How many push ups can the average Australian do?

I hate push ups, they are far too difficult.  I do them anyway, and (if you are not doing them every day) so should you.  

I wish they were easier because they are such a great strength building exercise.  They are free to do, they take next to no time, and they work almost your entire body.  I do push ups even though I dislike doing them.  I felt I wasn't doing enough of them, and I began to wonder how many would be considered average.

I have been looking on the internet to try and find the average number of push ups that the average person can do.  This is a strangely difficult question to answer because there are many definitions of what constitutes an 'average' person.  

I have found multiple graphs and tables, and none of them seem to agree with each other.  Most of these results are based on very fit people who obsessively go to the gym, whereas I am curious about what the average able bodied person aged 19-39 can do.  

The other week I was talking to a personal trainer.  Over the course of his career he has seen fit people as well as hundreds of people who are trying to get fit.  He hasn't worked with morbidly obese people, or people with various disabilities that make doing exercise rather difficult without modifications.  I figured his customer base is probably the type of people I was curious about, people with a general level of health and strength but are not elite athletes.

I asked how many push ups and other body weigh exercises that an average person can do.  I specifically asked what the average adult male can do, because that means more to me because I am an adult male.  

I didn't ask about the averages for females, I just didn't think of it at the time because I was curious about myself.  Sorry.  

The fitness trainer clarified the type of push ups I was asking about, he spoke a bit about how obese people tend not to be able to do any push ups or any other body weight exercises, how overfat people tend not to be able to do more than one or two of any exercise, how people can train up to being able to do quite a lot of push ups, and we discussed that I was merely after the average number that the average guy could do.  

As this is the observation of a personal trainer, he is basing these numbers on people who go to the gym as well as people who are paying for a personal trainer, so the numbers are probably a little higher than average.  These numbers are for people are either fit or are on there way to being fit.  

So how many chin ups and pull ups can the Average Australian do?

According to the personal trainer, based on his experience with clients over the years, the average man who is neither ultra-fit nor obese and has no major injury or disability can do about ten push ups.  He also said if you include overweight people in these stats, then the average would likely be about one push up.  

I was surprised by that, I would have thought the average Australian man could do a lot more push ups than ten.  

I started doing 2 minutes of training per day a few years ago, I was able to do about 25 push ups at the time which sounded like nothing but is apparently more than the average guy.  It didn't take me long before I worked up to being able to do about 75 push ups.  It was difficult building up to this number, it took a lot of effort but it didn't take too long because I was doing push ups every day.  

How many chin ups and pull ups can the Average Australian do?

While I was there I also asked about how many chin ups and pull ups the average man can do.  I was told that most people can do less of these than push ups, and obese people and overweight people often struggle to do a single one unassisted.  

That makes sense, I can do a lot more push ups than chin ups.  Most people can do more chin ups than pull ups as they are utilising their biceps more with pull ups.  I agree with that too, I certainly find pull ups to be more difficult than chin ups.

According to the personal trainer, the average man who regularly goes to the gym and/or is paying for a personal trainer, can usually do about 5 chin ups, or about 3 pull ups.  He also said if you include overweight people, then the average would be zero unassisted chin ups or pull ups.

I find chin ups and pull ups really difficult, so these low numbers seem reasonable to me.  That being said, even on a bad day I can do considerably more than both of those numbers, and so can my kids.  I can also do significantly more than those numbers wearing a weighted dip belt, so claiming hat I am lifting less weight is no longer an excuse they can make.

How many average Australians can do other body weight exercises?

I then asked about some of the more impressive body weight exercises such as human flag, planche, etc.  

According to the fitness trainer these are usually considered too difficult for the average person to bother training towards doing them.  They can't do these exercises, nor are they usually willing to work towards them.  Hmmm, that seems odd, but makes sense when I look around at all the overfat people in Australia.

It appears even though I am scrawny I am apparently a lot stronger than the average male.  I can do considerably more push ups, more chin ups, and more pull ups than people bigger than me.  On top of this I can do human flag, elbow lever, bent arm planche, and am working towards some more impressive body weight exercises such as back lever and front lever.  This all started with 2 minutes per day of exercise as part of my prochnost' training.  

You should do some push ups and other body weight exercise.  You should do this every day.  It is free and it will make you stronger.  If you are skinny you should train for strength, not size.  Start with a personal challenge where you complete 100 push ups a day for 30 consecutive days and go from there.  If one hundred is too many, set a smaller challenge.  If you can only do ten push ups, try to do five sets of them throughout the day to reach fifty each day, and build from there.  It is surprising how quickly you make progress when you can be bothered to do this every day.

It is impressive when a skinny person can do substantially more body weight exercises than a larger person.  Admittedly they are lifting less weight, but they are also using considerably less muscle.  When you use a weighted dip belt, then you are using less muscle to lift the same weight, which is even more impressive.  

Do prochnost' training.  Be more!  

Year and a Half of Lucky Iron Fish

Everyone needs iron in their diet to be healthy and strong.  Some people get enough from their diet, while others do not.  

I wrote a blog post of my experience after five months of using the lucky iron fish.  At that stage I had used it almost every night for about five months, and it was working great.   

The lucky iron fish is meant to last at least five years if used a few times every day.  Once the smile has worn off your ingot it is time to replace it.  

I have used mine for over a year and a half now.  During this time I have used the lucky iron fish almost every night, so I thought it a good idea to do another post saying how the lucky iron fish performed for me over this longer time frame.  

Each night I use the lucky iron fish to make up some iron enriched water.  We drink this water the following day, and it adds more iron to our diet.  

Each evening when I am clearing up after dinner I put the lucky iron fish in a pot, add 2 litres of boiling water, add a few drops of lemon juice, then let this simmer for twenty minutes.  

This is roughly how long I spend in the kitchen cleaning up, so it is not a big issue time wise.  I also have a lemon tree, which ensures I have access to free lemons.

Lucky iron fish after more than a year and a half of use

The same Lucky Iron Fish after only five months

Once twenty minutes is up I remove the lucky iron fish, quickly dry it with a tea towel, and put it on the shelf.  At this time it is usually still very hot, so any water I missed would evaporate fast.

I then take the water off the stove and leave it to cool.  Once cooled I pour it in a bottle.  You could add this iron enriched water to cooking, but we drink it the following day.  It tastes like water, but it has iron it in.

While it makes no difference, I always put my lucky iron fish with the leaf side up, that way I will know if wear and tear is due to it being scratched against the pot.

After using this each night for over a year and a half, my lucky iron fish has no rust, and is still looking good.  It had a little rim around the nose end that is no longer there, other than that it looks much the same.  The side that scrapes against the pot in the photo below doesn't even look very worn yet.

Lucky iron fish - still looking good

If your diet is low in iron you could buy iron supplements, or try to eat more meat, or you could use a lucky iron fish.  I used to buy iron pills, and they work for me, I now only use the lucky iron fish and I am much happier with it.

The Lucky Iron Fish is much like any other dietary supplement.  It does nothing if you already consume enough iron.  It works really well if you diet is lacking enough absorbable iron in your diet.  

The difference with the Lucky Iron Fish to taking iron pills is that the Lucky Iron Fish is far cheaper, it lasts a long time, it takes up less space, and is easier on the stomach than iron pills.  

With the Lucky Iron Fish there are no issues if you are vegetarian or vegan, and there are no religious worries for Orthodox or Muslims or Jewish people or any other faith.  I believe a percentage of sale price still goes to fund humanitarian work in Cambodia and a few other countries.

There are a few other brands that make similar iron fish, unfortunately I don't know if any of those are safe.  Lucky Iron fish has been tested, and retested, by many laboratories, on many occasions, and all confirm that this is safe and effective.  

Other brands have not had such rigorous testing, and I don't know where their iron comes from, so I would not risk using one.  

I remember not long ago a shipment of iron was seized at the border.  One of the nuclear facilities in China had been decommissioned, the metal had been sold, and it was hideously radioactive.  A lot of radioactive iron from that source had made it into our country before this shipment was stopped.  While I know that the iron used for Lucky Iron Fish is safe, I can't know about the iron used by other companies.

If you need more iron in your diet, consider trying a Lucky Iron Fish or Lucky Iron Leaf.

Be strong (byt' sil'nym).