I'm Gonna Brag On Myself. It's Kind of Obnoxious.

[ayun]

It's been two weeks since I first read it, and this article is still bugging me. It's maybe more that the headline is bugging me, because it does the classic headline thing of misrepresenting the article's contents and (bonus!) posing a question that is not really answered in the article.

Women can't do pull-ups? Maybe a wee bit too much

Comments

[rojagato]

I started writing a few responses to this. Mainly regarding that I've seldom been able to do pull-ups in spite of a storied jock career. Chin-ups, yes. Push-ups, yes. Smack people around at the net, yes; and did I mention swimming and basketball scholarships? Upper-body strength there.

After reading that article, I still have no idea why I can't do a pull-up from a dead hang, but am still able to punch the lights out of whoever wrote that, and blind all of their male relatives with ping-pong balls thrown as shurikens.

[atalanta]

I have always been able to do the "boy" stuff better than most girls (pull-ups; upper body strength stuff) but have always been rock bottom on the the "girl" stuff (leg strength stuff; flexibility) despite being a mild jock (soccer/softball) through grade school & junior high. Same result every year on those Presidential Physical Fitness tests we used to have to do in school. Still wonder why ...
It doesn't fit with the article, though - I have relatively long arms and am above average height.

[ayun]

'Cause you're awesome.

[spitcurl]

You go with your badass self.

No mention anywhere in the article about body shape/weight distribution, just height, fat %, & length of arms?

In simple physics, two equally strong, equally fit, equally sized short women, one with a pear shape and the other with a triangle (broad shoulders/ribcage, narrow hips), the pear-shaped one would have a harder time with pull-ups then the narrow-hipped one. Leverage. :P

In probability, more women would have a pear shape vs. more men having a triangular shape, so THAT is the better argument. That is leverage/center of gravity stuff.

Whether skinny, athletic, or curvy, 98lbs. or 160, age 15 or 35, I've always had heavy thighs and weak wrists. I can squat serious weight no matter how lazy I've been, but push-ups, or downward dog...brutal.

[absolution]

this has been my experience as well, fwiw (the same massive thighs and thick stocky legs that make squatting easy for me are what make pull ups a bitch).

bodyweight stuff is interesting. at my gym, i can't help but notice that a ton of very, very skinny, short people who don't seem otherwise strong at all (think distance runner physique, which they train like they are as well) can do pull ups with ease.

the diversity of body talents is cool to me.

[absolution]

oh, meant to say "massive thighs...and narrow shoulders", whoops

[spitcurl]

the diversity of body talents is cool to me.

And how!

[absolution]

I love this post so much. So much!

Any chance of sharing the specific details of your training to be able to do unassisted pull ups? I've been doing Krista at Stumptuous' and a friend of mine who's a (good, not charlatan) personal trainer's regimen (they're pretty much exactly the same, using the lat pull and graduating to a gravitron and graduating to assisted/negative...), but those last 10 or 20 pounds are proving IMPOSSIBLE. I've been stuck for months now, ugh (to be fair, I've also been working on other goals at the same time, ones that aren't giving me grief, so it's not like my discouragement has motivated me beyond this thing I've been doing over and over...yet). Aside from double weight deadlifts and squats for sets and reps, my other big goal for within the next 6 months is to finally do a damn pull up.

[ayun]

Good for you keepin' on keepin' on (I go back to your squat advice from a while back, too!)

The big caveat here is that I put on muscle and build strength very easily.

That said, here's what worked for me:
Standing dumbell shoulder presses (3x10, worked up to 25lb weights)
Push-ups (not from the knee, and chest-to-the-ground - I had to use a box at first)
Knee raises from a dead hang on the bar (hanging onto like the bottom of a pull-up rep, and raising my knees to my chest, sets of 10)
Kettlebell swings (these weren't for the pull-ups specifically, but surely helped)

I wasn't actually trying to do pull-ups at all while I was working on this stuff, figuring it'd be FOREVER before I was ready, but the woman who trained me asked where I was at one day, and I had no idea. When I gave it a shot, I was able to do a couple unassisted.

[absolution]

thanks a lot for the info. i'm an idiot and recently acquired ankle tendonitis (my own damn fault doing crazy amounts of Long Slow Distance cardio for various stupid social reasons, aaaaargh) which has put a dent in my interval training for sprinting speed purposes, and i've been going stircrazy with the idle time i'd normally spend on that. now i'm doing your push ups and knee raises and kettlebell swings* to take the edge off (mentally/emotionally too--it feels good to be working towards another goal while i have to stop progress on the other one) and my upper body feels gloriously worked over (i still do starting strength but the program, while fabulous for the lower body, has noted flaws for gaining upper body strength, particularly if you aren't male/don't have any to begin with, so this is great). maybe someday i can qualify for the marines and do some damn pull ups. (:

*already do overhead presses, and good lord they are without a doubt my most dreaded lift. so very awful at them. been stuck at this weight for something

[fitfool]

I found the headline annoying but agreed with the overall idea that
it's harder to train women to the point of being able to do a pull-up.
(but I don't think the reporter managed to explain why correctly).
Still, I'm hopeful that maybe it was an editor who gave the article
that annoying headline. I used to write for a paper and the editors
frequently tweaked/rewrote the headlines to make them fit in the
desired space or make it sound catchier. I had always lagged in upper
body strength (still do) but when I finally got to the point of being
to do a pull-up, I was so proud of myself. I even posted videos to
Youtube so my sisters could see. They were happy for me though the
videos also got lots of taunting comments because I allowed myself to
kick my feet to get up over the bar. (I start from a dead hang with
each rep though) Not pretty...but I was stronger than I had been before
so I was still pleased.