> researchers reported that men who can do 40 pushups
That's a very small amount of people then.
Yeah, getting to 40 is surprisingly easy though, and the benefits really reinforce the activity. Takes less than 2 minutes each morning, doesn’t make you all sweaty, and the improvement happens very quickly. It frankly is more mental discipline than anything. If you have the mental discipline the body will fall in line.
The health benefits are great:
“In a 10-year study published in February, researchers reported that men who can do 40 pushups have a whopping 96% lower risk of heart disease than guys who can't muster 10.”[0]
I had a hard time breaking 37 in one go until I started doing a second set one minute after the first. I could do about ten before failure in second set and soon I was breaking 40 in the first set.
[0] https://www.webmd.com/men/features/pushups-help-mens-hearts