How many push ups can you do?

I hate push ups. However in absence of another strength-training exercize, if you do them right, they are a much better than nothing at all:

Push ups are an indicator of minimum body strength. In general there are certain thresholds for how many push ups a person should be able to do. When I was doing kickboxing in the mid 90's, the standard held by some professional athletes at the time was 1 set of 100 reps or 3 sets of 50 reps. In particularly demanding martial arts such as Judo and Choy Li Fut, 1 set of 50 was considered a standard minimum to work for.

I have seen good arguments for 4 sets of 10 push ups as a minimum workout, and of course there's all sorts of workout routines that use different sets and reps of push ups. However, the least number of push ups I have seen as standard in any full contact martial art is 1 set of 20 reps.

1 set of 10 reps has in fact become a warning sign that the martial arts class is a no-contact "karate for kids" type waste of time. In general I would suggest to you that if you can't do 1 set of 20 push ups, you are not "in shape," (though just because you can do 1 set of 20 push ups does not mean you are in shape.) All people concerned with their health, male and female, should be able to do 1 set of 20 push ups, in my opinion.