Push-ups are considered the best exercise you can do without any equipment. I personally love the push-up and all the variations of it that you can do. I don’t know where the 50 push-up benchmark came from but, being able to do 50 push-ups has always seemed like a feat of fitness. I feel the 100 push-up mark is more impressive than 50 but, I don’t always maintain the endurance necessary for that feat.

Men’s Health has a nice article on just this topic. This particular article uses the bench press to help get you to 50 push-ups in 10 weeks. How long you’ll need to be able to do 50 straight push-ups is largely dependent on where you are now on the fitness scale.

If you don’t want to use bench presses to get to 50 push-ups, I have an alternative. I learned of this technique with pull-ups but, it can applied to anything. It is basically an upside down pyramid. Let’s say you can do 10 push-ups. You can take that down by half to 5. You would say 5 push-ups, rest 10 seconds, do 4, rest 10 seconds, do 3, and so on until 0.

With this technique you’ll have done 5+4+3+2+1, or 15, push-ups. You can reduce the rest period or start with more push-ups. The idea is that this will allow you to do more repetitions with small amounts of rest–almost like doing them straight. You can keep increasing the number of push-ups you start with as it gets easier.

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