DO SOME PRESS-UPS

Drop and give us 20. Better yet, make it 40. Research at Harvard Medical School found that men who could do 40 press-ups had a 96 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who could do 10 or less. Dr Justin Yang, who led the research, says it’s less about having big biceps and strong shoulders, and more about what the ability to do so many press-ups tells us about our general strength and aerobic fitness. “The ability to do this many push-ups serves as an indicator of one’s risk of a cardiovascular event later on in life,” he says.

While Yang says that cardiorespiratory fitness remains the gold standard for judging and indeed improving somebody’s heart health, there is emerging evidence that strength can also prolong our lives. “There are suggestions that grip strength, for example, correlates with lower blood pressure,” he says. Likewise, a 2018 study in the Journal Of Gerontology found that people with low muscle strength are 50 per cent more likely to die early than stronger peers.

If press-ups aren’t your thing, try squats instead. Not only do they build muscle, but a study last year by the University of Southern California suggested you could help stave off obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes if you squat or kneel instead of sitting down. The study looked at the Hadza tribe, who live in Tanzania. They squat instead of sitting and, despite resting for the same amount of time as we do in Western countries, their incidence of such diseases is much lower.