Ok, I've been training for a few years now and can pop out as many squat thrusts and sit ups to order. But I still really struggle when it comes to doing a proper press up. In fact, to get down and back up again the same as my collegues is a real strain for me.

Is this just down to bad technique, or am I just a girly weed?

without seeing you do a press up, its hard to tell whether its bad technique or not. how far apart are your arms, are you looking up or down, are you doing them on your knees. How often do you try to do them?
If you cannot do a full pressup, the only way to progress is to build up to it, although it can seem hard to break down what is seen as an already basic exercise. You could try using small hand weights in a chest press motion, or do press ups on your knees (with a mat of course), or leaning on a bench or table at 45 degrees to take some weight off your arms.
Then the usual rules of progression apply, try 3 times a week building up to an extra one every other session.
And remember, a little bit of wrist control always helps!

Thanks for that Matt, and welcome to the forum.

Yeah Lesley, I would not call you weaklin by any stretch of the imagination...as Matt says you could be suffering from poor technique.

But hey, they are tough excercises anyway!

hey matthew, welcome to the forum

yeah lesley, when i first tried to do press ups when i was younger i started by doing it with my upper body elevated off the floor like matthew suggested
bit like this:


i was surprised by how quickly i could then do proper press ups as i improved

Hi,

Also, the further out your hands are (say 1 1/2 to 2 shoulder widths apart means your working your chest muscles. 1 shoulder and smaller are more triceps, which are harder to do as they are much smaller muscles than chest muscles. Once you have them down, try doing a set of reps at each distance, 2 shoulder widths, 1 and thumb and 1st finger tips touching, hard!

Just a though input...

At my martial arts school, if we cannot do full pushups, we're encouraged to do then on our knees. It is a really good way of building up to full pushups, and requires a bit less core strength as well as less upper body strength. It is important to maintain good form when doing these though, as without it they will not help you build the strength for full pushups.

It's hard to say, as I don't know what level of strength you have, but I would aim to be able to do twenty on your knees, then gradually replace them with full pushups. Remember to let yourself recover, it will help you build the strength more effectively.

Hollie

I found that I just had to keep practising every day to improve my press ups. I aimed to do 1-2 more every time that I did them. I guess I had a slight advantage as I've done gymnastics for the last nine years, so I've always had reasonable arm strength and coordination... and I had to do press ups as part of my training.

On Saturday at my tournament training class we had to do 200 press ups as part of the fitness training (along with 120 squat kicks, 80 laps of a school gym and 200 sit ups). I managed to do all of it in the 30 minutes that we were allowed, so I felt quite pleased with myself... but... the Sensei told the women to do girly press ups (i.e. the ones with your knees on the floor). I can do press ups better than half of the guys I train with, so I just did regular press ups. Later on I asked Sensei why he asks the women to do girly press ups. I assumed that it was because some of the other women don't have much upper body strength. He suggested that it was to do with reproductive organs and boobs in a vague way. I'm aware that loads of reps could build up my pecs and I could burn fat, thereby making my boobs seems smaller and less round, but damaging reproductive organs - no way! Surely if this were a real problem women in armed forces, police etc around the world would not be expected to do press ups. I've tried googling this, but have come up with a mixed response and nothing scientific. Anybody know the truth? Should women do press ups?

I've been told on several occasions by aerobics instructors (both male and female) that it is as hard for a woman to do a full press-up as it is for a male to do a press-up with a clap in it due to centre of gravity being lower and fat tending to collect on hips and thighs (and women having weedy upper bodies!).

I'm trying to work up to full press-ups. I can do five in a row v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I can, however, do 50 three-quarter press-ups without losing form or having problems with them...

Lesley Jackson wrote:
Ok, I've been training for a few years now and can pop out as many squaut thrusts and sit ups to order. But I still really struggle when it comes to doing a proper press up. In fact, to get down and back up again the same as my collegues is a real strain for me.

Is this just down to bad technique, or am I just a girly weed?

I've been thinking about this for a few days now and I wanted to think on it before replying.

It's no great secret that women are built different to men.

My wife could do full pushups and her sister could full do pushups, but there's no question that they found it harder than an equivalent male.

There're bound to be relevant medical studies on the relevant/relative physiology of the male/female.

Why's it important though?
Keeping up in comparative exercises in class is one thing, but 'whacking' someone is not down to an isolated set of muscle groups.
It's more down to 'timing' and 'intent', where (in my experience) women often display superior tendencies to men.

It's more down to 'timing' and 'intent', where (in my experience) women often display superior tendencies to men


Do you suffer Andy?

PeteMills wrote:
It's more down to 'timing' and 'intent', where (in my experience) women often display superior tendencies to men


Do you suffer Andy?
Well I got a ruptured eardrum for calling her a cow one night, if that's what you mean?