WTF? NYTimes article -- why women can't do pull-ups

[hnsight_ner]

Been hanging out with a girl with a lithe ballet dancer body who lived in a Thai boxing dojo for a year. You never know ...

[Rivanariko]

So... if I do bicep curls and planks (working my biceps and back) I won't be able to do a pull-up in 3 months? Funny...

Train the exercise you're trying to achieve. I fit the "short people" category, granted, but I managed my first chin-up starting from hanging-from-the-bar-and-grunting in a 6-week challenge. Was it a good form, dead-hang chin-up? Not quite, but I did it, and the next challenge I got up to 3 chin-ups, and did my first proper pull-up. All I did to train was negatives. Why would you do anything else?

Overall, the article wanders so much I'm not even really sure what conclusion she drew. But I'd say that most women, training PROPERLY, could achieve a pull-up in a reasonable amount of time.

[gymell]

Starting Strength forum discussed it as well.

Study concludes women have lower testosterone

[PrincessHeather]

Starting Strength forum discussed it as well.

Study concludes women have lower testosterone

I KNEW IT!

[Hammlin]

We all know the real reason that women can't do pull ups is because they're stuck in binders...

*giggles uncontrollably*

[Weazley]

The first big problem is the headline which screams "Why Women Can’t Do Pull-Ups". Not "Why SOME women can't do pullups,", "Why pullups tend to be more difficult for women than men" or "Why most women can't do pullups without properly training for them", or "Why women SHOULD do pullups" ... I could go on with more appropriate and accurate headline examples.

To be fair to the author - most journalists don't get to write their own headlines, thats a job for the editor or sub-editor.

[shortstuff]

Crossfit responded on Friday in their typical awesome fashion: vids of women doing pull-ups. See it at crossfit.com under Friday.

You mean this

[cline]

Ha ha yeah that's one. There's another one right above it where she just comes in and bangs out 12 pull-ups unbroken

[Church]

This makes me really sad, because it effortlessly justifies my opinion that more formal education generally leads to inhibited ability to think. There's holes in that logic that you could drive a semi through. And, any one with a half-hour and an Internet connection (even a slow one) could have come up with a better, more effective training protocol.

And how did they measure that 37% increase in upper body strength? Was it in terms of increased weight on their 1 rep max? (somehow I doubt it). Or did they give the women a light dumbbell and over the course of the trial they increased the number of reps they could do by 37%? (Somehow this seems more likely). I'm glad I found the Rebellion, rather than a university think-tank. I'd hate to think where'd I'd be right now if I'd relied on "scientists"

Also, Crossfit video = epic win.

[161803398874989]

This makes me really sad, because it effortlessly justifies my opinion that more formal education generally leads to inhibited ability to think. There's holes in that logic that you could drive a semi through. And, any one with a half-hour and an Internet connection (even a slow one) could have come up with a better, more effective training protocol.

And how did they measure that 37% increase in upper body strength? Was it in terms of increased weight on their 1 rep max? (somehow I doubt it). Or did they give the women a light dumbbell and over the course of the trial they increased the number of reps they could do by 37%? (Somehow this seems more likely). I'm glad I found the Rebellion, rather than a university think-tank. I'd hate to think where'd I'd be right now if I'd relied on "scientists"

I'm going to say this straight: you don't know nearly enough about scientific practice to judge it like that.

[thatgirljj]

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull-ups

Discuss.

p.s. I'm 5'6" (not short), female, 145-ish pounds, and 24-ish percent bodyfat. And I can do strict, dead-hang pull ups.

I'm 5'0.5" (short), female, 130ish pounds and don't have excessive bodyfat. I can do a couple of strict, dead hang pull ups.

As many have noted the reportage in the article is awful. But I think the main problem is that they only trained for 3 months. It's not even the frequency of training. It can take a long time for many women to build up the level of strength required for a pull up. For godssake, I do aerial circus arts which trains a lot of the same muscles and it took a year of aerial before I could do a chin-up, much less a pull up. A YEAR! And these guys are surprised they don't have untrained ladies able to do them with only 3 months of training? B.S.

-jj

[cline]

Also remember reporting on research is not the same as actually doing it. Go get the actual study and read it. All science, like all form during exercise, can be critiqued and discussed. Doesn't mean it's poor.

[Tinuviel]

I just found this same article and I didn't know whether to laugh or get mad, hop on my soapbox, and start yelling. I think the only part of the article that has merit is that shorter people seem to have an easier time doing pull-ups. Lots of guys at my gym do them and the shorter ones seem to do more/better. Now for the soapbox: I am a woman, 5' 5" and 129 pounds. I do three sets of seven consecutive wide grip pull-ups at least three days a week, as well as wide grip hanging straight leg raises at three sets of ten, and three sets of ten wide grip hanging knee raises with a 30 lb. dumbbell between my ankles. I am the only woman I've seen doing standard body weight pull-ups (there are several who do the assist machine though). It's nice to hear about other women who do them. I prefer to use chalk and wrist straps to help with my grip. I need to use the tallest plyo box at my gym and stand on it on my tiptoes to reach the handles, but I do not kip. I've had back problems and kipping makes me get uncomfortable twinges in my low back. Sometimes I like to just hang and relax. My family thinks I'm nuts but my physical therapist says I figured out how to do gravity assisted self-delivered traction. I'll get off the soapbox now, but it's been lovely reading all these posts and hearing you guys rip holes in the illogic of the premise. Thanks!

[I-Jo]

High Five

 

I have just started to incorporate weighted pull ups into my routine- and L sit pull ups.  Makes me happy.

Love when women can truly do pull ups- it's kick ass.