Random question: girl pushups: why?

[SKL]

Is there a health benefit to ladies' pushups?  Or are we just lazy?

Those of you who exercise:  do you count "ladies' pushups" as pushups?  Are there ladies who can't do the other kind of pushup?

[maize]

Yes, there are many women who can't do standard push-ups. We don't have the natural upper body strength of males.

Knee push-ups let us build more strength when we're not up to standard push-ups.

For women who can do a couple of regular push-ups but not more, working on upper body strength with knee push-ups is also helpful. 

[Drama Llama]

I don’t know what a ladies’ push-up is but I am a lady (if you stretch the definition a little) who can’t do a push up.  The reason for that has nothing to do with my sex or gender and everything to do with being fat and out of shape.

[Ali in OR]

I do girl push-ups (on knees) as part of my bodyweight circuit. It's a good enough workout for me and I see no reason to change that to just a few "real" push-ups.

[JustEm]

What is a girl push up? 

[fairfarmhand]

Add me to the list of those who cannot do regular pushups. And I’m in decent shape. But between shoulder injuries and crappy upper body strength I don see it happening any time soon

[SKL]

1 minute ago, hjffkj said:

What is a girl push up? 

It's a pushup but your knees are on the ground instead of your toes.

[Lady Florida.]

I've never been able to do a regular pushup because I've just never had good upper body strength. I suppose women/girls who play certain sports (I don't know which ones, I'm just theorizing) would have more upper body strength but as a rule women don't. I do knee pushups or wall pushups and yes, I count them. If I feel it in my upper body I know I'm strengthening. That's what matters to me.

[dirty ethel rackham]

I've never been able to do a full body push up, even at my most athletic and fit.  Maybe it's from breaking each arm twice as a kid and spending 4 consecutive summers in a cast.  They didn't do PT back then, but just relied on "kids being kids" to build back atrophied muscles.  But residual pain meant I still babied my healing arm when I should have been more active. Even being on the high school gymnastics team didn't help me build enough muscle to do them properly. Fast forward 50 years - lots of wear and tear on my shoulders - rotator cuff injuries, neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome and craptastic tendons everywhere in my body - I can only do a few knee pushups.  I do counter and wall pushups as well as chest press with dumbells. 

[SKL]

I started wondering because I googled "biological age calculator" and they asked how many pushups I could do.  At first I answered for the standard pushups, then noticed that I was supposed to answer for "ladies' pushups."  I had almost forgotten "ladies' pushups" were a thing.

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

[JustEm]

8 minutes ago, SKL said:

It's a pushup but your knees are on the ground instead of your toes.

Gotcha. Of course on the knee pushups are beneficial. They build upper body strength. 

[SKL]

Just now, hjffkj said:

Gotcha. Of course on the knee pushups are beneficial. They build upper body strength. 

I meant, are there benefits to ladies' pushups over "standard" pushups (if you can do them)?

[JustEm]

There are no lady pushups or guy pushups. There are pushup variations. On your knees, wide arms, narrow arms, against a wall, standard full body with arm shoulder width apart, one arm, incline, etc. Every kind works your upper body in different ways and are effective exercises.

[JustEm]

1 minute ago, SKL said:

I meant, are there benefits to ladies' pushups over "standard" pushups (if you can do them)?

Less strain on your shoulder and wrists. 

[JustEm]

Plus, doing them can help you build up to doing more standard ones. On a good day I can do about 20 standard pushups without stopping. But can then go down on my knees and do another 50 or so. Doing that puts less strain on my body to over do it but still builds up the strength overtime to do more standard ones.

[maize]

21 minutes ago, SKL said:

I started wondering because I googled "biological age calculator" and they asked how many pushups I could do.  At first I answered for the standard pushups, then noticed that I was supposed to answer for "ladies' pushups."  I had almost forgotten "ladies' pushups" were a thing.

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

It is very, very rare for a woman to be able to do 100 pull-ups, even a very fit woman!

Kudos to you--and yeah, definitely unusual genetics at play!

[Toocrazy!!]

100 pull ups? At once? That’s practically unheard of. 
 

I can do about 5 wimpy real pushups in one set. There is a lot of advice now on getting better at pushups that says not to do knees, but to do start with elevated ones like on a step and work down to flat. 
 

I was working towards a pull up, but I’m still just on dead hangs. I never had any upper body strength. 
 

ETA- not that you couldn’t! I have no idea. It would be quite a feat though. Even for a young male or female. 

Edited January 20 by Toocrazy!!

[Carol in Cal.]

I have never been able to do a pull up in my life, not even when I was young, thin, and played recreational volleyball every week.  

I can’t explain why not, exactly, but there is something about my shoulders that won’t permit it, a barrier (?) in the front part that makes it impossible to even imagine having the pulling on my arms result in lifting me up.  It feels like an absolute physiological barrier honestly.

[Kassia]

My dd is very strong and finds pull ups too easy now so she wears a weight belt and hangs a weight plate from it when doing pull ups.  She's always had a lot of upper body  and core strength - starting with rope climbs in elementary school and then doing circus arts when she got a bit older (aerial silks, pole, trapeze, hand balance). She gets a lot of attention at the gym when she does the weighted pull ups!  

I've been trying for years to do pull ups.  Even at my lightest weight, I could only do maybe 2 full ones with good form, but I can do a lot of push ups.

Edited January 20 by Kassia

[SKL]

Genetic variation is so interesting!

I've lost the ability to do a real sit-up, and I don't think I can do a pull-up any more either (I would have to go to the park to test that).  I think that I'm losing strength in my fingers as well as the rest of my body.  😞  Oh well!  I think I could still work up to it if I tried seriously.

[MercyA]

🙂 

Edited January 26 by MercyA

[pinball]

2 hours ago, SKL said:

I started wondering because I googled "biological age calculator" and they asked how many pushups I could do.  At first I answered for the standard pushups, then noticed that I was supposed to answer for "ladies' pushups."  I had almost forgotten "ladies' pushups" were a thing.

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

If you are talking about 100 hanging body pull-ups, from a bar, with your chin touching or over the bar, all during the same time period …I’m calling BS

People (female or male) at the highest level of fittest would have trouble doing that 

[SKL]

4 minutes ago, pinball said:

If you are talking about 100 hanging body pull-ups, from a bar, with your chin touching or over the bar, all during the same time period …I’m calling BS

People (female or male) at the highest level of fittest would have trouble doing that 

I really don't care if you believe me, LOL.  I have nothing to gain or lose either way.

But it's cool to know that the ability is somewhat unusual.

[rebcoola]

Knee push ups put less starin on the shoulders when I was wrestling several of the heavyweights had to do knee push ups to avoid shoulder injuries. 

They could bench way more than I could but I could do push ups all day. 

I could do pull ups all day too but I could never climb the rope for some reason just couldnt get they technique I guess we didn't do it often but everyone thought it was weird.

[SKL]

I don't know if I could have climbed the rope - it wasn't ever part of my life experience.  😛

[El...]

I think the knee-based pushups (and I will never-ever-ever consent to calling them "girl pushups") are good for strengthening the shoulders and arms. However, they don't do as much for the core, and I think that's at least half my reason for doing pushups!

After my pregnancies, I couldn't do full pushups, and the thing that helped me get those back was doing full pushups on the stairs, with my feet on the floor. I'd do 10 with my hands on step 5, then after a week move down to step 4, and so on. That really worked. 

I don't know how you'd transition from knees to feet effectively. I couldn't. 

[rebcoola]

1 minute ago, SKL said:

I really don't care if you believe me, LOL.  I have nothing to gain or lose either way.

But it's cool to know that the ability is somewhat unusual.

The hand grip makes a huge difference good chance skl actually was doing chin ups as a kid peope can do hundreds of those. Still very impressive 

[Spryte]

Laughing because I didn’t remember those were called “girl push ups” at all! All I could think was, “what? Push up bras for girls?! No. Just no.”

This is actually a great reminder for me, because I can’t flex my toes so had stopped push ups altogether. Now I might add them back. (Joy!)

Kudos to anyone doing the push up, pull up, sit up thing. Maybe OP was a SEAL or doing the equivalent of SEAL training on her own. Whatever, impressive, and SEALS only do around 20 pull ups, so 100 is a lot better than Navy SEALS — quite a feat. According to the SEAL training info: Practical performance goals for the PST are about 100 push-ups and sit-ups and about 20 pull-ups. The basic training method is to start with several small sets and gradually progress towards fewer, larger sets. The total reps will gradually increase, but not beyond the upper limit per day.  
 

 

 

 

Edited January 20 by Spryte
Typo

[frogger]

Just now, El... said:

I think the knee-based pushups (and I will never-ever-ever consent to calling them "girl pushups") are good for strengthening the shoulders and arms. However, they don't do as much for the core, and I think that's at least half my reason for doing pushups!

After my pregnancies, I couldn't do full pushups, and the thing that helped me get those back was doing full pushups on the stairs, with my feet on the floor. I'd do 10 with my hands on step 5, then after a week move down to step 4, and so on. That really worked. 

I don't know how you'd transition from knees to feet effectively. I couldn't. 

I used to do lots or plain old fashioned push ups but age and a recent injury has changed that. I will probably have to ease back into it.

Often the weak point for women is arm and especially chest muscles so the knee push ups will help with that but to increase core strength planks would help a lot. Women can often plank and not do push ups so I don't think it is all core.

I could see a combo of planking and knee push ups getting someone to the point of full push ups in a more gradual way.

[SKL]

3 minutes ago, rebcoola said:

The hand grip makes a huge difference good chance skl actually was doing chin ups as a kid peope can do hundreds of those. Still very impressive 

Actually I could do 100 pull-ups AND 100 chin-ups.

I agree that chin-ups are easier for women.  We are designed to hold weight in the crook of our arms, while men are not.  But since I was told that chin-ups weren't real pull-ups, I also worked up to 100+ pull-ups.  Just for fun!

[frogger]

3 hours ago, SKL said:

I started wondering because I googled "biological age calculator" and they asked how many pushups I could do.  At first I answered for the standard pushups, then noticed that I was supposed to answer for "ladies' pushups."  I had almost forgotten "ladies' pushups" were a thing.

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

My best buddy in elementary school could do a ton of pull ups but she was tiny. She weighed very little and also the leverage on shorter arms makes a difference. Don't believe me. Use a stick to hold a weight straight out then try it with a longer stick. It is why short compact people have an advantage in certain sports and long limbed people have an advantage in others. 

[rebcoola]

Just now, SKL said:

Actually I could do 100 pull-ups AND 100 chin-ups.

I agree that chin-ups are easier for women.  We are designed to hold weight in the crook of our arms, while men are not.  But since I was told that chin-ups weren't real pull-ups, I also worked up to 100+ pull-ups.  Just for fun!

Awesome!! We only did pull ups for presidential fitness test thing so not one I worked out a lot just did enough to get the top award and hopped down

[pinball]

13 minutes ago, SKL said:

Actually I could do 100 pull-ups AND 100 chin-ups.

You ran a 4 minute mile too

[Terabith]

When I was in good shape and younger, I could do regular push ups.  I don’t remember how many, but I did several sets of 25 or 30 of them.  But knee pushups used very different muscles than regular ones, so I would do a mixture of knee, regular, wide armed, and diamond pushups.  These days pushups hurt my wrists a lot, and I have never been able to do knuckle ones.  I do pathetic wall pushups. And I use weight machines at the Y that use similar muscle groups. I think breasts also change how push up dynamics work, because I noticed a big difference in how much easier they were after I had reduction surgery. 
 

I have never in my life been able to do pull ups or chin ups. 

[KungFuPanda]

You gotta start somewhere. If you can’t do regular push ups, or they cause you pain, then knee and wall push ups are still a weight bearing exercise worth doing. 

Edited January 20 by KungFuPanda
then/than mistake that I couldn’t ignore

[Kassia]

 

 

 

52 minutes ago, rebcoola said:

The hand grip makes a huge difference good chance skl actually was doing chin ups as a kid peope can do hundreds of those. Still very impressive 

My dd can't do chin ups because they hurt her wrists (maybe from gymnastics injuries?).  But she can do tons of pull ups.  I don't know how many at once unweighted, but it would be a lot and she does pull ups now with a big weight plate hanging from her waist because unweighted isn't challenging enough for her anymore.  She also does push ups with a plate on her back.  

I'm attaching a video of her a year ago doing weighted pull ups, but she's advanced a lot since then.  Please don't quote on the video because I am going to delete.  ETA - I don't think I know how to attach it anyway  😛

 

 

 

Edited January 20 by Kassia

[catz]

The question should be why are they called "girl pushups".  It's a modified push up that is a slightlier easier starting point for some people.   Also bodies are built differently.  Like some exercises that are like nothing to my husband are impossible for me and vice versa.  It's all just exercise.

Edited January 20 by catz

[GoVanGogh]

I can do standard push-ups easily and can hold a 2 min plank. I have never been able to figure out how to do pull-ups, though that is my goal this year. I am doing weight offset pull-ups several times a week at the gym. When I tried many years ago - pre-motherhood and much smaller - I wasn’t able to do a full pull-up. I do see females do them at the gym and am always amazed. I am also amazed by people that can box jump! Last year, I was finally able to box jump on a 12” box. I hope to work on that this year, too. Right now I am working on jumping rope. I am so pathetic at it. LOL 

[Kassia]

19 minutes ago, GoVanGogh said:

I can do standard push-ups easily and can hold a 2 min plank. I have never been able to figure out how to do pull-ups, though that is my goal this year. I am doing weight offset pull-ups several times a week at the gym. When I tried many years ago - pre-motherhood and much smaller - I wasn’t able to do a full pull-up. I do see females do them at the gym and am always amazed. I am also amazed by people that can box jump! Last year, I was finally able to box jump on a 12” box. I hope to work on that this year, too. Right now I am working on jumping rope. I am so pathetic at it. LOL 

I'm terrified of box jumps and am also amazed at those who can do them.  They just seem dangerous to me.  I used to do little ones when I was younger.  I can't even attempt them now due to physical issues, but I wouldn't anyway.  I can hold a plank forever, but I read somewhere a while ago that there's really no benefit to doing them for a long time.  I plop a book on the floor and read to distract myself.  I can hold straight arm longer than bent.  

Edited January 20 by Kassia

[JustEm]

11 minutes ago, GoVanGogh said:

I can do standard push-ups easily and can hold a 2 min plank. I have never been able to figure out how to do pull-ups, though that is my goal this year. I am doing weight offset pull-ups several times a week at the gym. When I tried many years ago - pre-motherhood and much smaller - I wasn’t able to do a full pull-up. I do see females do them at the gym and am always amazed. I am also amazed by people that can box jump! Last year, I was finally able to box jump on a 12” box. I hope to work on that this year, too. Right now I am working on jumping rope. I am so pathetic at it. LOL 

Doing pullups is one of my goals this year too! I started focusing on them in the fall. It is a long process but I get stronger every workout. I've found that with consistently working on it 3 days a week,3 sets of 10 at whatever weight I'm on in the assisted pullup machine, I decrease the weight every 3 to 4 weeks.

[rebcoola]

2 hours ago, Kassia said:

 

IMG_7566 (1).mov 5.87 MB · 3 downloads

 

IMG_7566 (1).mov 5.87 MB · 3 downloads  

 

 

My dd can't do chin ups because they hurt her wrists (maybe from gymnastics injuries?).  But she can do tons of pull ups.  I don't know how many at once unweighted, but it would be a lot and she does pull ups now with a big weight plate hanging from her waist because unweighted isn't challenging enough for her anymore.  She also does push ups with a plate on her back.  

I'm attaching a video of her a year ago doing weighted pull ups, but she's advanced a lot since then.  Please don't quote on the video because I am going to delete.  ETA - I don't think I know how to attach it anyway  😛

 

 

 

Impressive my middle was like that to when they did gymnastics but always had uncanny upperbody and core strength

[Kanin]

6 hours ago, SKL said:

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

Whoa! So jealous. I can't even do 1 pushup 😞 My arms are noodles!

[maize]

3 hours ago, SKL said:

I don't know if I could have climbed the rope - it wasn't ever part of my life experience.  😛

Toes were my key to rope climbing! I have a rather wide space between my big toe and second toe (makes most shoes unwearable...) and a rope fit between them--I could grip it and use leg strength to climb. Knotted ropes were especially easy this way. When I was in the Air Force doing training obstacle courses I would take off my boots and hang them around my neck to climb the ropes with my toes.

The only other people I know who climb ropes this way are some of my own children 🐒 

[Heartstrings]

They are only called girl push ups to be derogatory, just like running like a girl or throwing a girl. Some woman could jump right to the classic push ups and some men would need to start with knee push ups.  One is not “better”.  

All bodies are valid.  Needing to start “lower” and that being seen as “bad” is one of the things that keeps some people from even starting.

Edited January 20 by Heartstrings

[Lady Florida.]

For whatever reason I was always able to do pullups more easily than pushups. When I was in school and they still had the Presidential fitness thing I usually got kudos for pullups. I'll bet if I tried it today I could barely do two or three.

[Carrie12345]

4 hours ago, catz said:

The question should be why are they called "girl pushups".  It's a modified push up that is a slightlier easier starting point for some people.   Also bodies are built differently.  Like some exercises that are like nothing to my husband are impossible for me and vice versa.  It's all just exercise.

I’m going to say they’re called girl push ups because middle school gym teachers only allowed the girls to use the knee variation for physical fitness testing.

I probably can’t do a standard push up TODAY, but I have at various points, after consistently building strength. Now I would need my knees to remove a good portion of my body weight from the load.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I wonder if it's something to do with different centre of gravity for different body types.

People with a lower centre of gravity may have more difficulty with regular push ups. 

Just a thought. 

[GoVanGogh]

3 hours ago, Heartstrings said:

They are only called girl push ups to be derogatory, just like running like a girl or throwing a girl. Some woman could jump right to the classic push ups and some men would need to start with knee push ups.  One is not “better”.  

All bodies are valid.  Needing to start “lower” and that being seen as “bad” is one of the things that keeps some people from even starting.

I agree. 
I am (re)learning to jump rope. I know the mechanics of it but I have Parkinson’s and nailing the timing and landing lightly stretch my brain. I am so self conscious. Painfully self conscious. I have to tell myself, At least I am trying! 
A friend and I were talking recently about how inspiring it is to see individuals that… may be larger or older or non-athletic… at the gym. It takes courage and dedication. Everyone has to start somewhere. We can’t all just go out and run a 10 minute mile. Especially if we weren’t raised running. Or doing push-ups or pull-ups. 
My young adult child is a huge Tour de France fan. Last year, we started talking about females and long distance bike racing, then we shifted to discussing marathons and how females weren’t allowed to compete in races when I was born. The history of females being allowed to participate in sporting events is fascinating to me. Females were finally allowed to lift weights during my senior year of high school, alongside the (male) football players, but I was the only female that took advantage of that. At 60, I still lift weights and love it. 

Edited January 21 by GoVanGogh

[Ausmumof3]

11 hours ago, SKL said:

I started wondering because I googled "biological age calculator" and they asked how many pushups I could do.  At first I answered for the standard pushups, then noticed that I was supposed to answer for "ladies' pushups."  I had almost forgotten "ladies' pushups" were a thing.

When I was in good shape as a young adult, I used to do 100 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 push-ups (the guy kind) without difficulty.  I was never an athlete.  I guess this is some genetic flaw in me.  😛

 

I had no trouble with standard pre kids but pregnancy changed that. I can do a couple of full push ups but not a whole series. 

[KSera]

I can do regular push-ups, but I’ve lost a lot of strength, so not nearly as many as I used to (I expect I’d top out around ten now) and it hurts my wrists now. I used to be good at pull-ups as well (not 100 of them, lol—the current female world record for pull ups in one minute is 39), but now my shoulders can’t even handle a dead hang. Aging has been the pits for my joints.