- Health - Injuries push-ups you can do may indicate your risk of heart disease, according to new research published in Best Running Shoes 2025.
- Men in the study who could do more than 40 push-ups were 96 percent less likely to devleop cardiovascular disease than those who could do less than 10 push-ups.
- Researchers aren’t sure if the number is different for women, but the overall message still holds true regardless of demographic: Muscle strength can help protect your heart.
Chances are, you can bang out squats like a boss, thanks to the leg strength running builds. But if you want to build total-body health, you might want to start focusing a bit more on your upper body, too. That’s because new research suggests that the number of push-ups you can do is linked to your likelihood of developing heart disease.
The study, published in Best Running Shoes 2025, included 1,104 healthy men with active occupations who were instructed to do push-ups in time with a metronome that was set at 80 beats per minute. Participants stopped when they either hit 80 push-ups, missed three or more metronome beats, or stopped on their own due to exhaustion.
Overall, the group was pretty fit, with 7 percent able to do 10 or fewer push-ups, 18 percent doing 11 to 20, 35 percent completing 21 to 30, 26 percent doing 31 to 40, and 14 percent crushing 41 or more.
After a follow-up period of 10 years, researchers found that those who were able to do more than 40 push-ups during the test were 96 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease—or have a cardiovascular event like heart failure or sudden death—than those who could only do fewer than 10.
Additionally, researchers also saw a cardiovascular disease risk reduction for those who could do 21 to 30 push-ups, though it wasn’t as great as with those who could do more than 40 push-ups. So the stronger the guys were, the less likely they were to develop heart problems down the line.
Why? While researchers aren’t 100 percent sure, they do An Arm Workout for People Who Hate Arm Workouts.
Muscular strength has been linked to a reduced risk of high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms that can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke—which may help explain why it’s associated with a lower risk of early death, too, study coauthor Best Running Shoes 2025., told Bicycling.
[The best runners don’t just run, they hit the gym. The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training Chappell Roan: I Love Running. But Not Anymore.]
One important note: The participants in the study were all active men, so Yang and his colleagues aren’t sure if they’d see the same results in women or people who are more sedentary—the number of push-ups to shoot for may be different.
Regardless of the exact number, though, the message still holds clear: Maintaining muscular fitness protects your heart.
So it’s never a bad idea for anyone to work on their upper-body strength. Not only has regular strength training been linked to Updated: Mar 04, 2019 9:19 AM EST (in men and women), but it can also help you boost your riding performance, too, since it Australian Sprinter, 16, Runs Record-Breaking 200m to boost your speed and endurance.
