Girls doing weighted pullups from The RX Review
Have you seen the most recent article on pullups? New York Times and the Globe and mail are claiming that Woman are not built to be able to do pullups and it doesn’t matter what kind of training they do. Do we agree? HELL NO!!!!
Here is a post from CF London discussing this article:
The University of Daytona researchers found that after putting 17 normal weight women through three months of training that was designed to increase their upper body strength and reduce their body fat by 2%, only 4 of the 17 women were capable of performing a single pull-up at the end of the training.
Yes, women do have a more difficult time compared to men mastering this test of upper body strength, but it’s certainly not impossible for women to be capable of performing multiple strict pull-ups with proper training. And that’s exactly what our girls do at CrossFit London. Walk in during any regular warm-up before class, and you’ll see our female athletes performing strict and kipping pullups, as well as multiple muscle ups connected in a row. No big deal, that’s just how we roll at CrossFit London. It’s an expectation, not an exception, that our CrossFit women will become strong enough to perform a strict pull-up and eventually a muscle up. It’s about challenging the mindset that most women come in with thinking a pull-up isn’t within their reach, and then coaching them through the right skill work and progressions to help them master the skill.
Because CrossFit London is determined to help women be able to complete at least one strict pull-up, we host an annual “Dress Day Pull-Up / Muscle Up Challenge”, where members write down a pull-up or muscle up goal out of their current reach, and then are challenged to accomplish their goal within a 2-3 month timeframe… or be punished by working out in a dress (for men) or suit and moustache (for women) in front of the gym… all in good fun of course! If you look at the picture below, you can see how many of our members successfully reached their goal (indicated by a line drawn through their name) from our 2012 Dress Day Challenge.
Moral of the story… I guess fit women who don’t do CrossFit can’t do a pull-up. Their loss.
Globe and Mail Story: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/even-fit-women-cant-do-pull-ups-study-finds/article4651742/
New York Times story: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/25/why-women-cant-do-pull-ups/
Check out the video from CrossFit HQ in response to this article:
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPPfS1KpBc’]
Just a reminder that the Paleo Baking exchange is on Saturday, December 1st. Please make sure to RSVP to the Facebook event today if you are participating so that we know how much to bake 🙂 Please bring in your recipes to share!
Today’s Workout:
Buy In – Coaches choice shoulder warmup then, Turkish Getups x 10 reps. Increase weight each set working up to a heavy single. Challenge yourself with a kb or a barbell.
WOD – “Skinny Dipping”
For time:
50 Burpees
Then; 7 Rounds of:
7 Pullups
7 ring Dips
Games Prep – chest to bar pullups
Zone 3 – scale dips on the parallel bars or to assisted
Zone 2 – scale to assisted pullups,jumping ring dips
Zone 1 – scale to 25 burpees, scale to pushups
Cash Out – The good ol’ 5 way shoulder stretch
