The Right Amount Of Push-Ups For Your Health

This study was released in February so technically some of you have known for five months. But hey, I figured if it’s new and compelling to me, there’s a good chance it’s useful to you. A ten-year study of fitness and exercise in men conducted by Harvard researchers produced an interesting takeaway. It covers one’s ability to perform push-ups and how it's more closely linked with heart disease than one’s ability to run/walk.

Given that’s the case, there’s a magic number of push-ups that come into play to separate the men from the, well men with a much higher risk of heart disease. That number is 40. Men who can perform 40 consecutive push-ups have a 96% lower risk of suffering from heart disease within ten years. That’s a big number. If you’re a combination of out-of-shape and or overweight, the ability to perform 40 or more push-ups consecutively is nil. Those two factors contribute significantly to heart risk. What the 40+ push-ups represent is probably a good fitness/weight barometer if you’re attempting to maintain a reasonably healthy lifestyle. 

So, get down and give me 40! For your health.

Photo by: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images


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