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Push-Up Exercise Capacity and Future Cardiovascular Events
Study Questions:
Is push-up capacity associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) events among active adult men?
Methods:
This was a retrospective longitudinal cohort study using data from male firefighters (age ≥18 years) seen in outpatient clinics in Indiana between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2010. These visits included baseline and follow-up physical exams (February 2, 2000–November 12, 2007), which included push-up capacity and exercise tolerance. Participants were stratified into five groups based on number of push-ups completed and were followed up for 10 years. The primary outcomes were CVD events through 2010.
Results:
A total of 1,562 participants underwent baseline examination, and 1,104 with available push-up data were included in the final analyses. Mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of the cohort at baseline was 39.6 (9.2) years. Mean (SD) body mass index was 28.7 (4.3) kg/m2. During the 10-year follow-up, 37 CVD-related outcomes (8,601 person-years) were reported in participants with available push-up data. An inverse association was observed between increasing push-up capacity and CVD events. Participants able to complete >40 push-ups were associated with a significantly lower risk of incident CVD event risk compared with those completing <10 push-ups (incident rate ratio, 0.04; 95% confidence interval, 0.01-0.36).
Conclusions:
The authors concluded that these findings suggest that higher baseline push-up capacity is associated with a lower incidence of CVD events. Although larger studies in more diverse cohorts are needed, push-up capacity may be a simple, no-cost measure to estimate functional status.
Perspective:
These data demonstrate an association between number of push-ups and future CVD events; however, generalizability is limited given these were young males. Thus, the clinical utility of such testing is not clear. The data set had also included treadmill testing; however, the testing was not included in the multivariate models, nor were traditional risk factors.
Clinical Topics: Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Disease, Prevention, Exercise
Keywords: Body Mass Index, Cardiovascular Diseases, Exercise, Exercise Test, Exercise Tolerance, Firefighters, Primary Prevention, Risk Factors
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