Your ability to do a lot of pushups might be a sign of strength, and also of good heart health, a recent study suggests.

The new study tested the stamina of some middle aged male people. It also found that those who could do more than 40 pushups at a time had a 96 percent lower risk of being diagnosed with some heart disease or experiencing other heart related problems over 10 years period, as it was compared with those men who could do fewer than 10 push ups in a row.

However, just because the study looked at only male people, who have varieties of very active jobs, it is unclear if the findings apply to average people with partime and easier jobs.

But in the findings, it suggests that “pushup capacity could be an easy, and no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in the body.

Just a simple test

All physicians know that being physically fit is always linked with better heart. But it can also be difficult for a doctor to accurately assess person’s fitness level during a normal routine visit. Doctors sometimes use what we call “treadmill tests” to evaluate a person’s fitness and ability level. In these type of evaluations, people run on a treadmill until their heart rate reaches a particular level. But the tests we are talking about are always time-consuming and require an expensive equipment, so this is why they aren’t done routinely.

The recent study tested whether a simple exercise just like a pushup could provide clues to any heart health. To find out this, researchers examined some records from more than 1,100 people (with just an average age of 39) who underwent a series of pushups test at the beginning of their study. All the participants were then followed up for a decade to see if they would experience a cardiovascular event in their body, such as a diagnosis of a coronary artery disease, any heart failure or some cardiac arrest.

During that study period, 37 cardiovascular events were found after the test among the study participants, but only single cardiovascular event occurred among all the men who completed more than 40 pushups in a row.

Those men who could do 11 or more pushups had a very lower risk of the cardiovascular events, compared with those who could do just 10 or fewer. And all men who could do 40 pushups or more than, had the largest reduction in the risk.

However, those researchers cautioned everyone that pushup capacity is not necessarily an independent predictor all heart disease risk. i.e., there may be some other factors tied to the disease risk that are also very related to how many pushups an individual can do at a particular time. Such factors might include a person’s age, his body mass index (BMI) and his/her aerobic fitness level. But, in most cases, pushup capacity could sure be an indicator of overall fitness as the researchers said.