Comments on: How Much Does a Pushup Weigh?

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:35:46 +0000

I was really hoping to find it was like 3 or 4 times your body weight. Guess this is one good thing about being a little over weight though – more to push up.

By: nahh

nahh — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:48:01 +0000

all of you guys have your points and combining them, i came up with…..some of yo guys will be making perfect sense until you say, “yea so when i do a push-up i BENCH…” its exactly your retard mistake, its a PUSHUP…not a BENCH PRESS. you cant switch from one to the other, they are the equivalent of saying a calf press is the same as a squat. but if you really wanted the best estimate around where how much you “bench” when doing a push-up, you’d have to weigh your pushup, weigh your bench and find the right percentage displacement from one to the other. id say around 48 percent, but since you are using more muscles its hard to find an equality between benches and pushed ups.

By: Sinx

Sinx — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:29:16 +0000

I’d like to believe that a pushup is 65% because that would mean that at 82.5kg bodyweight and with a 30kg weight on my back I am doing (82.5 x .65 + 30) = 83.5kg
Hurrah! I can press my own body weight (8 times!)
However since the most I have ever done is 75kg in the bench I would have to say it is nearer 45-50% which would mean I am pressing the equivalent of about 68kg which actually feels far more realistic to me.
Hope this helps anyone interested in the matter.

By: kaneda26

kaneda26 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:41:50 +0000

when you talk about weight, you are really talking about the force that you and the earth exert against each other due to gravity. But this force is the product of mass and acceleration. The faster you push yourself up, the more the push up with ‘weigh’. If you move at a slow, steady speed, the ‘weight’ will approach that of when you are stopped in a pushup position.

By: jake3988

jake3988 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:59:44 +0000

This is why, in order to have the best pushups is to go down as far as possible.

Also, it’s why putting your legs up higher than your hands (I do it on a chair) makes them much more difficult. You push up much more weight. Until, eventually, you’re straight up and down handstand-style and you’re pushing 100% of your weight.

By: Personal Trainer

Personal Trainer — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:46:19 +0000

I never actually measured this. If you don’t know, the Nintendo Wii fit works by using this principle.

By: Thomas Johnson

Thomas Johnson — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:01:52 +0000

I had often wondered about this but never thought of this ridiculously simple way to measure it. Cheers!

By: admin

admin — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:03:14 +0000

Alex: Bench presses isolate a smaller number of muscles, so they are not quite the same thing. Perhaps the larger number of muscles involved in a pushup makes them easier? Also, the range of motion is a bit different — bench presses are “deeper” than a typical pushup which arguably makes it more difficult.

By: brandon

brandon — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:23:23 +0000

I agree with anon regarding the supporting muscle groups. Shoulders are a biggie too!

By: anon

anon — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:28:40 +0000

Agreed with Alex, I can do over 100 pushups but could definitely not approach that number on bench press. I believe the reason could be that although you are “moving” 75% of your body weight, most of your body’s muscles are involved in the moment. I am thinking maybe it is possible that 50% of the “weight” in a pushup is supported by the other muscles in your body – core, legs etc. That would explain why it is so much easier than the equivalent weight on the bench.