Press ups - can you ?!

it was tongue in cheek of course Showy
(because no one on the internet makes stuff up )

wrists are my main problem with press ups, I rarely do them unless with bars, prefer to use other things for chest/delts/tri's

Suzanne, 'money where your mouth is' sounds a lot like you're accusing people of making stuff up. I probably won't be posting videos of myself on MN tbh.

I do different press ups depending on what it is I'm trying to work. If I'm doing a core intensive workout, I do things very differently to if I'm really trying to push my shoulders/arms. Sometimes I focus on triceps, sometimes on biceps, sometimes on delts. Sometimes I use press up bars, sometimes I do it on one leg. Sometimes I spider my knee in to my elbow and press up. Sometimes I combine with abdominal twist and stretches. If doing full range of movement press ups I tend to do 3 sets of 16 with a 30 second break. I wouldn't do more than this or it would bugger up my wrists.

Tricep pressups : elbows grazing ribs - 10 and then I need a break

Wide pressups : nose to floor - 10 max - they are not good for my elbows though

Wide pressups - to upper arm horizontal, but fingertips are level with collar bones, no further forwards - 30-40

?Well a virtual press up challenge might be fun?
But seriously, I had assumed that we were talking about full range of motion and was in awe of those who are doing sets of 30 or 40.

Anyone who can do more than 10 or so half reps then would make better strength gains by focusing on full reps?

I still can't do a single full pressup - and I started trying over a year ago! I do the shred type things regularly but have to do the modified(knee) forms of pressups. I've not given up trying - I'm doing some sets of inclined pressups every other day to try to build up the number of those with good form and gradually work downwards.

Well done all of you above average women!

I don't know about video evidence but if you want full ROM then I admit that's a very different number than the one I claimed earlier, probably about 6! Most men I see doing push ups don't even do full ROM

I think these claims need to be backed up by video evidence :o

give me a couple days and I'll post mine (not that I'm any great shakes in the press up department)
anyone else want to put their money where their mouth is.....

infact thats not just a half rep, its the easy half of the rep

ah, there is quite a difference!
half reps are much easier, but full ROM will give you better muscle development

mine were the latter; I used to do bench press with weights as well which helped...I don't think I ever tried full ROM press-ups before

are we talking full range of motion press ups, ie from arms fully extended to chest on the floor?
Or arms extended to elbows at a right angle? ?

I train ruddy hard, do a lot of weights and core strength. My upper body strength is my forte.

I can do around 40 if I really push it but lose form at about 30. It's muscle memory though. Once you've cracked it and do them regularly, they become as easy as any exercise. I do push ups every day.

I used to be an athlete, and trained 10 times a week in my mid to late 20s. As I remember (many moons ago!), I did a lot of body-weight circuit training (interesting to see that this is now fashionable btw!), and I increased gradually. It does seem amazing now as I can hardly do 10!

Oh thanks, please do Talk, I'd be very interested to see them!

Suzanne - 5
if you are on FB I'll PM you the link to her videos
she's linked to a whole gang of the bikini fit brigade

Sleep, yes I mean lat pull downs, using the same grip as you use with pull ups so as to replicate the movement as closely as possible.

How many reps does she get Talk?

I read an article by someone who had their dc's doing simple body weight stuff like push ups just once a week and he was absolutely astonished at how quickly they improved.

Suzanne, you mean lat pull downs yes? Thanks, I'll give that a go

suzanne
She's a mate at my gym whose kids are at school with mine.
Nobody special.
She did lots of classes but got bored so started working on gymnastic / pyloric body weight exercises

single arm weighed pull up
wow thats quite something
who is this woman Talk?

It depends what your trainer means by an 'average woman'!

I suspect he's probably right.

But that's not to say that women can't do it, if they train that way. I train with a PT and we do stuff like planking and press ups. I can plank for over 5 minutes, and routinely do 8-10 press ups x 3, as part of my circuits. I also do press ups on the TRX and the Swiss ball. But to start with I couldn't manage that - it's just become part of my training.

(Mind you, I don't think many men could do it either!)

single armed pullup with 10% bodyweight added

she's a mum of 3 in her 40's
mad as a hatter but inspirational-

Any male/female physiology to explain that do you know ?

sure I do Sleep one word,
testosterone
if you want strength she's your man

Pull ups are hard for blokes too, I see mucho cheating, bad form and weird air climbing going on in the gym.

Have you tried combining them with pull downs, in a pyramid fashion?
eg a few progressively heavier warm up sets of pull downs (stopping well short of failure)
Then a couple of sets of pull ups, then rep out with pull downs.
A few sets of decreasing weight all to failure but using weights in the 4-8 rep range (or thereabouts)

Wondering if Aillures was a gymnast in her youth?

For men and women regular and consistent training like that from childhood would tend (afaik) to give you a higher potential for strength and muscularity as an adult

Intriguing post ailleurs , please tell us about it!

Suzanne DH's experience of push ups from following through his 2014 new year's resolution to do 100 a day, was that his capacity 'jumped' in quite big blocks, so for maybe a week or two, his max would be 50 in one go, then it would suddenly be 60 or 70. Whereas my progress with pull ups is painfully slow, only adding one to my max at a time and only every couple of months (but I am only doing them maybe three times a week, not daily). Any male/female physiology to explain that do you know ?

I can do 55 but from the knees.

I used to be able to do 70 in a row n my late 20s but my background is a little unusual