Disproportional strength distribution… more typical for the ladies?

Or do you, gentlemen, also suffer from it? 

I am noticing how much (I mean MUCH) weaker I am in the pull-up movements (RC) and push-up movements (HBP) compared to the rest. I am now on PE3 in all 5 elements/exercises, doing the mastery numbers and it is not a big struggle for me (focus, yes, struggle, no), but on the rings I am on RC/PE1 (9 reps, struggling for life, lol) and on HBP/PE2 in my push-ups I am on 6 reps, also struggling. Is this more typical for us females, or am I just unbelievably weak in these areas? How about you, gentlemen?

@Coach Sommer, you've had so many students coming through your hands, is this more typical for the ladies? 

Hi Suzanna,

Absolutely.  Most women are much stronger in the legs than the upper body.

That's alright though, you ladies are also cuter so it balances out.

As just an interesting side note, during WW2 the Russians discovered that women made superior fighter pilots due to their higher tolerance of g-forces and a better intuitive grasp of three dimensional geometry (very helpful in dogfighting!).

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

here's a little motivation to help us girls

What we suffer as men is an extreme lack of mobility and flexibility...  In my case I am struggling with Strecht Series! And from Foundation Manna is probably my weakest point.

15 hours ago, Coach Sommer said:

 during WW2 the Russians discovered that women made superior fighter pilots due to their higher tolerance of g-forces and a better intuitive grasp of three dimensional geometry (very helpful in dogfighting!).

I wonder how many of their pilots actually were women. The small, all-male, Finnish air force shot down 1800 Russian planes during 1941-44 at a loss of 200 aircraft of their own :-).

4 hours ago, Petri Widsten said:

I wonder how many of their pilots actually were women. The small, all-male, Finnish air force shot down 1800 Russian planes during 1941-44 at a loss of 200 aircraft of their own :-).

Most armies in the major conflicts of the last century tended to massage their numbers for one reason or another.

Not that I doubt the capabilities of the Finnish pilots. But to score such a high win/loss ratio, particularly in an era where there was so little technological advantage, and where most recruits into the air force had zero prior experience, and where the training methods of the air forces weren't that dramatically different, sounds VERY suspicious to me, no matter how "credible" the source that you obtained these figures from.

Okay, back to GST stuff; apologies for the digression.

58 minutes ago, John Kiggundu said:

Most armies in the major conflicts of the last century tended to massage their numbers for one reason or another.

Not that I doubt the capabilities of the Finnish pilots. But to score such a high win/loss ratio, particularly in an era where there was so little technological advantage, and where most recruits into the air force had zero prior experience, and where the training methods of the air forces weren't that dramatically different, sounds VERY suspicious to me, no matter how "credible" the source that you obtained these figures from.

Okay, back to GST stuff; apologies for the digression.

 

You're right, John, wrong forum, so this is my final message on the topic. I was wrong about the years '41-44, should have been '39-44. Finnish pilots had the most aces per capita in the war and most survived while Russian pilots had an extremely high casualty rate. Most of their planes also crashed in Finnish territory so victories were easy to confirm. It's quite easy to do your own research on this if you're keen.

What I'm curious about is the women's better grasp of 3D geometry. I've always heard males are better at this (imagine a stereotypical hunter, usually a man, calculating the trajectory of a spear aimed at a moving prey) so if someone has a literature reference for this please share it.

I am totally on the same page as you: stuck on RC/PE1 and HBP/PE2 seems like forever. But my dream to be able to do pull-ups is still there

I have read (I think it may have been an anecdote from Coach) that every so often national teams will have males do a large part of the women's workout and vice versa.

The women can't complete the mens ludicrous upper body circuits, and the men are equally crushed by the core/leg strength and endurance emphasis of the women.

This is at top levels where a regular conditioning workout is a faroff dream for most of us; certainly I would expect Foundation level strength to be achievable all round  these are also athletes conditioned for their events/apparatus which are heavily slanted towards that divide also, as in men/upper women/lower.

#beamisringsforlegs 

I may be a male, but I struggle the most with exactly RC and HBP progressions. For those I am on PE4 and PE3 respectively, while I am at PE6+ for all the rest.  I hope this is atypical, I would hate to be defined as a "typical" male ;-)

In my opinion you shouldn t worry about how slowly you are progressing on RC/PE1 because for me this exercise is way much harder than RC/P2 and RC/P3. I already mastered P2 and P3 before starting GB, but was able to do only 5x6 reps on Hinge Rows! Now I am on 5x12 and progressing slowly. I think the reason for this exercise is to get a very strong rotattor cuff, so that later we are prepared for the next level without suffering injuries and to make the path easier in the future. 

Considering HBP, for me the hardest is the pseudo planche push up, much more than dips or not to talk negative dips. But what I ve realized from the little time I ve been working on GB is that the progression are not just progression in difficulty, but also they are preparing our body step by step exactly on the best way possible, taking into consideration muscles, bones, connective tissues, etc. Before GB I could do 15 dips, that s true, but I had shoulder pain for one whole year... so I really love what I am learning from this community, it has already taught me to stop and calm, and re think about my health and to say ok, I want gains, but blind gains have a price in your body, so let s focus and mobility, flexibility and basics.

And if this makes you feel better I feel I ll be stucked forever with Deck Squat and Swivel Hips  I ve got blocks, not legs!

I think most of the imbalances we see (men: poor mobility, stronger upper than lower & women: stronger core/lower, better mobility) come primarily from cultural shaping. Girls get put into ballet and boys are taught that biceps and pull ups are manly.

When a woman does a full on middle split, it's impressive and kind of sexy. When a man does one, I've often heard people say "ow!"

So I think we all get imbalances from outside influences (cultural biases, our specific sports, whatever) and not as much from innate attributes.

That said, I remember learning in gender psychology that men tend to perform better than women in brute strength and sprinting, but women outperform men in endurance events. I can't remember all the controls and limitations now, but that's always stuck with me. 

3 hours ago, Julia Quigley said:

I think most of the imbalances we see (men: poor mobility, stronger upper than lower & women: stronger core/lower, better mobility) come primarily from cultural shaping. Girls get put into ballet and boys are taught that biceps and pull ups are manly.

When a woman does a full on middle split, it's impressive and kind of sexy. When a man does one, I've often heard people say "ow!"

So I think we all get imbalances from outside influences (cultural biases, our specific sports, whatever) and not as much from innate attributes.

That said, I remember learning in gender psychology that men tend to perform better than women in brute strength and sprinting, but women outperform men in endurance events. I can't remember all the controls and limitations now, but that's always stuck with me. 

Yeah I get the splits thing a lot

Well I am stuck there too. Damn Hbp-PE2 but ill get there to pull-ups and dips. I just need to remain humble and do the work ... but how happy ill be when ill be doing 75 push-ups perfect form and smiling. Maybe a small victory but one nevertheless. And then will come the pseudo planche push-ups (frightening pause) ... so I have no desire to mess up my push Ups with bad form and get into those ones to suffer unnecessarily.