Men who can do 40 push- ups have 96% lower risk of heart disease

Washington, Feb. 16: Being able to do more than ten push- ups slashes the risk of getting heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.

Middle- aged men who can do more than 40 pushups in one go had a 96 percent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease events compared with those able to do fewer than 10, according to a Daily Mail report.

And dropping to the floor and showing your GP how many you can do is a better indication of your risk than treadmill tests.

First author occupational medicine resident Dr Justin Yang at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in Boston said: “Our findings provide evidence that push- up capacity could be an easy, nocost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in almost any setting.

“Men who can do more than 40 push- ups in one go are at a 96 per cent lower risk of heart disease — and the exercise is a better measure than treadmill tests,” Harvard researchers say.

“Surprisingly, push- up capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk.”

Senior author Professor Stefanos Kales explained: “The most commonly used physical activity assessments are the patient’s self- reported history and health and lifestyle questionnaires. However, objectively measured CRF levels are often lower than expected.