are compared with 20 to 24 year olds.

How your rank is worked out

The paper publishes the 5th, 10th, 20th through 90th, and 95th percentiles. Between them your rank is interpolated in a straight line and rounded down. Bands borrow Cooper's names: Very poor under the 20th, Poor from the 20th, Fair 40th, Good 60th, Excellent 80th, Superior 95th.