Key numbers
20 reps
Women 18 to 34, Functional anchor
3 reps
Women 35 to 55, Risk anchor
8 reps
Women 56 to 110, Functional anchor
What Systematic recommends
Where to start
- A counter, ideally. Stand facing the counter or other stable surface. Step back until your body is positioned at approximately a 45-degree angle. Place your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. Keep your heels flat on the ground. Place your palms on the counter.
- Keep the elbows still throughout the movement. Engage your midline as if holding a strong plank position. Perform the movement primarily through the shoulder blades rather than the elbows. Protract the scapulas by pushing the counter away from you. Keep the midline stable and the abdominal muscles active.
- Hold the position for 15 seconds. Rest for 15 seconds. Repeat for 3 total cycles. Breathe comfortably and fully throughout the hold.
- Stop and reassess if you feel pain or discomfort, if you are unable to keep the elbows still and the midline stable, or if the shoulders begin to elevate and you can no longer maintain the intended position.
Condensed from the published Development Pathway (Tempo Push-Ups: Counter-Height Isometric Plank-Press). This is a starting point, not a training program or medical advice.
The movement is the same for women and men
Systematic uses the same physical protocol for men and women: the standard floor push-up, with no knee version and no different pressing time for women. Sex differences are handled in the scoring model, not by changing the movement.
The standard floor push-up is appropriate for women as well as men. It asks for meaningful loading through the arms plus trunk stiffness and coordinated shoulder-blade control.
What the research shows
Adams and colleagues established that a standard-position push-up scale is feasible for college-aged women. Their study was within women, and it supports testing women in the standard floor push-up rather than automatically switching to a knee version.
Rozenek and colleagues separately compared men and women in the same push-up position at several cadences, and found differences by sex and by cadence. That supports a fixed cadence and separate interpretation by sex.
Neither paper set the Systematic 3/0/1 age-specific anchors, and the movement stays the same for men and women. Adams's categories come from college-aged women and are not stretched across adulthood, and Rozenek's cadences are not converted into a norm for a different pace.
How the female anchors are set
The anchors are Systematic standards for this exact protocol, set separately for women by age. For women 18 to 34, the Risk anchor is 4 reps and the Functional anchor is 20. For women 35 to 55, the anchors are 3, 14 and 20 reps (Risk, Functional, Exceptional). For women 56 to 110, the Functional anchor is 8 reps and the Exceptional anchor is 12.
For women 35 to 55, 0 to 2 reps is red, 3 to 19 is yellow and 20 or more is green, all Systematic standards.
A worked example for a 42-year-old woman: 1 rep scores 1.7 (red), 8 reps scores 5.9 (yellow) and 14 reps scores 7.0 (yellow), with the colors being Systematic standards.
The evidence
Each cited source is labeled according to how it supports the particular claim on this page. Direct test evidence, underlying-capacity findings and population reference values are distinguished from Systematic-defined protocols and standards. Historical development notes are retained internally rather than presented as public evidence. A study of an underlying capacity is never presented as validation of the Systematic test itself.
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Normative/reference evidence
Adams et al. (2022). Development of a Standard Push-up Scale for College-Aged Females. International journal of exercise science.
What it found. A standard-position push-up scale is feasible for college-aged women; the work supports testing women in the standard floor push-up rather than a knee version.
What it does not show. Its categories are for college-aged women and do not apply across adulthood, and its self-paced repetitions are not Systematic 3/0/1 values.
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Underlying-capacity evidence
Rozenek et al. (2022; published online 2021). Male-Female Differences in Push-up Test Performance at Various Cadences. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research.
What it found. With men and women in the same standard position, men performed more repetitions at every cadence tested, and cadence materially affected performance.
What it does not show. It did not test the Systematic tempo, and its results cannot be converted into a norm for a different pace.
The Systematic Healthspan Assessment is a physical baseline. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not estimate a biological age, a disease risk or a lifespan.