Push-ups can be a challenge for the best of us. But many women struggle to do them, even after months of training in the gym.
So when a so-called “women’s push-up hack” started trending on social media, it’s hardly surprising that some of these videos went viral.
The hack involves making a simple tweak to the position of the hands. Instead of having the hands pointing forward in line with the body, it’s said that women should instead position their hands sideways, so their fingers are facing away from their body.
Anatomy can explain why this change to hand position can help women perform push-ups more easily. It has to do with a part of the body that you might not expect: the pelvis.
The pelvis affects the position of the arm relative to the body. In women, the angle where the forearm and upper arm connect at the elbow (known as the carry angle), relative to the pelvis, is around 15 degrees on average in women and around 10 degrees on average in men. The carry angle is greater in women in order to provide extra clearance of the pelvis when moving.
The carry angle doesn’t just impact how the bones of the upper limb connect to each other and to the torso. It also affects the direction in which the muscles contract.
This is why women may find it more difficult to do push-ups in the conventional way. By having the hands slightly further apart and turning them slightly outwards, it allows a woman’s muscles and bones to follow their more natural movement patterns.
Women also have more flexible ligaments and tendons, which means their joints often have a greater range of motion. This can cause joints to become more strained or experience more pain if the biomechanics of a movement don’t line up correctly.
The torso, which attaches the top of the shoulder to the arm, is 12.4% larger in men than women. This also contributes to biomechanical differences, such as centre of gravity and which muscles are most efficient during certain exercises.
Push-ups aren’t the only exercise women may want to adapt to accommodate their anatomy, either. It may also be worth changing the way you perform other arm exercises – particularly those where the arm is elevated above the head.
Women are more likely to injure their shoulders from overuse or repetitive injuries. This is because women’s shoulder joints are smaller and more mobile than men, meaning they have a greater range of motion.
But as the shoulder is a highly mobile joint, with that extra mobility comes instability. This means the shoulder relies heavily on the rotator cuff muscles to hold the joint in place.
Further exacerbating this is the fact that women have less muscle mass, a differently-shaped contact point between the bones of the shoulder joint and shorter, thinner clavicles.
All these anatomical differences combined lead to a higher risk of injury for women in exercises that involve internal rotation of the shoulder or overhead exercises. This includes shoulder presses, tricep dips, lateral raises, upright rows and overhead presses.
Skull crushers (a tricep exercise that involves laying on a bench and slowly lowering a barbell towards your head), neutral or thumbs-up lateral raises and seated dumbbell presses offer safer shoulder options.
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If dips are your exercise of choice, keeping the torso perpendicular to the ground can reduce strain on the shoulder.
You can also trying using angled bars instead of parallel bars. Since angled bars tilt towards each other slightly, this allows for a more natural wrist position, rather than having the bars parallel so the thumbs point straight forward.
Exercise and anatomy
The pelvis can also affect how lower body exercises are performed.
Each of the two halves of the pelvis are formed from three individual bones that fuse together during growth. In women, the pelvis is about 25% wider than men to accommodate a foetus passing through during birth. This difference impacts the position of the lower limb.
The wider pelvis in women results in a greater Q angle – short for quadriceps angle. The Q angle is formed by the lines that intersect each other running between the patella (knee cap) and pelvis, and the patella and tibia (shin bone).
The alignment of the Q angle affects how the leg muscles facilitate movement. As such, women may need to take care when performing exercises such as squats, lunges, deadlifts and box jumps, as the combination of these anatomical differences and technique could potentially increase risk of injury.
In general, women are eight times more likely to have an anterior cruciate ligament injury (ACL) than men and the Q angle is one of the risk factors in this. So exercises that place significant load through the joints may require some modifications.
The wider pelvis may also cause the knees to bend inwards towards each other, known as caving. This can significantly increase risk of injury when landing from jumping exercises or squatting. Rotating the feet around 30 degrees outwards when performing these exercises can reduce caving by up to 50% and reduce risk of knee injuries.
When squatting, ensure that the pelvis is level (parallel to the ground) at all times and that the knees do not cave inwards towards each other. The knees should not also go to far forward over the toes and the foot should remain in contact with the ground at all times. Some women may also find a slightly wider stance, with feet marginally wider than shoulder-width apart, is beneficial given their wider pelvis.
Minor tweaks to accommodate the anatomical differences may mean that women reduce their risk of injury and increase the efficiency of their workout.
