women and push ups

This is my 3rd post and I am already launching myself into the 'War of the Sexes'...*sigh* I can run but I cannot hide....

People who say that women cannot do push ups as easily as men are talking rubbish. I can kiss the floor and hardly use any strength.

*runs from Agents of Matrix screaming 'It's her, the anomaly'*

 

Ill admit Ive not been bothered to read through eveyr page of this but in relation to the original post:

Men are not better than Women as such BUT they are built for strength. Men are meant to be strong and hence they can usually do a full pressup far easier. As a Lass you will have to fight all the way against genetics. Just try a full pressup, if you can only get 4 out then thats superb! Keep doing as many sets of 4 as you can and this will build your strength.

 

I agree with Yashka!!! I am girl and i can so as many or more than most of the guys in my club... i don't think it has anything to do with gender... you just gotta practice and build the essential muscles needed to get good at them...

 

Hello I'm a bit nervous of putting this on here but I'll give you a laugh anyway'

I used to go to a club near where I lived a few years ago and seeing that I was the only woman in the class I was set up by the teacher as he was something of a tease with me as I was with him. Anyway we'd just started to do the normal exercises and the teacher told us to partner up and do the push ups in a different way for once. One partner was told to sit in the cross legged position and let the other do the press ups having their hands on the persons knees. You can imagine what it looked like being the only female in the class. As we had to take turns doing this my partner had first go and tried really hard without laughing as I'm sure he was in on the joke. When it was my turn for this exercise all the guys seemed to stop doing the press ups and started to say very loudly gobble gobble gobble as I was trying to do this without getting too embarrassed. Did I manage it, You bet you, I wasn't going to let a group of blokes have the last laugh on me and see me fall into an embarrising position for me. I just made sure that I didn't look at anyone when I got up from there as I would have gone very red lol.
lisa xx

 

Im not saying women cant do pressups but overall a lot of guys can do them without too much practice but many women have to work up to that because they aren't naturally powerfully built for it.

Fallentao, thats a bit nasty heh...well done on you handling it

 

Ohhh, push-ups, my favorite!

I just read through the thread, and I must say that Yashka's "war of the sexes" seems to be mostly with women

At any rate, push-ups are geat, and they might or might not come easier for guys, but I know they come easier from one who obtained proficiency. Just to boast a little, with no preperation or exersize regarding push-ups, I can crank out 50 on the drop of the hat. In fact, I can't imagine at this point being unable to do at least 50 at any given time.

Now, my life wasn't always peaches and cream, infact, there was a time that I can still recall where I was hurtin to pump out 20 *gasp*. Seemed like I tried everything, but to no avail. What I did, in the end, finally do was take it slowly. I started doing 5-6reps of 10 each day. Soon I was doing 20's and 30's. From there I jumped up to 50's and got into a slight rut at 80.

It took patience, but within a couple weeks I had passed up 80 and was now into the 150's-170's. I stayed in the 150-170 range for about a month. Finally I decided I needed to break the 200 push-up barrier, and I did just that. In the end I maxed at 252 push-ups, not because I was tired, but because 252 push-ups takes a long time to do properly. Then I found out the the record was well into the thousands and gave up. :cry:

Now my point is, it wasn't easy, and when I started, it most certainly wasn't natural. However, though I've since become woefully delinquint, I think due to my having been there I am more capable of getting there again with less effort the second time than was required the first. It took 8sh months to do.

I'm a guy, btw, and I think women are capable of doing thiis, but most lack the desire and social pressure to do so. I know for a fact, that you will not do as well in an exersize you can't enjoy, as you can in one you do regardless of difficulty.

 

I think being able to do lots of pushups will make you good at - doing lots of pushups. I can do 30 straight off and 40-50 with a few weeks practice. I've never felt the need to be able to do more but I could be mistaken . I also found that when I was training on bench presses to increase my maximum, my ability to do push-ups decreased. Could that have been fast twitch vs slow twitch development?

Therefore, in the collective wisdom of the thread posters, what is a good number of pushups to aim at for a Martial Artist (male or female)? Is there a point when being able to do more push-ups doesn't actually improve any aspect of your MA?

W

 

It depends what you call a pushup. I can generally do 20, putting my chest right flat on the ground each time but some people call a pushup only half way down.

 

30 nose to floor, wait a minute................

20 chest to floor (pant, pant).

I think halfway down is OK to start with but not as a final goal.

What about aiming for 40-50 chest to the floor pushups (in one go) for basic strength and fitness as an MA? Presumably it should be the same goal for men and women unless there is a fundamental physiological reason why women should do less.

W

 

I would actually say you should me more interested ni diamond pushups considering these use the triceps which you use for punching and some blocks :|

 

Different exercise. Different goals. We do NOT (*spits*) train muscle groups. We train movements.

 

I just aired the fact that I CAN, goddammit.

 

And that was productive how...?

 

It wasn't meant to be productive, it was meant to point out that he had just ridiculously declared 4 push ups 'superb' for women when I had just pointed out that I could do them easily. In a nutshell, he's misguided.

That is the most illogical statement I have ever heard. How can it be a war of the sexes if a girl has a war against all other females??? What are you on about????

 

Just read through Page 2 of this thread and decided to comment.

I can do 40 off my knuckles when I can be arsed. They are really not that painful. It could be the endomorphin high I suppose.

 

Flame/flame bait, aye.

As I said, I read through the entire thread prior to posting, your point/attack is geared against other women; ergo you are not entering any sort of "war of the sexes" but rather if one must maintain this line of wording, you are launching into the "war between the women".

I don't doubt that you can do what you say you can, however, the manner in which you present your accomplishments comes off as an attack against women who are not so able. I don't even think you are an annomally, infact I know many women who can knock out 50 push-ups without any great difficulty. The point is, it is insulting to those women who are starting off at 4sh push-ups per set for someone to come along and tell them it is no good.

 

OK, the lot of you. Knock it off. NOW. If this gets overly personal, the thread will have to be put down.

 

There are actually women around who can only do 4 push ups??? Crap, sorry. I didn't realise that was reality, I thought it was just someone using literary hyperbole to put women down.

 

So you wouldn't advocate push-ups as part of a comprehensive fitness & strength program for martial arts? This is a genuine question. I personally think 2-3 sets of 20-50 chest to floor type push-ups and 2-3 sets of 20-30 variants (arms in, knuckle, triangle etc) are probably enough for most people in MA's but I'm open to correction. If you can do more, great, but I'm still wondering what the limit is for most MA's beyond which they don't help with any aspect of your MA. Also, is there a good physiological reason for women to aim to do fewer push-ups than men?

W

 

If you do about 20 pressups without feeling the strain then it shows you are no longer really training strength but conditioning. Most people if they can do about 50 pressups, chest to the floor then they are beyond the strength training aspect but are now conditioning.
There is no good physiological reason that women are unable to do as many pushups as men BUT overall the physical ability of them is limited. All Army fitness tests are offset to make up for the fact that certain muscle groups in women are not as strong or able to be as strong as a mans. Its just a genetics matter rather than a way to have a go at females