A push-up counter app that actually counts
Stand your phone where it can see you and start. Workout Samurai counts each push-up as you do it, pulses on every rep, and keeps the whole camera feed on your device. It is out now on iOS and Android.
- Out now on the App Store and Google Play, free to download and free to play
- Counts automatically, with nothing to tap and nothing to wear
- Runs on the device; only the rep count is ever submitted
- Works on a bare floor with no equipment at all
- Manual rep claiming if you would rather not use the camera
Sensei
“Almost at your word. Don’t stop. Show me more.”
The short answer
Workout Samurai is a push-up counter app for iOS and Android that counts your reps automatically using your phone's camera. On-device pose detection watches your body move through each push-up and counts it with a haptic pulse. It is out now on both stores, free to download, and no camera frame ever leaves your phone.
What a push-up counter app is supposed to do
A push-up counter app removes the one job you should not be doing mid-set: keeping count. Losing the number at rep 34 is not a discipline failure, it is a working-memory limit, and the moment you start counting deliberately, your tempo and your depth both drift. A counter that watches instead of asking you to tap gives you back the only thing that matters on the floor, which is the next rep.
There are three ways an app can count push-ups, and they are not equal. Proximity-sensor counting has you nose the top of your phone on each rep; it is cheap and it works, but it forces a specific head position and it counts a nod as readily as a push-up. Manual tap or timer counting is just a stopwatch with extra steps. Camera and pose detection watches your whole body, which is the only approach that can see whether you actually descended. Workout Samurai uses the third.
| Method | Needs equipment | Sees your depth | Failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camera + pose detection | A phone you can prop up | Yes | Bad angle or poor light |
| Proximity sensor | Nothing | No, only head height | Counts a head nod as a rep |
| Wearable / smartwatch | A watch | No, infers from wrist motion | Miscounts on the floor |
| Manual tap | Nothing | No | You have to stop mid-set |
How Workout Samurai counts a push-up
The camera counter tracks your joints frame by frame and fuses several signals into a single measure of how far through a rep you are: elbow flexion, how far your shoulders descend, how far your head descends, and how your apparent size changes as you approach and retreat from the lens. Any one of those alone is fragile, because an elbow can be occluded and a shoulder can drop out of frame, so the counter weighs them together and normalises them to your own range at calibration.
Prop the phone and let it find you
Stand the phone up two to three feet in front of you, facing you, at roughly floor level. The counter needs to see your head, both shoulders and your hands. There is a full setup walkthrough in how to count push-ups with your phone camera.
It calibrates to your range
Your first reps establish what a full push-up looks like for you: your arm length, your depth, your framing. Everything after that is measured against your own baseline rather than a generic threshold.
Each rep counts as it completes
The counter detects the turnaround at the bottom and again at the top, checks the rep against a small set of structural gates, and pulses a haptic on the way up. You never look at the screen.
The count is submitted, the video is not
At the end of the set, the number goes to the server for validation. The frames are discarded on the device. See on-device rep counting for exactly what is and is not transmitted.
Counting generously, scoring strictly
Every rep counter faces the same trade-off: be strict and you infuriate honest users by dropping reps they really did; be loose and the leaderboard fills with people bouncing their chest off the floor. Workout Samurai resolves it by splitting the two jobs. The device counts generously, so a signal it cannot evaluate never vetoes your rep, while the server scores strictly, validating the session afterwards and rejecting physically impossible input.
The device still rejects a small set of things an honest push-up always passes: a genuine descent followed by a genuine ascent, hands planted, body present in frame, and a minimum depth. If a rep is counted under degraded conditions, say you drifted half out of frame or the light dropped, it is recorded with lower confidence rather than silently binned or silently trusted.
What the counter does not do
- It counts standard push-ups. It does not identify diamond, archer, decline or one-arm variations as separate movements. See push-up variations for how to progress through those on your own.
- It is not a form grader. It measures depth and tempo, but a camera cannot see everything a coach can, and it will not tell you your scapulae are winging.
- It does not write your training for you. It counts what you did and turns it into progress; what you do next is your call, and the training guides are there for that.
- It is not a medical device, and nothing in the app is medical advice.
- It cannot count what it cannot see. Bad framing, a dark room or a body cropped at the shoulders will cost you reps.
What happens to the reps once they are counted
Counting is only useful if the number goes somewhere. In Workout Samurai every verified rep does three things at once: it clears ground in the dojo campaign, it pays lifetime XP toward your samurai title, and it adds to your season total on the ranked leaderboard. There is no separate log to maintain. The set you just did is the progress, which is what makes this a push-up game rather than a spreadsheet with a camera bolted on.
Level is derived from lifetime XP, and a push-up is worth 10 XP before bonuses, so the title ladder runs from Ashigaru at level 1 to Daimyo at level 80. The rep numbers below are floors: the fewest lifetime push-ups that could reach each title on their own. Clearing campaign levels pays XP on top, so in practice you arrive sooner.
| Title | Unlocks at level | Lifetime reps floor |
|---|---|---|
| Ashigaru | 1 | From your first rep |
| Rōnin | 5 | 160+ |
| Bushi | 10 | 810+ |
| Samurai | 20 | 3,610+ |
| Hatamoto | 35 | 11,560+ |
| Champion | 55 | 29,160+ |
| Daimyō | 80 | 62,410+ |
Seasons are the second ladder and they work differently. Verified season reps place you in a division, running Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, with players starting a season unranked until they place. Division thresholds are held server-side and are not published, so no page can honestly tell you the number. The rank ladder explains how the two ladders differ, and the clans and seasons page covers how a season is scored.
Where to get the push-up game
Workout Samurai: Push-Ups is out now on the App Store and Google Play. It is free to download and free to play: the camera counter, the dojo campaign, samurai titles, season divisions and clans are all in the free game, and nothing about ranking is behind a purchase. The app ships in English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese.
Rank is free for everyone: titles and divisions come from verified reps, and nothing you can buy moves either one. Dojo Premium is the optional subscription for players who would rather train without waiting, and what is free sets out the line between the two in full.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a push up counter app that counts automatically?
Yes. Workout Samurai counts push-ups automatically using your phone's camera and on-device pose detection. You prop the phone up, start the set, and each rep is counted with a haptic pulse. There is nothing to tap, nothing to wear, and no equipment beyond a phone you can stand upright. It is on the App Store and Google Play now.
Is the push-up counter app available to download yet?
Yes. Workout Samurai: Push-Ups is live on both the App Store and Google Play, for iOS and Android. It is free to download and free to play, and the camera counter is part of the free game. There is no waiting list and nothing to sign up for before you install it.
How accurate are push-up counter apps?
Accuracy depends almost entirely on camera setup. A well-framed, evenly lit shot from the front at floor level counts reliably; a phone flat on the floor, a dark room, or a body cropped at the shoulders will cost you reps. Camera-based counters are also more accurate than proximity-sensor counters, which cannot tell a push-up from a head nod.
Do push-up counter apps drain your battery?
Running a camera and a pose model does use more battery than a stopwatch, which is why the counter runs only while a set is active rather than in the background. A typical training session is a few minutes of camera time, not an hour.
Can a push-up app count for two people at once?
Workout Samurai counts one person per session. The pose model calibrates to a single body's range at the start of a set, and a second person in frame is a source of miscounts. If you are training with someone, run separate sessions and settle it on the leaderboard.
Does the push-up counter work on carpet or in a small room?
Yes to carpet, since the floor surface does not affect counting. Room size matters only in that the camera needs to see your head, shoulders and hands, which usually means two to three feet of clearance in front of you. A hallway or the foot of a bed is generally enough.
What if the app counts a rep I did not do?
The counter is deliberately generous in the moment so it does not drop honest reps, and the session is validated on the server afterwards. That means an occasional over-count is possible on the device but cannot inflate your ranked standing, because impossible or suspicious sessions are rejected or flagged for review.
Do I need to hold my phone or wear a watch?
Neither. The phone stands on the floor or leans against something in front of you, and your hands stay on the ground where they belong. There is no wearable, no chest strap and no Bluetooth pairing involved in counting a push-up.
Is the push-up counter free?
Yes. Workout Samurai is free to download and free to play, and the rep counter is part of the free game along with the dojo campaign, clans, samurai titles and season divisions. Dojo Premium is an optional subscription, and it never counts your reps differently, unlocks a title, or buys you a place on the leaderboard.
Is there a push-up game that counts your reps for you?
That is what Workout Samurai is. The camera counts every rep on the device, and the count feeds a dojo campaign of levels and bosses, a samurai title ladder from Ashigaru to Daimyo, and a ranked season division. The counting is the input; the push-up game is what the reps are for.
Which is better, a push-up counter app or just counting yourself?
Counting yourself is free and always available, but it fails exactly where it matters: at high rep counts, at the end of a hard set, and when you are trying to compare this week honestly against last week. An app removes the mental load and gives you a number you did not have a reason to round up.
Can a push-up counter app tell if my form is bad?
Partly. A camera counter can see depth, tempo and whether a genuine descent and ascent happened, and Workout Samurai measures those. It cannot see everything a human coach can, since scapular control and wrist position are largely invisible to it, so treat it as a rep counter rather than a form grader. The push-up form guide covers what a camera cannot check.