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Middle-Age Men Who Can Do 40+ Push-Ups Have Lower Heart Disease Risk, Study Finds (cbslocal.com)
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.
I think the fact that it's a better measure of cardiovascular health than a treadmill is pretty relevant, and not actually intuitive.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
And every day the ability of slashdot readers to make it past the headline before delivering their knee jerk response grows less and less.
The study involved 1100 firefighters and showed that number of push ups was a better indicator than standard treadmill tests. The advantage is that it's a trivial test anyone can do and requires no special equipment.