Chest and back exercises strengthen key muscles in the upper body and, when these are healthy, the chances of dying young are typically slashed, experts say15:01, 30 Jun 2026People with strong muscles in their chest and back are less likely to have heart attacks, research shows.‌Scientists say exercises which strengthen these core muscles in the upper body could slash the risk of dying young.‌Researchers at Edinburgh University used artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse heart scans of 1,722 people, who were mostly in their fifties, and had chest pain. For every 10-point increase in muscle density, participants were 31% less likely to have a heart attack and 39% less likely to die in the following ten years.‌Senior author Professor Michelle Williams has started going to the gym twice a week because she found the study’s findings so compelling.Prof Williams said: “It is fascinating that people’s skeletal muscle could be linked to their risk of having a heart attack. The muscles which show up in the scans we used are principally the back muscles, part of the pectoral muscles and the intercostal muscles between the ribs.‌“So I am now personally interested in exercises like cycling, planks and pilates, which I enjoy and may have an effect on these muscles.”Scientists said the overall size of people’s muscles was not linked to better heart health. Instead coronary computed tomography angiogram scans identified that more dense muscle, which may contain a lower proportion of fat, was linked to fewer heart attacks.‌Prof Williams added: “We need far more research to better understand how exercise may affect muscle density, and how this may relate to heart health.”The study, published in the journal Radiology, used AI to analyse skeletal muscle ‘attenuation’, which is the brightness or darkness of the muscle in a scan.More dense muscle appears lighter in a scan image because more X-ray beams bounce off it. A brighter image indicates that someone has better quality, more dense muscle, which may contain a lower proportion of fat.‌Researchers grouped people based on how their muscle appeared in scans and compared that to rates of heart attacks and early deaths using their health records.They suspect people who exercise enough to have strong muscles in their upper body have a healthy lifestyle which protects their heart in other ways.Professor Bryan Williams OBE, Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said: “Artificial intelligence can rapidly reveal information buried in scan results which provides a more detailed picture of our health than ever before.Article continues below“It is likely that people in this study with more dense muscle mass were more physically active and as a result may have better heart health. That is yet more evidence supporting the power of exercise.“Every time we move, we are making a positive difference to our muscles, our blood vessels and our overall health, and regular exercise can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to a third.”