Exercise science is a strangely wonderful world. Through research, scientists are constantly giving us random data about our health and fitness, such as how to have a hot bath can improve fitness as efficiently as exercise or why regular exercise can make it harder to lose weight. A fun new fact to add to this list comes from comparatively new research that says the number of push-ups you should be able to do to significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease incidents is 40.
the longitudinal cohort study (opens in a new tab), conducted in 2019, examined 1,104 occupationally active adult men and found a significant negative association between baseline push-up ability and risk of incident cardiovascular disease over 10 years of follow-up. The paper says that “participants who were able to complete more than 40 push-ups were associated with a significantly reduced risk of incident cardiovascular disease events compared to those who completed fewer than 10 push-ups.”
pushups are the best
The truth is, we already knew that the pushup was one of the best bodyweight exercises. Push-ups have a variety of benefits, aside from the obvious one (builds big pecs and arms), including increased core strength, better shoulder mobility, and more. If you haven’t tried them yet, here you go. how to master pushups and the racier variations of pushupsbut be sure to avoid these push-up mistakes.
It’s worth mentioning that the study looked at men aged 21-66, so we can safely assume that the number of push-ups for women would be different (in fact, it definitely is, considering the musculoskeletal differences between the sexes). ) . Nonetheless, the use of push-ups is an inexpensive and easy way to assess one’s fitness levels, which was exactly the goal of the study.
Resistance training is gaining more public attention as one of the best ways to prolong life in a healthy and meaningful way. ‘Resistance training’ means exercise that uses resistance, either a set of dumbbells, resistance bands or your body weight is what provides said resistance. As long as it puts your muscles under more (good) stress, resistance training can help strengthen your joints and keep your muscles in tip-top shape, and as a result, it can also help keep your heart in good condition.
