Here’s a tip—if you start doing planks, you’ll get to your goal faster. I’m talking about planking obsessively, like doing planks every hour. Just be sure to have rest days too where you don’t work out and listen to what your body tells you. Good luck, you can do this!
I’ve been following my push-up routine for about 8 years with similar goals to yours. The most I’ve managed was about 4 sets of 15 pull-ups (never actually tested my max in one go). I’ve tried various methods like ladders, twice a week, three times a week.
The only thing that made a real difference was doing weighted pull-ups. But that also caused injuries, so now I stick to body weight workouts.
Your body makeup plays a part too. At 6’3” and 175-180lbs, I’m pretty lean. My brother who’s leaner can do 20 pull-ups without working out at all.
Good luck with your journey.
Also, does anyone know why, when I warm up with bands and bring my arms back and forth, my left shoulder makes a crunching noise? It doesn’t hurt and I don’t have any issues, but should I be worried?
If you want to stick to bodyweight exercises, I suggest focusing more on dips than push-ups since it’s easier to build strength with tougher movements at low reps. Try the McGill approach: get your setup right before each rep, then explode up to complete each rep quickly and rest 30 to 90 seconds before the next one. They say if you can do 30 explosive reps like that, you should be able to achieve 20 steady reps too.
I agree with others that doing too many reps can lead to injuries, so concentrate on the hardest movements you can handle and ensure you’re recovering enough.
Don’t listen to those saying this isn’t worth it. Being able to do 100 push-ups, 20 pull-ups, and 30 dips is something those naysayers will never really understand.
There are two apps called 100 push-ups and 20 pull-ups that can really help with this.
I’ve seen people do ten bad pull-ups when they’d benefit more from doing six good ones.
Honestly, no one is watching you or really cares.
If you don’t give up, you’ll be doing 100 push-ups in about 6-7 months. This January, I started at zero and did push-ups every day before my workouts. I began with a low number in 3 sets, and by the time I hit around 50, I switched to doing them in one set, trying to increase that number daily. I also did a single set in the afternoon to help boost my numbers for the next day.
I didn’t do military push-ups; I kept my arms close to my body and did them quickly.
A few months ago I hit my target of 100 push-ups and pushed it to 126. On some days, I settled at 110 or 120. I cut back to 70 push-ups at the start of this month.
Once you reach 70 push-ups, I recommend adding diamond push-ups to your routine.
Good luck. Stay committed. Consistency really matters. I’ve been doing 100 push-ups daily since February 2021. I started with sets of 10, then 25, and now I do two sets of 50. I haven’t tried my max without stopping. I also do 50 bodyweight squats daily, which has helped my knees, and I’m getting better with planks by adding 2-5 seconds each day. I’m not sure what my end goal is, but I hope to get one pull-up in 2025. I haven’t done pulling exercises regularly, so I’ll probably focus on negatives and holds. But first, I’ll need to find a bar. 
Good luck to you! Cheers.
Good for you, totally achievable. Once you’re doing 20 pull-ups, you’re in the top 1% of athletes, not just general fitness levels.
I had a similar target, aiming for a big bench and lots of pull-ups, and it took me 5 years to hit this goal. I’ve not met anyone else who has done the same. My aim was to bench 300 and do 30 pull-ups… at 49 years old!
I found neutral grip pull-ups were easier on my joints, but on test days, I switched to the straight bar.
Stay healthy and listen to your body!
I believe 20 pull-ups seems more reasonable than 100 push-ups. High reps like that require a lot of conditioning. My peak was 105, but that came from a daily challenge. After going back to my normal workouts, I maxed out around 60, even though I increased weights on all my lifts. After intense training with pull-ups, I could do 16 unweighted and 7 with a 50lb vest, but now it’s hard to get 3 reps with the vest when I can still hit 14-16 unweighted at around 200-205 lbs.
Try to aim for one or two muscle-ups. Before I could do them, I often thought— what if I had to do one to save myself in an emergency? Then I couldn’t, so I knew I had to learn.
I doubt it’s really possible for people to do more than 50 good push-ups. It’s the same with holding a plank longer than 2 minutes.
Quin said:
I doubt it’s really possible for people to do more than 50 good push-ups. It’s the same with holding a plank longer than 2 minutes.
You’ll find plenty of people in every gym who can do way more than 50 good push-ups or hold a plank longer than 2 minutes. My plank record is 5 minutes and I’ve met many who can do much better than me. The world record is literally for hours.
Quin said:
I doubt it’s really possible for people to do more than 50 good push-ups. It’s the same with holding a plank longer than 2 minutes.
The only people who can’t hold a plank for 2 minutes are those who’ve never tried it.