BeastieGuides · What counts as a rep
What Counts as a Push-Up? The Full Rep, Defined
A full push-up: straight-arm start, elbows past about 90 degrees, a straight body line and a lockout. What scores in a count, and what doesn't.
A push-up counts when you start with straight arms, lower until your elbows bend past about 90 degrees, keep your shoulders, hips and ankles in one straight line the whole way, and press back up until your arms are straight again. Miss any of those four checkpoints and, in a scored set, it isn't a rep. That is the definition Beastie's camera uses, and it is a good default for any count you want someone else to believe.
These are Beastie's game rules for scoring reps, not a sports-science, military or medical standard. Official fitness tests each publish their own wording, and some are stricter in places. What follows is about fairness: what makes one person's 30 comparable to another person's 30.
The four checkpoints of a full push-up
| Checkpoint | What has to happen | What Beastie checks |
|---|---|---|
| Start | Arms straight, body off the floor | Elbow angle above about 160 degrees |
| Depth | Lower until the elbows bend past a right angle | Elbow angle below about 90 degrees |
| Body line | Shoulders, hips and ankles stay in one line | Shoulder-hip-ankle line off by no more than about 15 degrees |
| Lockout | Press back to straight arms before the next rep | Elbow angle back above about 160 degrees |
A rep is the whole loop: top, bottom, top. The bottom alone is not a rep, and neither is the top. That is why a set of fast bounces at the bottom can feel like a lot of work and still score very little.
Depth: watch the elbows, not the head
The most common disagreement about a push-up is depth, and most of it comes from watching the wrong body part. It is easy to drop the head towards the floor while the arms barely bend. A judge looking at the face sees a deep rep; a judge looking at the elbows sees a quarter of one.
Beastie decides depth by the elbow angle, which has to pass about 90 degrees. It does not need your chest to touch the floor. Some contests and tests do use chest contact or a hand-release at the bottom, and that is a perfectly good standard too. It just isn't the same one, so agree which you are using before the first rep.
Lockout: the top has to be the top
A rep that comes up three-quarters of the way and drops again is the half-rep's quieter cousin. Under Beastie's rules the arms have to straighten back past about 160 degrees before the next descent can count. That does not mean slamming the elbows; it means arriving at the top before leaving it.
Body line: hips stay level
If the hips sag towards the floor, the chest has less distance to travel, which makes every rep shorter. If the hips pike up into an upside-down V, the same thing happens from the other direction. Beastie draws a line from shoulder to hip to ankle, and if it bends by more than about 15 degrees the rep is treated as a form break and doesn't count.
On screen, the live skeleton is drawn white for clean segments and orange where the line broke, so you can see which part of you cost the rep. The coaching you get is an instruction, like "chest lower!", never "FAILED".
Hands: a house rule, not a camera rule
Hand position decides which push-up you are doing, but Beastie's camera does not judge hand width. If your group wants everyone on shoulder-width hands, or wants diamond push-ups as a separate category, make that a house rule and have a person enforce it.
What doesn't count, and why
| The rep | Counts? | Why not |
|---|---|---|
| Head dips, elbows barely bend | No | Depth is the elbow angle, and it never passed 90 degrees |
| Bounce at the bottom without locking out | No | No lockout, so the loop never closed |
| Hips sagging to the floor | No | Shoulder-hip-ankle line broke |
| Hips piked up high | No | Same line rule, from the other side |
| Knees on the floor | No | A different, lighter exercise |
| Fast, but full depth and full lockout | Yes | Speed is fine. Short reps aren't |
| Pause at the top with straight arms | Yes | Resting at the top doesn't change the next rep |
That last row matters. In a most-in-a-row set, resting at the top is part of the game. Resting at the bottom, or on your knees, is where most contests end the set. For a full set of contest rules, including formats and how to settle disputes, see the push-up competition rules.
Knee push-ups belong in their own column
A knee push-up is measurably lighter than a full one (in a force-plate study by Ebben and colleagues, knee push-ups put less force through the hands than regular push-ups), so counting both in the same total makes the number meaningless. Beastie's camera counts full push-ups only. If someone in the group is building up to full reps, give knee push-ups their own score instead of mixing them in. The figures are on knee push-ups vs push-ups.
Why a strict definition is the fair one
A push-up count is only useful if it can be compared. Your 25 this month against your 25 last month. Your 25 against a friend's 22. If one of those sets let shallow reps through and the other didn't, the comparison is broken before anyone looks at it.
That is why Beastie is strict by design. Its counter tracks each rep through a sequence of states (ready, descending, bottom, ascending, counted) and only moves between them when a threshold is clearly crossed. Each threshold has a tolerance band, so a wobble at the edge can't count twice, and a bounce that turns around early isn't a rep. When the counter isn't sure, it doesn't count. A generous counter would feel nicer for a minute, and it would make every number on the board worth less.
More detail on the pipeline is on how Beastie counts, and the push-up specifics are on the push-up counter page.
How to count a push-up set fairly without an app
- Agree the standard before anyone starts: elbow depth or chest contact, and whether resting at the top is allowed.
- Have the judge watch from the side, level with the elbows, not from in front of the face.
- Count only on the lockout. Say the number when the arms straighten, not when the chest drops.
- Call form breaks out loud, as an instruction, and don't count that rep.
- When in doubt, it doesn't count. The judge's doubt is the rule, not the athlete's confidence.
A human judge can do all of this. The trouble is doing it identically for every rep and every person, especially at rep 40 when everyone is shouting. That is the job a camera does well.
Counting it with Beastie
Prop your phone against something, step back so your whole body is in frame, and start. Beastie won't count until it can see you, and then it judges every rep against the four checkpoints above. The counting runs on the phone itself; video is never uploaded or stored.
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 find out how many full ones you really have.
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
What counts as a full push-up?
A rep that starts with straight arms, lowers until the elbows bend past about 90 degrees, keeps the shoulders, hips and ankles in one line, and presses back up to straight arms. Miss any of those four and, in a scored set, it is not a rep.
Does your chest have to touch the floor for a push-up to count?
Not under Beastie's rules. Beastie judges depth by the elbow angle, which has to pass about 90 degrees, not by chest contact. Some contests use a chest-to-floor or hand-release standard instead, so agree which one you are using before anyone starts.
Do push-ups count if your hips sag?
Not in Beastie. If the shoulder-hip-ankle line bends by more than about 15 degrees, the rep is treated as a form break and does not count, because a sagging middle shortens the distance the chest travels.
Do knee push-ups count as push-ups?
Not in a full push-up count. A knee push-up is a lighter exercise, so mixing the two makes scores meaningless. Beastie's camera counts full push-ups only.
Is this an official push-up standard?
No. These are Beastie's game rules for deciding which reps score, not a sports-science, military or medical standard. Official tests each publish their own rules.
Send a rep battle. Let the camera judge.
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