This is a 4-Week Push-Up Challenge for any fitness level to try. Who doesn't want to improve in this area right? Well, now there is one more important reason for you to do so! Read below... Did you know there is a direct relationship between push-ups and heart disease? As it turns out, the maximum number of push-ups you can do, in one attempt, can help to predict illness in men. There is research published regarding the number of push-ups men can do and the impact it has on their health. The study reports that if someone can pump out 40 push-ups, in one attempt, they are less likely to develop heart disease. WOW! A study was conducted by a group of researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study tested and followed over 1,100 active male firefighters for a 10-year period. The average age of the men was 40 years old. The results found that men who could perform 40 push-ups were 96 percent less likely to develop heart disease a decade later compared to men who could do only 10 push-ups (source: JAMA Network Open, 2019). The Benefits of Push-Ups Building up your capacity to perform more push-ups is beneficial to both a novice or an experienced gym-goer. The push-up exercise is a great compound movement that targets the chest, shoulders and arms. It can be used as part of a dynamic warm-up, used in a circuit, placed in a Tabata workout or added while traveling to maintain strength. Push-ups are also great for building strength or endurance depending on the experience of the person; this will depend on the speed or volume (sets x repetitions) of work performed. Now that you know there are associated health benefits with doing more push-ups, you’re hopefully motivated to do more or get back into doing them. The number of push-ups is also an excellent indicator of your upper body fitness level. Push-Up Test First, test yourself to see how many push-ups you can perform in one-minute. You have basically two options, perform as many as you can and record the number. Option two, do a specific number of repetitions, recover, and continue until your minute is up. Record how well you did using the following guidelines. The key is to perform each repetition in a controlled manner, lowering your body until your chest is a few inches from the floor or the arms are bent at 90-degrees. Here are a few guidelines to see how you initially rate. Don’t worry if you do not score high first time out of the gates. Be more focused on your score following four-weeks when you’ll test yourself again using the format below. Below Average: less than 15 push-ups Average: 20 push-ups Good: 30 to 35 push-ups Excellent: 40 to 50+ push-ups 4-Week Push-Up Plan If you are looking to improve upon the number of push-ups you can do, try this 4-week plan. Week 1: Perform 8 sets of 8 repetitions of pushups. Use strict form. Rest 60-90 seconds between sets. Perform 2-3 workouts during the week. Week 2: Complete 6 sets of 10 repetitions with 1 minute of rest between sets. Perform 2 workouts. Week 3: Do 4 sets of 15 repetitions with 1 minute of rest between sets. Focus on performing slow eccentric contractions (lowering phase) with each repetition. Think about lowering your body using a 3 count and “explode” up on a 1 count. Perform 2-3 workouts. Week 4: Complete 4 sets of 20 repetitions using 30-60 seconds of rest between sets. Week 5: Test Yourself Again and Record the delta. Stay Strong, MICHAEL WOOD, CSCS Jefit team