Study: Men Who Can Perform 40 Push-Ups Daily Have Lower Risk of Heart Disease

How many push-ups can you perform? According to a new study, men who can perform at least 40 push-ups daily have a lower risk of heart disease than their counterparts who can perform fewer than push-ups per day. 

For the stud, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health analyzed heart health markers from firefighters for a decade. At the end of the 10-year study, researchers found that firefighters who could perform at least 40 push-ups per day were approximately 96% less likely to develop heart disease than firefighters who could only perform a maximum of 10 push-ups per day. All of the firefighters whom participated in this study were men.

What do these findings mean exactly? Well, if you're looking to promote a healthy heart and lower your risk of heart disease, you should include push-ups in your daily fitness regimen.

Not to be confused with pull-ups, push-ups involve positioning yourself horizontally on the ground and lifting your upper body off the ground using your hands. It's called a "push-up" because you "push" your body "up" using your hands. Push-ups offer a simple yet effective form of resistance training. While you can always work out using free weights, push-ups eliminate the need for weights by taking advantage of your own body weight. And assuming this study is correct, including them in your daily fitness regimen, may have a positive impact on your heart health.

When speaking about the study's findings, researchers explained that push-ups can be performed in almost any setting. In other words, you don't need to visit a gym just to reap the benefits of push-ups. As long as you have access to a flat and clean floor, you can perform push-ups.

"Our findings provide evidence that push-up capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in almost any setting,” said the study's lead author and researcher when discussing the findings. “Surprisingly, push-up capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk than the results of submaximal treadmill tests.”

Of course, there are other ways to lower your risk of heart disease. In addition to performing push-ups, including more fish in your diet will promote a healthy heart. Fish, especially fatty varieties, contain lots of omega-3s that have been shown to reduce bodily inflammation, including inflammation in the heart.