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(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

I had established a goal: I wanted to graduate from doing girly pushups on my knees, to being able to do real pushups from my toes. I’m happy to report that I have now accomplished this goal. (It had become somewhat of an obsession. I was constantly talking about it, because I knew I was close.)

Right now I can only do one real pushup before my arms give out (if I wait a few minutes, I can usually pull off another). And for some strange reason, whenever I do them my shoulders pop and crack like a little old lady — it’s quite disturbing. A friend told me it’s because my shoulders aren’t used to the motion and that the sounds will dissipate over time.

Is the ability to do a real pushup a big deal, or not? I think it depends on who you ask. Since I’ve never been able to do a real pushup in my life until last week, I would say HELL YES, it’s a big deal. Then again, there are tons of women who can do many more real pushups than I can — indeed, they can even do multiple pushups, and from all sorts of crazy-difficult positions. (Check out this pushup medley video from the Ice Chamber gym.)

Here’s the thing. I have more upper-body strength right now than I’ve ever had before in my LIFE, and that is a huge deal for me. I’ve always been a weakling. As a kid, I could never propel myself across the monkey bars at a playground, or pull myself up a rope. I’ve had to fight for every bit of strength I’ve obtained, and I’m damn proud of that.

Now that I can do one real pushup, of course I’d like to get to the point where I can do more than one in a row, without having to wait a few minutes before my arms decide they’re capable of trying again. But I’m not worrying about it, because I know if I’ve gotten to the point where I can do one, the ability to do more is sure to come. And I can’t help it — every time I complete another pushup, a voice inside my head shouts, “YES!” I know that I look physically different in the mirror since I started strength-training last summer, but aiming for a particular goal, and having realized it, is a really good feeling.

As an additional motivator, I promised that once I was able to do a real pushup, I would videotape it as proof (with the additional benefit of fulfilling #90 on my 101 Things list: “Post a video on the internet that has me in it”). My camcorder is still buried in my closet and I’ve never tried hooking it up to my Macbook before — but I did make the promise, so I’ll be doing that very soon.

I’d already started this Pushup Quest before I read the article about pushups in the New York Times a few weeks ago. The author, Tara Parker-Pope, says there aren’t as many people who can do them anymore; that we put more emphasis on cardiovascular fitness instead of building muscle, and people are heavier in general than they used to be. But here’s why pushups are important:

The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips and legs. It requires the body to be taut like a plank with toes and palms on the floor. The act of lifting and lowering one’s entire weight is taxing even for the very fit.

This article caused a reaction in the blogosphere, as you can imagine. This is what Maggie Wang had say:

[L]adies, hop on the push-up train today if you haven’t already. There’s no reason that women can’t do just as many push-ups as men if they are properly trained (if not more, since many of us are pears with lower centers of gravity than our male counterparts, and therefore don’t have to push as much weight), and honestly, how pathetic are the chicks in the NY Times video [Bev Sklar from That’s Fit was motivated to get down on the floor and see how many she could do.

Right after I read [the article] I dropped to the floor like G.I. Jane and completed 21 traditional push-ups. Those planks I’ve been doing are paying off. This 40-year-old’s new goal is 40. Set a realistic goal for yourself. Do push-ups every day. You will see real progress.

But are real pushups…sexist? The bloggers at Jezebel call pushups a “patriarchal exercise.”

[T]oday I finally read the story, and now have reason to warn you against following suit: it is BLATANTLY sexist. There is, for one, extensive discussion of 93-year-old push-up pioneer Jack Palance, who set numerous world push-up records, but there is not a single word addressing any record-holders in the arena of girl push-ups, or even really much mention of the girl push-up at all. No, it simply assumes women should be not only able to complete male push-ups, even though the push-up is an exercise invented by males and for males which, like its brother exercise the pull-up and all those spacial analysis questions, has served for generations solely to fuck women on elementary school achievement tests. But what’s more: the story suggests that a woman of forty should be able to complete sixteen of these patriarchal exercises. Sixteen! Drop your MacBooks and give me sixteen, Jezebels!

Mary had a fitness assessment, and part of that counted how many pushups she could do in 60 seconds. When the trainer said she’d be measured on the basis of how many “girl” pushups she could do, Mary decided to take a stand.

“Hold up,” I say, ” Why do I have to do girl pushups? I mean is there a phsyical reason why a woman can’t do a traditional pushup?” (is our center of gravity lower or higher? what? tell me?) He says that women just aren’t as strong as men. I say “so what?” That just means we do less pushups than men. Why are girls taught the “girl pushup?” Oh, the personal trainer is at a loss for words. I can tell he doesn’t want to get into a deep philosophical debate about the history of pushups and the mixed messages girls get when they are given an “easier” version of a pushup.

Finally he tells me: “You can do a regular pushup but your score will be measured against women doing the female version of pushups.”

I respond: “Well, actually I can’t do a regular pushup. I have tried but I am not strong enough. I get myself up and I can stay up indefinitely but I can’t go back down without belly flopping.”

So after my diatribe about the double standard of girl pushups I do girl pushups. 7 of them in 60 seconds.

Amy from Reluctant Vegan was re-introduced to pushups when she bought a series of sessions with a personal trainer.

I read something in Shape magazine about how doing push-ups on your knees is a very different exercise than full push-ups. They work different muscle groups…I decided I was not going to do knee push-ups again. I started doing 10 push-ups before and 10 after each workout. I got a few admiring comments from fellow gym-goers that increased my motivation and I decided to challenge myself to do 1,001 push-ups in a month. [...] I’ve continued to do about 20 good push-ups each day, going down farther than I did during the push-up challenge. Once a week, I do 50 good ones, which definitely leaves me sore the next day.

I’ve come to see push-ups as emblamatic of the paradox of Americans spending lots of money and time on fitness but not being truly fit. [...] So many people (my former self included) put in time at the gym but can’t do a push-up, full sit-ups, or a pull-up with assistance of less than half their weight. (I’ve resigned myself to never being able to do an unassisted pull-up, unless I quit my desk job and work out as much as Madonna.) I’m grateful that I’ve pulled myself out of my fitness rut and am making my workout time really count.

Lauren lists the reasons why pushups are one of her favorite exercises.

* Good compound exercise that targets the chest, shoulders and triceps.
* There are many variations and progressions.
* Can help you break through your bench press plateau.
* Gets your abs and core going, think prone holds.
* Uses lots of muscles in the upper body and trunk and consequently you will burn a fair few calories when performing sets of push-ups
* It is an ultimate exercise for shoulder stability.
* Looks pretty good if you can smash out 100!

How many real pushups can you do? If you can’t, are you trying?

Related Reading:

That’s Fit: Are Push-ups the New Yoga?

Krista at Stumptuous says she has “the cure” for going from on-the-knees to real-pushups. She calls her progression program Pushup Chump to Pushup Champ.

Mikki from Fitness Transform says pushups are a great measure of fitness, but it’s necessary to incorporate other means of functional training

Taylor Ryan from Real Women Lift demonstrates several different types of pushups