The counter in Pushgard never guesses. If it could not see a rep, or saw one that did not meet the bar, the count stays where it was. That is annoying in the moment, but it is also why a hundred reps in the game mean a hundred real reps. Every lost rep leaves a message, and each message points to one fix.
Two kinds of lost reps
The first kind is a blocker. Something stops the counter from seeing you properly: a joint is out of view, you are too close, too far or not in position. The whole screen tells you. A large panel shows the reason in capitals and the phone gives a strong buzz. While the panel is up, nothing is counted.
The second kind is a rejected rep. The camera saw the whole movement and decided it was not a full rep. There is no panel this time. A short line appears under the number for a moment, and the count does not move.
Knowing which one you got saves time. A blocker is about the setup, so move the phone or the lamp. A rejected rep is about the movement, so change what your body does.
“Not all of you is in view”
This is the most common blocker for push-ups. The counter needs your head, both shoulders and both elbows. When one of them leaves the frame or gets too dark to read, counting pauses.
Elbows are usually the problem. At the bottom of a push-up they spread outwards and can leave the frame, especially when the phone stands right at your hands. A blink is fine: the counter waits half a second before giving up on a rep, and once you have reached the bottom, it keeps the rep while you push back up. A longer loss restarts the movement, and the next rep begins from the top.
The fix is distance. Move the phone back, not yourself, so your arms fit in the frame even when they bend. Where to put the phone has the measurements for every exercise.
Wrists are not on the list, on purpose. Your hands sit closest to the camera and at a sharp angle, so the model is rarely sure about them. The counter still uses the wrist position, it just does not stop counting because of it.
“Move away” and “Come closer”
Distance is checked before the set and during it. Before the set, it is the first line of the checklist. During the set, the counter collects about a second of frames before it complains, because your shoulders come closer to the camera at the bottom of every push-up anyway. A warning that flashed on every rep would look like a fault.
If “Move away” appears mid-set, you have crept towards the phone. That happens on long sets more than you would think. Shift back a little and the warning clears itself, with a light buzz when it does.
“Can’t see you” is different. It means the camera found nobody at all. Check that the phone did not slide down the wall and that you are not standing behind it.
“Get into a plank”
Before counting, the counter checks that you are actually in the push-up position. Someone standing up and bending their arms looks a lot like the bottom of a push-up from the front, and early versions counted reps while players were still carrying the phone to the mat.
So if you stand up between reps, counting stops and this message appears. Get back into position and it picks up again from the top.
Rejected reps: what each line means
These appear under the count after a movement that the camera saw but did not accept.
| Line under the count | What the camera saw | What to change |
|---|---|---|
| Go lower | Your arms did not bend far enough | Lower your chest further. Partial reps stop just short of the bar |
| Use your whole body | One part moved and another did not | Lower your shoulders and hips together, no sagging into a cobra |
| Keep your torso straight | Your body folded at the hips or twisted | Hold one line from shoulders to heels and keep your shoulders square to the phone |
| Too fast | The rep took less than about half a second, or you bounced off the bottom | Pause for a moment at the bottom |
| Too slow | The rep took longer than five seconds | Rest at the top, with straight arms, not halfway down |
“Go lower” is the one people meet most. The bar sits above the half-reps most people do when tired, so the last few reps of a hard set are often the ones that go. If you want to see what a full rep looks like, how to do a push-up walks through the depth.
“Use your whole body” catches movements that look like push-ups in one signal but not in the other. The counter tracks how much your arm folds and how much wider your shoulders look as you come down. A real push-up changes both. Rocking forward without bending the arms, or bending the arms while the hips stay on the floor, changes only one. How the camera counts reps explains the two signals in more detail.
“Too slow” surprises people who rest mid-set. Resting is fine, but rest at the top. Five seconds at the bottom looks to the counter like lying down and getting up, not a rep.
Read the line before you do the next rep. If it says “Go lower”, the next one should be deeper, not faster.
Light, background and the phone itself
The pose model needs to see the edges of your body. In a dim room it becomes less sure about every joint at once, and the counter adjusts for that by judging the session against its own best level. Very dark rooms still end in blockers, though, usually “Not all of you is in view” at the bottom of each rep.
Light the front of your body. A lamp behind the phone, pointed at you, works well. A bright window behind you turns you into a silhouette, and elbows go first. A busy background matters less than light, but plain is better than cluttered.
Prop the phone against something solid. The counter keeps re-reading your top position from the last few seconds, so it copes with small shifts, but a phone that slides or tips over mid-set changes the whole picture.
When everything looks right and reps still go
Start the set again and watch the checklist. Wait until every line is green before your first rep, then hold still with straight arms for a second while the top is measured. Starting to move straight away works, but the counter then measures on the move, which takes longer.
If reps still go, read the line under the count after each one. It is the counter telling you exactly what it saw, and the fix in the table above is the change it is asking for. More on the counter itself is on the push-up counter page.
