I'm Gonna Brag On Myself. It's Kind of Obnoxious.
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 generalizing there. This woman can, for one, and anyone who's ever done gymnastics (that's a lot of women!) certainly has at one point in time. My favorite thing about doing pull-ups at my gym is that the bar is like a foot too high for me to reach, so I have to drag over a box to stand on. This is sort of a weird thing to do and gets some occasional funny looks from other people (DUDES) in the free weight area where the bar is. Because there are so many mirrors around, it's pretty easy to see who's still watching when I step on top of the box and start knocking out reps and it's really really fun. My favorite treadmill is nearish to the pull-up bar, so I notice when other people use it too. A lot of them cheat like crazy, but I do not. When one of the people watching me redface my way through five measly reps is a cheater it is the absolute best. Quality not quantity, people, and my shit is quality. Dead hang, fuckers.
The article makes the totally reasonable point that those with longer limbs and, of course, heavier bodies need to be disproportionately stronger to successfully complete a bodyweight exercise like the pull-up because, you know, levers and shit. But it also goes on to point out that you're going to find pull-ups easier if you've got "strength, low body fat* and shorter stature." I happen to be exceptionally short, and let's leave aside the body fat thing for a minute, but "strength" just cracks me the fuck up. In order to successfully perform an exercise that involves moving a large amount of weight around, you have to be strong. THANK YOU, SCIENCE.
(Oh, also, thank yous should also go to geekpixie who coached me through some strength exercises that got me able to do pull-ups a couple years back. Note that, again contra the Times article, it took a little more than a month for me to go from fit-but-unable-to-pull-up to specific-type-of-upper-body-strength-possessing-braggart. She had me doing push-ups [WHICH MANY PEOPLE ALSO CHEAT AT, FOR THE RECORD] dead-hang knee-ups and shoulder presses, FWIW.)
* The body fat bit, I'm also assuming, is about fat-to-muscle ratio/body fat percentage, which is pretty often highly correlated to, you know, being strong, seeing as how muscle tissue is the load-bearing stuff.
Women can't do pull-ups? Maybe a wee bit too much generalizing there. This woman can, for one, and anyone who's ever done gymnastics (that's a lot of women!) certainly has at one point in time. My favorite thing about doing pull-ups at my gym is that the bar is like a foot too high for me to reach, so I have to drag over a box to stand on. This is sort of a weird thing to do and gets some occasional funny looks from other people (DUDES) in the free weight area where the bar is. Because there are so many mirrors around, it's pretty easy to see who's still watching when I step on top of the box and start knocking out reps and it's really really fun. My favorite treadmill is nearish to the pull-up bar, so I notice when other people use it too. A lot of them cheat like crazy, but I do not. When one of the people watching me redface my way through five measly reps is a cheater it is the absolute best. Quality not quantity, people, and my shit is quality. Dead hang, fuckers.
The article makes the totally reasonable point that those with longer limbs and, of course, heavier bodies need to be disproportionately stronger to successfully complete a bodyweight exercise like the pull-up because, you know, levers and shit. But it also goes on to point out that you're going to find pull-ups easier if you've got "strength, low body fat* and shorter stature." I happen to be exceptionally short, and let's leave aside the body fat thing for a minute, but "strength" just cracks me the fuck up. In order to successfully perform an exercise that involves moving a large amount of weight around, you have to be strong. THANK YOU, SCIENCE.
(Oh, also, thank yous should also go to geekpixie who coached me through some strength exercises that got me able to do pull-ups a couple years back. Note that, again contra the Times article, it took a little more than a month for me to go from fit-but-unable-to-pull-up to specific-type-of-upper-body-strength-possessing-braggart. She had me doing push-ups [WHICH MANY PEOPLE ALSO CHEAT AT, FOR THE RECORD] dead-hang knee-ups and shoulder presses, FWIW.)
* The body fat bit, I'm also assuming, is about fat-to-muscle ratio/body fat percentage, which is pretty often highly correlated to, you know, being strong, seeing as how muscle tissue is the load-bearing stuff.