Drop and give me 40.
A new study says that middle-aged men who are able to do 40 or more pushups have a significantly lower risk of heart problems.
Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study tracked the health of 1,104 firefighters from 10 Indiana fire departments over a 10-year period. The participants periodically underwent physical fitness evaluation, like testing how many pushups they could do. The firefighters’ medical histories were also recorded, particularly watching out for cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or heart failure.
Researchers discovered that men who could do 40 pushups or more had less cardiovascular events than those who could do only 10. In fact, those who could do more than 40 had a 96 percent reduction in heart issues compared to their less-fit counterparts.
During the decade-long study period, 37 cardiovascular-disease-related illnesses were reported. All but one occurred in men who completed 40 or fewer pushups during the baseline exam.
“Our findings provide evidence that pushup capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular-disease risk in almost any setting,” said study author Justin Yang, an occupational medicine resident in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Surprisingly, pushup capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular-disease risk than the results of submaximal treadmill tests.”
Looking for other ways to improve your heart health? Cut out soda (including diet soda), red meat and fried food.
