Middle-aged men who could complete more than 40 push-ups in a row had a 96 percent lower rate of cardiovascular disease events over the next decade than men who managed fewer than 10.
That finding, from a 10-year cohort study of 1,104 male firefighters published in JAMA Network Open in February 2019, turned a gym benchmark into a health indicator that clinicians can measure in about a minute, with no equipment.
Justin Yang, the lead author and an occupational medicine resident at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the results "provide evidence that push-up capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to assess cardiovascular disease risk in almost any setting."
The participants had a mean age of just under 40 and a mean body mass index of 28.7. Over the follow-up, 37 cardiovascular events were recorded, and all but one occurred in men who had completed 40 or fewer push-ups at baseline. Push-up capacity was more strongly associated with lower cardiovascular disease incidence than a submaximal treadmill test.
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Push-up norms by age and sex
Beyond that 40-rep threshold, how you compare to your age group is where the American College of Sports Medicine's push-up test comes in. The norms are published in ACSM's Fitness Assessment Manual and treat push-up performance as a standard measure of upper-body muscular endurance during a health-related fitness assessment. Men perform the standard push-up from their toes; women perform the modified version from their knees.
Age | Men - good | Men - excellent Also read: The surprising mental health risks behind excessive daydreaming | Women - good | Women - excellent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
20-29 | 22-28 Also read: Still seeing green goddess salad on TikTok? Here is what it actually gives your body | 36+ | 15-20 | 30+ |
30-39 Also read: The US job with the highest share of radiation cancer deaths sits 35,000 feet up | 17-21 | 30+ | 13-19 | 27+ Also read: Your neighborhood dry cleaner may be quietly linked to a higher Parkinson's risk |
40-49 | 13-16 | 25+ | 11-14 | 24+ |
50-59 | 10-12 | 21+ | 7-10 | 21+ |
60-69 | 8-10 | 18+ | 5-11 | 17+ |
Why the number matters beyond the gym
A push-up recruits the chest, shoulders, triceps and core, while forcing the heart and lungs to keep up with repeated bouts of near-maximal effort. Capacity in the test reflects both muscular endurance and the cardiorespiratory reserve needed to sustain it.
That is why researchers view the push-up as a real-world proxy for whether the body can meet the demands of daily activity, not just as a measure of upper-body strength. Grip strength and cardiorespiratory fitness are already treated as informative markers of overall health, and the Harvard Chan work put push-ups in similar company for active adult men.
The authors were careful about the reach of their finding. The cohort was middle-aged, occupationally active men in one profession, so the results may not generalize to women, to less active people or to other age groups. A cohort study can only show association, not causality, and push-up capacity is best understood as a marker of underlying fitness rather than a treatment.
Senior author Stefanos Kales, of the Harvard Chan School's Department of Environmental Health, framed the takeaway plainly. "This study emphasizes the importance of physical fitness on health, and why clinicians should assess fitness during clinical encounters," he told the Harvard Gazette.
If your number falls short of your age band
Push-up capacity is trainable at almost any starting level. If a standard push-up is out of reach, start with the movement raised, hands on a countertop or a bench, then progress to the floor from the knees before attempting the full version. Two or three sessions a week, with a rest day between them, tends to be enough for the shoulders and elbows to recover.
Sets that stop a repetition or two short of failure, repeated across two to four sets, generally build endurance faster than a single all-out effort. A slow lowering phase of three to five seconds is a useful way to gain strength if the push back up is still difficult. Progress is best measured monthly rather than weekly, and anyone with heart, shoulder or elbow concerns should talk with a doctor before adding a maximum-effort test to their routine.
This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.