Press ups - can you ?!

[Orangedays]

My gym trainer says an 'average ' woman can do 1 to 2 press ups.
So what do you think ? Is he wrong ?

I am very fit (runner) and have a strong core - can plank for ages, but I can't do 1 pressup. It's my NY resolution to do be able to do a single press-up. TBH I haven't made much progress yet....

I don't think the PT's comment was unreasonable Polly. Most women can't do press-ups. Men OTOH can. That's not good or bad, it's just true. DH is fat and unfit. Hasn't trained in years but he can easily do 10 press-ups which would be a massive achievement for me. It's not wrong to acknowledge that men and women are built differently.

?
Men on average have greater upper body muscle mass and also the advantage of a higher center of gravity.

Core strength isn't going to help much if you don't have the strength required in shoulders chest and triceps to bench press around 60 percent of your body weight...since that is what you are doing in a press up?

I can do about 5 proper ones in a row.

I'd say he is wrong.
The average woman couldn't do a press up.
The average woman is overweight and doesn't exercise.

The average woman who works out can do plenty though.
When I was training I could easily do reps of 50.

Yup just managed 2 full press ups here...seriously out of shape! I'm not sure its a universal indicator of fitness, but I definitely used to be able to do more. DH struggles with more than 10 in his current form.

the average woman who can do press ups can do press ups

@ Suzanne

I'm a regular strength trainer and I can squeeze out a set of 8 or 10 full press ups.
I tend not to use them because I find them hard on my wrists, press up handles help with that problem and can give fuller range of motion which may put the shoulder join under more stress.

I favour a narrow elbows in style which puts more emphasis on triceps, I think it's important to look after your shoulder joints. ?

Great variation !
He wasn't saying it to be negative - more to be complimentary I think as I sweated my way through a second set of 12
keeonho the strength training , people !

I've always been able to do a number of full press ups,so,yes!

Being able to manage to do full press ups was one of my goals when I joined the gym a year ago. I got to the stage where I could just about manage 2 or 3 full press ups (narrow arms, boobs to the floor) or a few more if I don't go all the way down. I am quite proud of this! Most of the women in my gym classes do press ups on their knees and these are people who exercise regularly so I would say that the average woman can't do any at all, but with enough practice even people who start with very poor upper body strength can get there.

Just over a year ago my answer would have been no despite being a regular exerciser. Since I've been doing crossfit I can now do 10-15. Can't do a pull up without a band but hoping that will come. Frustrated though as I'm not allowed to do anything like that at the moment as I broke my arm 3 weeks ago

I just tried. I can do 1. I can do about 6-7 push ups from me knees.

I think for the average woman it's not inaccurate.
I've just started strength training so hopefully i'll improve.

That's a crazy thing to say.

I could never do a press up and then a few years ago I started pole fitness which massively improved my upper body strength.

I can now out press-up my boyfriend, can easily bang out about 25 in a row, probably more.

It's nothing to do with gender, that's silly.

I do BodyBalance classes regularly.

The current routine includes several blocks of pressups with one leg raised.
Most of the room full of middle aged ladies manage one or two

quite a few of us do them easily

the ladies who do BodyCombat regularly do blocks of 20

the most I can do non stop is 30

Betty, the fact than you (after strength training) can out press up your bf is neither here nor there
One personal anecdote is just...one persons anecdote.

The average man has more upper body muscle mass than the average woman, men also have (on average) broader torso's, the resultant higher centre of gravity gives them an advantage with pressing strength.

men also respond more strongly to strength training due to far higher androgen levels.
So, caeteris paribus men can do more press ups

I can do a ton on push ups. I could easily knock out thirty in one go. But I train hard. I agree that without training most women would struggle to do more than about three.

Talkinpeace I do the same body balance class - except in our class all but about 3 people do the press ups on their knees (well on one knee as the other is in the air!)
You must have a more pushy instructor than we do!

Strength training (if done consistently and for long enough) makes a big difference to most people strength, but amplifies the differences in strength between men and women, in particular upper body strength, the ceiling is just so much higher for men.

Obviously there are outliers, a few women are amazingly strong

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

I can do 55 but from the knees.

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 ?

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

single armed pullup with 10% bodyweight added

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

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!)