Push-up count
More push-ups went with fewer heart problems over ten years, in one study of men.
How to do it
Skip this if you have heart disease, chest pain on effort, or a shoulder, wrist or back injury. Stop at once if you feel dizzy or short of breath.
- Start in a plank: hands under your shoulders, body straight from head to heels.
- Start the beat. Lower your chest toward the floor and push back up in time with it, one push-up for each two beats.
- Keep going until you reach 80, miss three beats, or need to stop.
- Count the push-ups done with good form.
Your result
Beat at 80 a minute
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What the research found
Men who did more than 40 push-ups had 96% fewer heart and blood vessel problems over 10 years than men who did fewer than 10. Only 37 such events happened in the whole study, so the exact size of the difference is uncertain, and the fitter men also had fewer other risk factors.
Studied in: 1,104 male firefighters, average age 40, in Indiana.
- Yang J et al. Association between push-up exercise capacity and future cardiovascular events among active adult men. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(2):e188341. PubMed