is it true that women and children should do press-ups on their knees?if yes why is that plz?

Answer 1

Of course not. Push-ups (press-ups) are designed to strengthen and build up the pectoral, front deltoids and triceps muscles. Typically, these muscles are larger and more powerful in adult men then they are in women and children, but there is no reason why a child or woman cannot strengthen and develop these muscles.

When doing a press-up, keeping ones back locked and knees off the ground effectively forms a "triangle" where most of the weight of your body is supported by your arms. By dropping to your knees you are removing the weight of your lower legs from the equation, which makes the press-up easier to perform. That is why women and children, with their proportionately smaller muscles often perform the exercise this way. Additionally, it is generally easier to do press-ups on your knees because you are not putting as much strain on the lower back and hamstrings.

Because the press-up is a strength building exercise, normally one would prefer to have as much resistance (weight) as possible, therefore the best way to do a press up is with the back straight and knees off the ground. The exception, of course, is if this would cause undue strain which might result in an injury. Typically, a person would sense this and drop to their knees automatically.

In martial arts, there are many alternative ways of doing the press-up exercise. For example, you can have a partner standing behind you, holding your ankles at waist level, or place your feet on their shoulders, or even vertically (like a handstand.) You can also have a partner "walk" you like a wheelbarrow as you spring your body up and forward in an explosive press-up (clapping your hands while doing this adds another level of difficulty). You can have someone sit on your butt or back while you do the press-up. You can also keep you feet locked stationary and do the press up while launching your body up and to the side, so your head rotates around your feet like a clock hand. Press-ups can be done on the hands, knuckles, mid-knuckles (very hard!), blades of the hands, finger tips (5, 4, 3, 2, and thumbs only). You can do them shoulder width (emphasizes chest, triceps & shoulder development), wide (more chest, less tricep), or hands together (more triceps). We also like to vary the exercise by going half-way down, hold, all the way down, half-way up, hold and fully up.

Answer 2

no i totally disagree w/ that. i think if a woman wants to do a regular push up she can. i mean look at women who are in the military. do they put their knees on the floor? no way! they do push-ups just like guys. i am a skinny girl and not that strong plus i have small arms but i started doing push-ups this year and i could do quite a few so really i think anyone in decent physical condition can. its just one of those things that people think make women feel like its "ok" if they cant do something as well as a guy. well i think you can do anything you set yoru mind to. :)

Answer 3

This is only true if they cannot do regular push-ups with good form. I teach fitness classes, and I try to get the women to try a few on their toes first, then switch to the knee push-ups when they are too tired to do toe push-ups correctly.

Answer 4

No I don't believe that it's 'true'. People just assume that women and children aren't strong enough to do regular push-ups which I don't agree.

Answer 5

because they don't have the upper arm strenght of the average guy, and for a woman, her center of balance is lower, which makes it hard for her balance her weight on her arms to do press-ups or push-ups.