Ironman push-up challenge!

I’m reminded that an Ironman accomplishment can come in many different forms
…one example from an earlier post:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/laura-scott-you-are-an-ironman/

The most recent was my post about a good friend of mine that had 65 push-ups as a goal on his 65th birthday https://irondaughterirondad.com/how-many-push-ups-can-you-do/

…turns out I had a lot of direct commentary about that…and one of them a ‘virtual’ push-up challenge…across International lines…Canada vs USA…a classic match-up.

Rich meet Mike…Mike meet Rich.  Mike is an in-shape, former member of the Canadian Snowboard Team, now lawyer, devoted husband, father…and 32 years old…and _very_ competitive.

During a video call, I mentioned the post, and that I thought Rich was at about 45 push-ups right now…Mike’s impromptu response …like put down his glass of wine to do the push-ups… captured over Skype, over the Internet (full screen if you click the small rectangle in the lower right corner once it starts to play:

Rich responded…not knowing what Mike had done…with:

I gave myself a little test yesterday just to see how far away I am & was able to do 45 push ups (not great form)…pretty sore in the right shoulder today but I’m sure some good stretching will get rid of the tightness.

Current advantage to Mike on raw number of push-ups…by 3…good job both guys!

So let’s look at the age adjustment, and Army standards to put it all in perspective…100th percentile on the Army chart for Mike at age 32 is 75 push-ups…for Rich at age 65, the easy access chart stops at the 52-56 age category with 100th percentile at 56 push-ups…I did find other National Guard and ROTC charts, and the Army Field Manual FM 21-20 does go to age 62+, and lists 100th percentile as 50 push-ups.

100th percentile, simply means that in the Army statistics from millions of tests, that this level is better than 100% of those that they’ve tested…like all…like if there were a couple of people higher than that, it was statistically insignificant…like best that there is…like winning the Ironman World Championships…okay…you get the idea 🙂

Using the 100th percentile as the benchmark, and adjusting for age:

• Mike at 48 push-ups is at 64th percentile of a 75 target
• Rich at 45 push-ups is at 80th percentile of a 56 target, and 90th percentile of a 50 target

Age adjusted, Rich’s 65 push-up goal exceeds the very top Army chart significantly: 116% of 56 and 130% of 50

So for Mike to equal Rich’s goal, adjusted for age, means that he would need to do 87 push-ups to be at 116% of 75, or 97.5 to be at 130% of 75.

Dang…these boys are in shape…how many push-ups can you do?…I’m waiting to find a testing day when I want to be totally stiff for a week 🙂