Photo by Ayo Ogunseinde

You may often hear of people talking of taking part in numerous activities (swimming, jogging, tennis, aerobics, yoga, etc), but not many people rave about doing push-ups on a regular basis. Push-ups are often an overlooked exercise, but something definitely worth considering.

There was a study published in JAMA in 2019 that should make everybody want to incorporate this into their workout mojo. This decade long study of male firefighters aged 18 and above found that those that could do more than 40 push-ups had a significant decrease in cardiovascular disease compared to those who could do 10 or fewer push-ups.

Benefits of push-ups

• Target multiple muscles-arms, shoulders, core, and back
• Improves strength-particularly upper body, they help strengthen biceps, triceps, and also abdominals
• Enhances stamina
• Does not require specific equipment and you can do it any time of the day at your convenience
• Helps build muscle and tone, also strengthens joints
• Improves posture and strengthen lower back
• Improves flexibility
• Stabilizes and conditions shoulder muscles
• Gets your heart rate up allowing pumping of oxygen throughout your body
• Considered weight bearing exercise so helps build bone density