Guides · What counts as a rep

Half Reps vs Full Reps: What Scores in a Challenge

Do half push-ups count? Not in a fair challenge. What a full rep means for push-ups, squats and jumping jacks, and how to count so two people's numbers compare.

By the Beastie team · 4 October 2026

A half rep doesn't score in a challenge because it isn't the same movement as a full one. A full rep goes all the way to depth and all the way back: elbows past about 90 degrees and back to straight for a push-up, knees closed below about 100 degrees and back to standing for a squat, feet apart and hands overhead for a jumping jack. A rep that stops short at either end is a half rep, and in a fair count it's a zero, not a half.

Everything below is about scoring, not training. These are Beastie's game rules for deciding which reps count, not a sports-science, coaching or medical standard. Whether partial-range reps have a place in someone's training is a different question, and not one this guide answers.

Full rep vs half rep, exercise by exercise

A rep is a loop: start, depth, back to start. The half rep usually cheats one end of it. It skips the bottom (not deep enough) or the top (never locks out), and fast sets lose both.

Why a half rep scores zero

A challenge is a comparison

A push-up challenge asks one question: who did more of the same thing? If your 30 included ten half reps and your friend's 26 were all full, you didn't win. You did a different exercise. The only way two numbers can be compared is if every rep in both of them crossed the same line.

Halves can't be measured fairly

It's tempting to count a short rep as half. In practice nobody can judge "half" consistently. Was that one half, or a third? The point of a standard is that each rep is a yes or a no. That's why the most useful single rule in any count is when in doubt, it doesn't count.

Generous counting compounds

A judge who lets one marginal rep through usually lets the next one through too, and by the end of a set "marginal" has drifted. A strict line from rep one is easier to hold than a loose one that has to be tightened at rep 30.

Push-ups: depth and lockout

The classic half push-up is the head dip: the face drops towards the floor while the elbows barely bend. The other is the bounce: the chest goes down, turns around early, and comes back up only partway before the next one starts.

Beastie decides depth by the elbow angle (past about 90 degrees) and lockout by the arms straightening again (past about 160 degrees). It also checks the line from shoulder to hip to ankle, because sagging hips shorten the distance the chest travels, which turns a full-looking rep into a shorter one. A bounce that turns around early is not a rep: the counter uses tolerance bands and a minimum rep duration so wobbles near a threshold can't count. For the full checklist see what counts as a push-up, and for contest formats see the push-up competition rules.

Knee push-ups aren't half reps, but they are a different, lighter exercise, so they belong in their own score. See knee push-ups vs push-ups.

Squats: how deep is deep enough?

Squat depth is the most argued-about standard in counting, mostly because different groups use very different lines.

• Beastie's line: the knee angle has to close below about 100 degrees at the bottom, and you have to stand back up. If the torso leans more than about 45 degrees from vertical, it's a form break and the rep doesn't count. A quarter squat doesn't reach the depth threshold, so it isn't counted.
• Powerlifting's line: the IPF's 2026 technical rulebook lists, as a reason to fail a squat, "failure to bend the knees and lower the body until the top surface of the legs at the hip joint is lower than the top of the knees." That is commonly called breaking parallel.

Beastie's knee-angle line is shallower than the powerlifting standard. Beastie does not judge competition squat depth and shouldn't be used as a meet judge. What it does is apply one consistent line to every squat, for everyone in the challenge, which is what makes a bodyweight squat count comparable. More on the squat counter.

Jumping jacks: the arms shrink first

A jumping jack has two movements, and both have to happen. As a set goes on, the arms are usually the half that quietly gets smaller: hands that started overhead finish at shoulder height while the feet keep jumping.

Beastie counts a jumping jack when the ankles go apart and the wrists rise above the nose, with both halves of the body moving together. Legs-only jumping, or arms that stop short, is a half jack and doesn't count. Details on the jumping jack counter.

How to count fairly, with or without an app

1. Write the standard down before the first rep. Depth, lockout and anything else you care about, such as hand position or resting at the top.
2. Judge from the side. Elbows for push-ups, knees and hips for squats. From the front, depth is guesswork.
3. Count on the finish. Say the number when the rep returns to the start position, not at the bottom.
4. Call a short rep as an instruction. "Lower!" or "Arms up!" gets the next rep right; a shout of "no rep" mostly starts an argument.
5. When in doubt, it doesn't count. Apply it to everyone, including yourself.

A person can do all of this. What's hard is doing it identically for every rep and every competitor, which is where a camera helps.

How Beastie handles half reps

Prop the phone up, step back until your whole body is in frame, and go. A live skeleton is drawn over you: white where the movement is clean and orange on the part that broke form. A half rep isn't counted, and you get an instruction, like "chest lower!", never "FAILED". Only clean reps count, so the number at the end is one you can hand to a rival. The counting runs on the phone itself; video is never uploaded or stored. How the pipeline works is on how Beastie counts.

Beastie runs on iPhone and Android. Your first counted set is free, whether that is a solo set or a duel you start, and answering a friend's challenge is always free. After that, Beastie Pro unlocks everything, starting with a 7-day free trial. Get Beastie and settle the half-rep argument for good.

Beastie is general fitness information, not medical advice. Check with a professional before starting a new exercise routine, and stop if you feel pain.

Questions people ask

Do half push-ups count?

Not in a scored challenge. A push-up counts when the elbows bend past about 90 degrees and the arms straighten again at the top, with the body in one line. A rep that stops short at either end is a half rep, and Beastie doesn't count it.

How deep does a squat have to be to count?

It depends whose rules you use. Beastie counts a squat when the knee angle closes below about 100 degrees and you stand back up, with the torso leaning no more than about 45 degrees from vertical. Powerlifting is stricter: the IPF rulebook requires the top of the legs at the hip joint to go lower than the top of the knees. Beastie does not judge competition squat depth.

What counts as a full jumping jack?

In Beastie, the ankles have to go apart and the wrists have to rise above the nose, with both halves of the body moving together. Arms that stop at shoulder height make it a half jack.

Why doesn't a half rep count at all instead of counting as half?

Because nobody can measure halves fairly. A rep either reached the standard or it didn't. Scoring fractions turns every set into an argument about how far someone went.

Are half reps bad for training?

That is a separate question this guide doesn't answer. Here, half reps simply don't score, because a challenge only works when everyone's reps cover the same distance.

Sources

• IPF Technical Rulebook 2026 (effective 1 March 2026), squat disqualification rules

Keep reading

• What Counts as a Push-Up? The Full Rep, Defined
• Why Rep Counters Disagree (and Which Number to Trust)
• 15 Push-Up Challenge Ideas to Do With Friends
• 30-Day Push-Up Challenge With a Friend: Rules That Hold