women and push ups

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Southern Mantis, Jan 22, 2004.

  1. Knight_Errant

    Knight_Errant Banned Banned

    You have to reach a compromise. The main reason we do pushups is to develop msucular endurance in the upper body. Once we're doing pushups greatly in excess of about 20 reps, that's as far as we need to go. Bear in mind that training muscular endurance to extremes ultimately has a negative effect on your limit strength. I still do pushups, but not to the extent I used to. I don't really feel there's a good reason for women OR men doing a huge number of pushups. Much better to concentrate on your work on the bench.
     
  2. Navio

    Navio New Member

    don't be silly

    well i have to put in my 2 cents. I am a personal trainer and when i hear anybody say women can't do push-ups i shake my head. the body moves because of our muscles and believe it or not both men and women can strenghten those muscles...if you can't do them from your toes start from your knees, do 3 sets of as many as you can at least 3x a week (record your progress and do it!!!). have patience you'll get stronger. you can also supplement this by going to the gym and working on your triceps, chest (pecs), and shoulders. the primary movers in a push up. in my capoeira classes our female instructor kicks our ass in push ups, and why? cause she does em every day!

    ....so no more whining...kick those boys asses and show them who's boss.
     
  3. Noontidal

    Noontidal Popeye

    I say, it's all a matter of what you want to accomplish. A person who can bench 300lbs+ won't necessarily be good at doing push-ups, while a person who does 100 push-ups won't necessarily be good at benching. However, in both cases, it is reasonable to say they would do better at the other's respective work-out than those who do nothing.

    Push-ups, mostly develope endurance of course, to get to a number of push-ups that wouold be detrimental, would at very least, be nigh impossible; with of course, the exception being that you overstrain yourself which is a thing that can happen in any exersize and is way more common with benching. 50 push-ups is a great start, but I can tell you for a fact, that you are not getting close to the full benefit of push-ups.

    Push-ups get a bum rap because they're difficult, and because they are not fun to the average person; and of course, because if everyone did push-ups(among other basic exersizes that really work) there would be fewer people to buy those thousand dollar workout sets(that sit in a common area collecting dust).


    Just to add something, 250 push-up is far from a huge amount of push-ups, you'd most likely be in the thousands range before it became excessive.

    Oh, btw... World record for push-ups in one day is 46,001 push-ups. Women hold a 10 minute world record at 426 push-ups, and 3 minute at 190 push-ups.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2004
  4. Ikken Hisatsu

    Ikken Hisatsu New Member

    they get a bum rap because they are inefficient, not because of a conspiracy by the weightlifting community. think about it, we all know that doing lots of reps of a low weight doesnt do much, so doing 20 reps.... whats the point? go pump some iron instead.
     
  5. Noontidal

    Noontidal Popeye

    I must disagree, they are very efficient. If you really think you reached your limit with regular push-ups, try one-handed push-ups... or if you really think you're hot, try one-finger push-ups, btw, current record for a rep with one finger is 124 push-ups...

    Ok, just googled it and here's a link for other records done in various positions, if anyone is curious.

    http://www.recordholders.org/en/list/pushups.html


    You simply don't get the same things from both exersizes, I know a guy that at 160 lbs can bench 275 :eek: .. However, he tends to lack longevity in performing certain basic repetitive labour.
     
    Last edited: Dec 28, 2004
  6. Ikken Hisatsu

    Ikken Hisatsu New Member

    when were we talking about one handed push ups here? same thing applies though, once you can do more than twenty they become muscle endurance exercise, not strength building. not that its a bad thing, in muay thai we have to have durable arms, but the general idea that they are useful to
    increase strength is not true.
     
  7. Noontidal

    Noontidal Popeye

    But they are useful, to that end... how much strength do you want? What does benching 300lbs really do for me if I effectively still get tired at the same rate, endurance is underrated. Besides, I think a push-ups guy would beat a bench-pressing guy in a fight :p
     
  8. Ikken Hisatsu

    Ikken Hisatsu New Member

    err you're wrong in that regard, proof is in the ring. i think we are on the same page though.
     
  9. shaolin_hendrix

    shaolin_hendrix Hooray for Zoidberg!

    Push-ups have a great amount of benefit. Most of the female black belts at my school are great at push-ups, and can do one-handed push-ups without being on their knees. Saying woman will never be good at push-ups is rediculous, if not simply pathetic. Work past your disadvantages.
     
  10. Ophqui

    Ophqui Valued Member

    2342 press ups on broken glass? gee that guy must be proud of his acheivement :S


    Arent bench presses using virtually the same muscle groups as press ups? (except fixators i.e abs and back muscles). Couldnt women who are crap at press ups just do bench presses at a low weight till their strong enough to do press ups? just a thought
     
  11. Knight_Errant

    Knight_Errant Banned Banned

    Oh really? :p
    It never ceases to amuse me how the bench press gets such a bad rep. Just because it happens to be both a popular exercise and an effective one.
    Article on girls doing pushups here;
    http://www.stumptuous.com/pushup.html
     
  12. KickChick

    KickChick Valued Member

    Thanks Navio ... I totally agree ;)


    And Thanks KE for the link ... you beat me to it! :)
     
  13. Navi

    Navi New Member

    I agree.

    before i started my class (and was forced into pushups) i was weight training. i thought i could do it all b/c i could lift xx pounds :D . then i got to my first day of class (kickboxing). i could do everything but the pushups :eek: . and i kept trying to catch up (everyone else was a guy), to show that i could do them, but i couldn't :cry: . then our Master said to me...

    *flashback*
    "just hold it. hold the form, don't worry about going all the way down, you're still working out all those muscles you don't normally get to (which apparently hadn't been worked out enough by the bench press:free weights or the push press, lateral pulls, and the tricep pulls i'd worked on for 1 1/2 years prior) . eventually you're going to be able to go down...slowly. and then you'll do two" and so on and so on....*rocky music begins*

    and i tried it. and i looked like a fool for a VERY long time because i was just stationary in the standard push-up position and didn't really move while everyone else was counting and doing their thing. but it worked! but it took a very very looooong time.

    *2 years later*
    i can do all the push-ups that the guys can. this is 45 SOLID push-ups (15 palm, 15 vertical knuckles, 15 horizontal knuckles all held in lower position for a 2 second count before rising) + 60 straight (non-stop) palm quarter pushups. and this is just the warm-up. lol. because if you do anything wrong in class (offensive), you're given a 65 push-up fine. and i'm not a bad person, but the Master gets pretty tired of my niceness :Angel: ...so i get fined for saying things like "i'm sorry" and "i didn't mean to hit you" and "uhhh." lol.

    girls CAN rock! :cool: you just gotta put your mind to it, and then move your butt! :)
     
  14. Poop-Loops

    Poop-Loops Banned Banned

    Quite possibly the first intelligent post you have made. ;)

    I don't understand how you can somehow seperate push ups from lifting weight. It's the same thing, just there's no metal bar. It's like Ikken said, low weight + high rep = crap. But somehow, lots of pushups is good? I don't get it.

    PL
     
  15. Navi

    Navi New Member

    Machines: isolate muscles and require less co-ordination of complimentary / stabilizer muscles.

    Push ups: require for you to use those stabilizer muscles properly.

    I can’t say that one is better than the other. But they definitely are 2 different things. But if your goal is to do more push ups, then you begin by doing more push ups. Practice practice practice.
     
  16. shaolin_hendrix

    shaolin_hendrix Hooray for Zoidberg!

    Why do you hate me so much?
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2004
  17. shotokanwarrior

    shotokanwarrior I am the One

    Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk. Asterisk.

    The idea that women cannot do normal push ups is the product of centuries of SOCIAL CONDITIONING. From the nanosecond females enter society they are bombarded with messages of ‘You are weak, you are helpless, you are defenceless, you will never be as strong as a man’, etc. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Women are told they are weak, so there will be many who accept it and never try to become stronger, like Poop Loops said. Well, human muscle tissue has no regard for social conventions. The truth is there like the cold metal at the Earth's molten core, asphyxiate it though you will.
     
  18. andrewS

    andrewS Banned Banned

    No, it's true that women have less potential than men to get stronger.

    Women have less testosterone than men.

    I don't see why that's so hard to accept.
     
  19. Poop-Loops

    Poop-Loops Banned Banned

    I don't hate you. Notice the wink smiley. :)

    It's just that you have a habit of posting things that have proven to be wrong or are very likely to be wrong. VERY. :p

    PL
     
  20. toothpaste100

    toothpaste100 Banned In 60 Seconds

    Saying all women are defenseless is obviously not true, if a women works hard she will be stronger than most men who don't train, most women are hardly helpless; I agree with you on all of those but no matter how much you blame it on mysoginistic social conditions it is still scientific fact that most (if not nearly every) men have more testosterone than women and therefore have more potential to develop muscle.

    I respect you for your outspoken nature and that you don't like being looked down on or treated badly because you are a woman, I believe that in intelligence and drive women and men are extremely similiar (apart from specialization in spotting patterns in men due to hunting and advanced emotional intelligence in women for raising children and tending the cave) and that they should be treated equally. You still have to admit there are physical differences, its nature not nurture that leads people to believe men are generally stronger.
     

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