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Middle-Age Men Who Can Do 40+ Push-Ups Have Lower Heart Disease Risk, Study Finds (cbslocal.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

A new study finds that active middle aged men who can do more than 40 push-ups at a time have a significantly lower risk of heart disease. From a report: Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health followed more than 1,100 middle-aged male firefighters over a decade. They looked at two specific measures: how many push-ups they could do and their exercise tolerance on a treadmill. They found that men who could do more than 40 push-ups had a 96-percent lower risk of heart disease than those who could do no more than 10 and their ability to do push-ups was a better predictor of cardiovascular disease than their stamina on a treadmill test.

5 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. silly harvard studies... by js290 · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the Harvard "more push-ups = less heart disease" study, the group that could do 31-40 push-ups had a HIGHER rate of heart disease than the group that could do 21-30 push-ups, even though the 21-30 guys were older and heavier. Anyone still think this study is meaningful?

    — Tom Naughton (@TomDNaughton) February 19, 2019

    Pushups And Heart Attacks: The Usual Harvard Nonsense

    --
    "Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
  2. A fairly high bar... by Jamori · · Score: 5, Informative

    40 unbroken, consecutive, full-range (chest touches the floor) pushups is really a fairly high bar athletically, probably on the order of top ~1% of the total population

    The study indicates this corresponds to the top ~10% of firefighters, a group who on a whole are already known to be in vastly better shape than most of the population. This corresponds with my own anecdotal observations -- at my local crossfit gym, we test for max pushups once a year or so, mostly for fun. 40+ unbroken pushups easily corresponds to the top ~5% of that self-selected high fitness crowd as well.

  3. Badly done analysis by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 3, Informative

    ^^^^^

    Somebody mod this up.

    Yes, the firefighters who could do the fewest push-ups were older (average age 48.4, compared to 35.1 for the ones who could do 41+ pushups) and were more likely to be smokers.

    At the end of the 10 year study period, the firefighters who could to 41 or more pushups were still younger than the ones who could do less than 10 had been at the start of the study.

    Older people have more cardiovascular events.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  4. Re:From the 'No sh*t, Sherlock' department by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Perhaps the results would be more generally applicable if the pool included professions _other_ than firefighters (which is a self-selected cohort for the most part).

  5. Re:From the 'No sh*t, Sherlock' department by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 4, Informative

    is it though? all it shows us is that upper body strength and potentially having less fat around upper body strength is a better indicator of health then lower body/leg strength.

    No, all it shows is that older people have more cardiovascular events than younger ones.

    The ones who could do fewer push-ups were older. By 13 years.

    (see the first row in table 1 of the article, here: https://cdn.jamanetwork.com/am... )

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com