Comments on Cranky Fitness: Pull Ups and Push Ups: For Women Too?

Because 1) of an injured knee and wrist, courtesy ...

2008-05-17T01:12:00.000-04:00

Because

1) of an injured knee and wrist, courtesy of attempting to keep up with the skinny girls at various stages during my formative years,

2) of the fact that my lean body mass -- that's muscles, organs, and bones, for those playing at home -- is apparently bigger than a size zero, so a Hollywood figure I will never have, and

2) the more Pilates I do, the stronger I get and the cuter I look,

I have a tendency to look at the pullup bar and say ...
"Hmmm ... how about never? Does never work for you?"

P.S. CF, congrats on the 25, you hardcore, you.

Aaah -- I'm late to the party! (I didn't allow mys...

2008-05-07T10:04:00.000-04:00

Aaah -- I'm late to the party! (I didn't allow myself Google Reader until I finished the article I was working on, and it looks like I really missed out.)

First, thank you Crabby for linking to my pull-up posts -- I don't think I'm done talking about them yet, as I still can't seem to shake the topic.

So interesting to see the range of opinions, from "HELL NO" to "of course"! (You know what camp I'm in.)

For those looking for a bar that won't screw up their door frames, try the Door Gym -- it doesn't need to be screwed in at all, so not only does it keep your jambs lookin' good, but it's portable. The cheapest one I found is at Karate Depot: www.karatedepot.com/tr-ex-25.html.

Ah, yes! I wrote about the same thing in my post ...

2008-05-06T21:52:00.000-04:00

Ah, yes! I wrote about the same thing in my post called Real Pushups vs Girly Pushups.

One of the things on my 101 Things list is to be able to do "at least one unassisted pullup." I practice, but I'm nowhere near being able to do one, either!

Go, you! For being able to do 25-ish on-the-toes pushups! Mad impressive! :)

This was quite an interesting post! Is it biology ...

2008-05-06T15:55:00.000-04:00

This was quite an interesting post! Is it biology or the noted lack of tree climbing as kids that has kept so many women from being able to do a "pull up" or "chin up" all their lives? I'm appalled!

I remember the Presidential Fitness thingy, I was in 7th grade and I was the only girl who could do 2 pull ups, I could have done more but they said you had to hang at the bottom or pull evenly or something, I could have got the 3rd or more if I wasn't scared silly and could have bump started more with my right arm. As a kid I was amazed that all those girls could not do even one pull up, they just hung there! And here you all are saying the same thing?

As a teen and until my late 20s I never needed a pull up bar in a doorway, I used to "chin" myself on the top of door jambs, either by grabbing with my fingertips ONLY from one side, or both sides in a pincer move, and pull up and touch my head to the top of the doorway.

I was not super skinny and not super muscular, but I was a tomboy and I played hard as a kid. I think it's a matter of growing up using one's muscles the way they were meant to be used. Physically it's probably something like use it early or lose it forever.

Now that I'm 20+ years older with a bad back that's gotten better, I can finally do ONE pull up at the outside gym in the park, and I can swing across the overhead whatchamacallit, bar to bar. My muscles have the feel of a rotten rubber band sometimes though, I think it's that they are cold, but I know I need to get back to weights consistently. Because of my back and carpal tunnel, I do lots of "counter" push ups, but otherwise for the full body, my wrists can't take it anymore. And I just did a test pull on a door jamb, and I can't believe I ever did those so easy or walked on my hands either.

Damage to my wrists, elbows, hands and shoulders over the years means those days are gone forever. PLUS I weigh 20 pounds more! BUT I sure appreciate everyone who posted on equipment and technique!

Merry...you're right about the biochemistry biolog...

2008-05-06T11:41:00.000-04:00

Merry...you're right about the biochemistry biology thing.
It's why I ended up with a double major in them...one made the other so interesting I just had to learn more :)

I have a love/hate relationship with pull ups. I f...

2008-05-06T11:11:00.000-04:00

I have a love/hate relationship with pull ups. I feel super tough doing them, but they hurt like hell.
A while back, I celebrated a huge landmark: being able to do ONE unassisted pull up!! Woohoo!

*Champagne s'il vous plait!*

I remember telling my massage therapist about it. Turns out, she is a downhill ski racer, crazy mountain bike chick and... a rock climber...
25.
She can 25 unassisted pull ups in a row. I would struggle to do that many assisted ones.
Pfff!

I too am working on conquering push ups and pull u...

2008-05-06T10:06:00.000-04:00

I too am working on conquering push ups and pull ups. Negatives do leave me really sore! But I refuse to give up.

Anyway, to all the folks talking about needing to damage a door frame to install a pull up bar... you don't have to! I have this one, and it just sits on the door jamb. Literally, you set it on the frame in about two seconds. I've had it through 6 apartments (military wife) and it's never damaged a single door. There are several versions out there.

Wow, what an awesome and educational and hilarious...

2008-05-06T07:05:00.000-04:00

Wow, what an awesome and educational and hilarious bunch of comments! I'm finding the bio chem discussion fascinating, for example, and who knew we'd get there from push ups?

I'm SO glad to discover that even tough rugby players (I am in awe of rugby players) still can't necessarily knock out a bunch of pull-ups, nor can guys, nor can many people who are obviously sensible and fit.

(And I'd almost forgotten about the Presidential Fitness test thingy--ick.)

I'm extremely impressed by all the exercises you folks do--one armed push-ups and clapping pushups and all kinds of ridiculous things. It makes me want to work out just a bit harder... either that or take a nap.

Merry.... yeah! I'm glad somebody has female chem...

2008-05-06T00:55:00.000-04:00

Merry.... yeah! I'm glad somebody has female chemistry professors. Allegedly, 10% of the chemistry professoriate is female, but somehow none of the professors I've had have been. I'm a physical/theoretical chemist, which you probably didn't have to take if you were a biology major. Usually bio majors stop at OChem. PChem is were you deal with physics on the molecular level and the classical laws of mechanics don't apply and you have to use quantum mechanics.

It's comforting to me to see the range of opinions...

2008-05-05T23:54:00.000-04:00

It's comforting to me to see the range of opinions on push ups and pull ups here! I've never been able to do either (well, pushups I can do against a wall or a few from my knees), though when I belonged to a gym a few years back I thought the Gravitron was pretty fun. I also kind of like the exercise ball push ups geosomin mentioned, and if I ever actually get around to buying myself an exercise ball I'll work on those again. (First to work on where to put an exercise ball in my postage-stamp-sized apartment...)

With push-ups, I always get lost trying to figure out exactly where my hands should be, where my elbows should go, and where my face should end up in relation to my hands at the lowest point of the move. Suggestions welcome!

"Real" pushups hurt my boobs. In not a good hurt ...

2008-05-05T23:53:00.000-04:00

"Real" pushups hurt my boobs. In not a good hurt kind of way. That's my excuse to stick with girl ones, but I can knock those out. ha ha. As for pull ups/ HELL NO. I always hated that day in gym class when you had to do at least ONE pull up to pass the "Presidential" exam or whatever it was called. Damn that day. I think they tested our body fat too. Now, that alone will make a teenage girl leap off the deep end.

And I don't equate biochemistry with chemistry bec...

2008-05-05T22:57:00.000-04:00

And I don't equate biochemistry with chemistry because I've linked it in my mind with biology instead. Pray excuse my bias: my degree was in biology, not chemistry, because I found biology fascinating. Therefore (MerryLogic), since I found biochemistry fascinating, and I loathed O. Chem and classes of that ilk, biochemistry must be considered part of biology.
(Well, it makes sense to me.)

Hmmm... Ashley, two of my chemistry professors wer...

2008-05-05T22:55:00.000-04:00

Hmmm... Ashley, two of my chemistry professors were of the female persuasion. Three if you count biochemistry. :)

I don't mean this comment to sound sexist, but 2 of the 3 were by far the best of my chemistry teachers.

I've learned to do full push-ups since January. I...

2008-05-05T22:25:00.000-04:00

I've learned to do full push-ups since January. It was one of my New Year's Resolutions and it had nothing to do with fitness, really. I sorta finally realized this year that if I'm really going to achieve my professional goal in life, I was going to be doing something that mostly boys do, for the rest of my life. (I mean really, how many girl chemistry professors do you know? Probably none.) This idea made me really uncomfortable, and I realized I was going to have to get over this, so I devised a list of things that mostly boys do that I thought I could learn to do. Push-ups was #1 on the list. I finally did three sets of 10 full push-ups last Tuesday, and it was awesome!! Pull-ups are next! I've been practicing with the assisted pull-up machine since January, but I'm still using 60 pounds of assistance. I'll definitely look at the articles for ideas. Sorry, for telling my life story here in the comments, but this push-up/pull-up thing has taken on a life of its own here.

Member those presidential fitness tests where girl...

2008-05-05T22:03:00.000-04:00

Member those presidential fitness tests where girls just had to do one pull-up. Just one to pass. My whole life I've still been trying to do that one pull up. Even at my best shape when I worked with a trainer for almost 2 years, I could leg press 400lbs, but still could not do that one pull up. Pissed me off! But that's ok. I'll take my strong where I can get it.

i can do 30 pushups ! okay maybe 3 sets of 10 and ...

2008-05-05T21:43:00.000-04:00

i can do 30 pushups ! okay maybe 3 sets of 10 and this ain't no girly shit either

i beat all the girls on my team including my 2 coaches.

pull ups? now thats another story. maybe after i master doing clapping push ups... you know where you clap your hands after you push-up?

"Girl" push-ups - I do those. Not ashamed. Pull-u...

2008-05-05T21:15:00.000-04:00

"Girl" push-ups - I do those. Not ashamed. Pull-ups... can't remember the last time I did those! I think it was back in elementary school!

I want to do a pull up so badly! I can do push-ups...

2008-05-05T19:34:00.000-04:00

I want to do a pull up so badly! I can do push-ups till kingdom come, but something about hoisting myself up just doesn't work.

I'm not a fan of excuses, and never did push-ups on my knees. When my gym teachers told me to start on my knees, I'd tell them I could do whatever the boys could do. I guess that mentality is still very much in place.

I think my lack of upper body strength and general...

2008-05-05T19:06:00.000-04:00

I think my lack of upper body strength and general athletic ability really pissed off a few P.E. teachers in the mid to late eighties. Oh well, I've done O.K. in life and I still can't do a pull up.

What is it today about pull ups? This is the second conversation I've had about pull ups today and let me tell you, I just don't talk about pull ups normally.

-- Karen

Oh, I shall never forget the feeling of embarrassm...

2008-05-05T17:29:00.000-04:00

Oh, I shall never forget the feeling of embarrassment and shame I experienced one day a year, every year, throughout junior high and high school - Presidential Fitness Day. I could do the Bent Arm Hang for approx. 0.0 seconds. I would love to be able to do pull-ups - how tough did Demi Moore (or was in Linda Hamilton) look doing them in that movie? Yes, it was Linda, in the asylum. Anyways, my husband went to the gym yesterday and jumped on the pull-up bndwagon, eeking out 12 on his first try. Garh!

I have to say that I wish I could say I have the p...

2008-05-05T15:50:00.000-04:00

I have to say that I wish I could say I have the pull-up mastered. I can do 4 pull-ups bicep curl style, but the goal of doing 1 or more wide bar front grip is kicking my ass.

I save this exercise until last because I hate it so much, using the weight assisted machine makes me feel so weak. On every other exercise I have exceeded my goals and am making good progress but I am stuck at the weigh assisted machine...

Argh to wide grip front grip pull-ups!

In my prime, a mere handful of decades ago, I coul...

2008-05-05T15:38:00.000-04:00

In my prime, a mere handful of decades ago, I could do 50 push ups in one minute and 12-15 "pull" ups. (Does nobody call them "chin ups" anymore?) I could even do a few one-armed jobbies, but I cheated by clasping my pulling wrist with my other hand.

I can still do a few push ups but haven't tried a pull up in ages. I suspect they're a heck of a lot tougher now.

One more girl here that has no problems with the p...

2008-05-05T14:34:00.000-04:00

One more girl here that has no problems with the push-up, but couldn't do a pull-up to save my life. But for me, and I've never really seen this addressed, it's my grip strength that is lacking rather than the arm strength. My hands just can't take my body weight, even an arm hang. Any suggestions on that problem??

Full disclosure, I've had arthritis problems in my hands since I was 18, so I don't see this resolving in my lifetime. Good thing it's not required learning!

I've been doing pushups as part of a workout for a...

2008-05-05T14:24:00.000-04:00

I've been doing pushups as part of a workout for a while. It's part of my exercise ball workout. The nice thing is I can put my legs on the ball and move it further and further away from my waist area as I get stronger. It makes you helluva stiff at first, but really makes for toned arms and shoulders. It is rather annoying to have a bit of a bicep though - today's styles aren't really cut for muscles there.
It's cool to flex and see mucles developing there.
I'd like to try the pull up, but have no bar anywhere...I've been thinking of putting one up in my craft room door...how hard are they to mount so they won't rip the door frame apart?

Pull ups? Ha! Out of the question. I can't even do...

2008-05-05T13:57:00.000-04:00

Pull ups? Ha! Out of the question. I can't even do a push up to save my life. Truly, I thought I was alone in that embarrassment.

My military-trained son gives me that incredulous look and says "Really? You can't?" Then he proceeds to show me how he can do them while grasping weights in his hands, which he brings all the way across the front of his body, one at a time, on the up motion. Who raised that freakin' little showoff?