So a study has been recently published and has concluded that one of the best indicators for cardiovascular health for adult men is by doing a max set of push-ups.
This is a pretty big deal as this is the first study that shows push-up capacity being associated to chances of getting cardiovascular disease. This push-up test has been shown to be an even better indicator than the traditional running on a treadmill test which can be complicated, costly, time-consuming and inaccessible.
The conclusion from the 10-year study suggests that men that can do over 40 push-ups have a reduced risk of heart disease, whereas those who cannot do 10 push-ups have an increased risk.
This bit of news may be surprising to you as you may be wondering how strengthening your chest and arms can have such a huge impact to heart health but the real reasons as to why this is a good indicator of heart health has reasons that may not be obvious for the layman person.
If you’ve read my blogs then you probably understand why strength training is so beneficial for your health. There have even been studies that link grip strength to enhanced quality of life and longevity! If you haven’t but are interested, see below in the Further Reading section for links to all the blogs on the topic.
But in summary, if you can do 40 push-ups in strict form, that means you are quite a strong person. Your activity level probably is pretty high and you have muscles. Muscles are one of the best indicators of health because they are such metabolically expensive tissues that you have to be in reasonably good health to build them. This may mean you have a regular workout routine, you eat relatively healthy, you have strong joints and bones to go with your strong muscles and you have good conditioning to do that many push-ups.
If you want to know more about the biology, I encourage you to read my other blogs which goes into some depths explaining it.
This is also why I make everyone do push-ups in all the classes and if you’ve attended ACT, then you’ll be well aware of the daunting 75 push-ups at the start!
Do push-ups and keep making progress with them!
Further Reading:
Published study: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2724778
Articles mentioning about the study:
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/push-up-capacity-cardiovascular-disease-events-men/
How to Do a Proper Push-up: https://www.olivebranch.life/how-to-do-a-proper-push-up/
https://www.olivebranch.life/common-mistakes-push-ups/
Why You Should Do Strength Training:
https://www.olivebranch.life/why-women-should-do-strength-training-part-3-of-3/
https://www.olivebranch.life/exercise-focus-basics/