Topic: Girl push-ups

[Muse_of_Fire]

This is not a rant, simply a request. No one here really has been guilty of this that I have seen, but I'm making an appeal to my traceur brothers, on behalf of my traceuse sisters, to keep an ear out for this in their home communities and nip it in the bud so we can eliminate "girl pushups" from the common parlance.

I have heard people refer to knees-down pushups as "girl pushups" forever, and it makes me mad because it implies that girls/women somehow "need" a pushup adaptation. Granted, it's true that many do, to start out, human physiology being what it is; however this terminology has the added characteristic of sending a message to females that they are somehow unable to do pushups.

And to be quite honest, I know more guys that do knee pushups than girls.

Can we please, please, *please* change our vocabulary to call them knee pushups, rather than girl pushups? And strongly encourage others to do the same? And confront people when they use the phrase "girl pushups"?

You can confront people in a positive/polite way pretty easily; something like this:

A: Oh I was having trouble with the conditioning today so eventually I just did girl pushups.

B: You did what?

A: Girl pushups.

B: What's a girl pushup?

A: You know, with your knees down.

B: Oh. I call those knee pushups. I know there are plenty of guys who do knee pushups, so it seems silly to call them girl pushups, don't you think? *smile warmly*

Anyway, it's just a request. Thanks for listening.

[Andy Animus Tran]

Jess, a traceuse in my old community in Canada, called tricep push-ups "girl push-ups" cause she always had her female students (also a gymnastics instructor, btw) do them since she said that women needed to do them more often than men.

Personally, I've never used the term in any context and I've rarely ever heard it.  If I ever hear it, I'll be sure to correct them.

[Alex L.]

Yeah i'm in this martial arts class and both sex's are treated the same and we have plenty of girls who can do tons of push ups . In my opinion i don't even count knee push ups as push ups if you want to do push ups the get your knees off the ground that's not a push up.

[Holland Wilson]

If I ever use the term "girl pushups", it'll be because I'm doing pushups and there's a girl sitting on my back. >.>

[BobT]

If I ever use the term "girl pushups", it'll be because I'm doing pushups and there's a girl sitting on my back. >.>

My daughter 'helps' me with my workout quite frequently by doing this - though it's more leaping onto my back than sitting.  It becomes a problem sometimes with the ab wheel...

[Chris Salvato]

If I ever use the term "girl pushups", it'll be because I'm doing pushups and there's a girl sitting on my back. >.>

My daughter 'helps' me with my workout quite frequently by doing this - though it's more leaping onto my back than sitting.  It becomes a problem sometimes with the ab wheel...

i cant wait to have kids because they must be good for progressional workouts

[Steven Low]

If I ever use the term "girl pushups", it'll be because I'm doing pushups and there's a girl sitting on my back. >.>

My daughter 'helps' me with my workout quite frequently by doing this - though it's more leaping onto my back than sitting.  It becomes a problem sometimes with the ab wheel...

i cant wait to have kids because they must be good for progressional workouts

If you want more weight faster you just feed them more HFCS....................... fail.

Anyway, who cares? Just get strong.. doesn't really matter what people call stuff.

Muse.. where's yo pullup?!?!!?

[ZacharyCohn]

Muse - you have my sword!

[Kevin Davies]

If I ever use the term "girl pushups", it'll be because I'm doing pushups and there's a girl sitting on my back. >.>

My daughter 'helps' me with my workout quite frequently by doing this - though it's more leaping onto my back than sitting.  It becomes a problem sometimes with the ab wheel...

i cant wait to have kids because they must be good for progressional workouts

If you want more weight faster you just feed them more HFCS....................... fail.

I have found it takes to long to progress if you wait for your kid to grow heavier even with large amounts of HFCS.  So once I could do push-ups with one kid, I just decided to have a second kid.  I still had to wait 9 months though.  I think next time I'll just recruit one of my neices or nephews.  Oh.. and my wife can do "real" pushups.

[Steven Low]

Nice Kevin.

[Charles Moreland]

And my axe!

[Muse_of_Fire]

I <3 you all.

Thanks.

[Mind Reflections]

AND MY BOW

[Jeni4]

What bothers me is that I  have heard girls refer to knee down push ups as "girl pushups"and im just like  why would you put yourself down?
I just call them real or fake pushups

[Chris Salvato]

What bothers me is that I  have heard girls refer to knee down push ups as "girl pushups"and im just like  why would you put yourself down?
I just call them real or fake pushups

Well they are not really fake...

if you are 120 lbs and do them on your feet it is a lot easier than if you are 180 lbs and doing them on your knees.

It's just scaled down, and with proper programming, no one should have to stick to knee-push ups for more than a few weeks unless they are really out of shape.

[Muse_of_Fire]

I agree, they're not really fake. Something M2 pointed out to me while I was at Primal for the Women's Seminar (and really getting bummed about my inability to do a deadhang pullup, as if jumping pullups were somehow "wimpy")...

The definition of work=force x distance. And force=mass x acceleration. So any time you are doing exercise you are doing a certain amount of work, namely, (accelerating your mass) through a distance. Your mass never changes during the exercise, and the distance changes slightly only if you engage in certain modifications on certain exercises. So the same amount of work is being done. What makes the difference on modified exercises is simply that you are recruiting more muscles to help out until the muscles the exercise is designed to target are really strong enough to do it on their own.

Obviously there is more subtlety to the physics than this, but the point is, your muscles are still doing the same amount of work, but certain variables have been adjusted to enable them to push through the full ROM with success as well as challenge.

Calling them fake pushups is just as bad, IMO, because it invalidates the work being done which, for that person, may be their max effort given their fitness level.

[Spencer B]

Well, I wish I could give you something, but there's already a sword, an axe, and a bow thrown out there, so... Want a mace? How about a staff? I'm also good with greatswords... but only in my head.

[Mind Reflections]

we could always use a white mage...

[Holland Wilson]

Just wait until the second book.

[Mind Reflections]

hahahahaha.