Call & Times

40 push-ups linked to better heart health in men

- By LINDA SEARING

Becoming proficient at push-ups – being able to do 40 or more – does more than help strengthen your upper body. It also might help stave off cardiovasc­ular problems, especially if you’re a man.

That was the finding of a study, led by doctors at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, that compared the cardiovasc­ular health of 1,104 active adult men over a 10-year span. All participan­ts were firefighte­rs, with an average age of 40.

At the start of the study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, they had a physical exam and testing that included doing push-ups. In the next decade, 37 of the men experience­d a cardiovasc­ular problem, such as coronary artery disease, heart failure or sudden cardiac death. Those who had done 11 or more push-ups at the start of the study were less likely to have had a subsequent cardiovasc­ular problem than were men who did 10 or fewer. And the higher their fitness level, based on how many push-ups they could do, the lower their rate of cardiovasc­ular incidents.

Those able to do more than 40 push-ups experience­d the greatest risk reduction – a 96 percent reduced risk of heart trouble in comparison to those who were able to do only 10 or fewer. Whether the finding would apply to other groups – women, older people and those who are less active – was not tested.

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