I get around by way of a manual wheelchair, so my upper body is in reasonably good shape - I’ve been told by a few people that I’m really diesel - I dunno. I mean yes, I’m quite strong for a woman my height (5’5"), but I also weigh 160
Also, some folks confuse strength & stamina. I’m pretty strong, yeah, but stamina is what allows me to make big trips.
For example, I one had to get from Penn Station to Ave. A between 12th & 13th Streets and I did it reasonably quickly without getting winded - I was really booking so long as there weren’t any major bumps ahead. The ability to do that was partially due to upper body strength, but much was due to my endurance.
Whew. I was beginning to think I was some kind of giant, myself (5’11") here. It’s funny because I live in an area with lots of tall (Dutch) people, so I don’t feel like a freak unless I go somewhere else. I spent some time in London and someone commented on my height every day. Same in New York.
I don’t think I’m exceptionally strong, but I can carry big stuff around ok, and help people move without feeling useless. I don’t lift weights or anything, though.
I was thinking the same thing. I too am 6’1 and somewhere around 210lbs.
I feel that I am fairly strong. I am stubborn so I don’t like to say that there is something that I cannot lift or do. I get very offended if someone tells me to go and get a guy to help me, and it just makes me more determined to do it on my own. I used to work in a nursing home type setting and was able to transfer 250lb men from a bed into a wheelchair by hand myself. Now that isn’t exactly lifting, but I was able to do it. I don’t lift weights right now, so I cannot say how much I can lift exactly. I generally think my strength comes partly from my size.
Interesting, that physical strength seems to be something that’s extra-important to smallish women. As others have mentioned above, there’s some satisfaction in being able to do tasks that require strength, without begging some Big, Strong Man to come help.
Me, I’m 5’1" and 110 lbs. I’m not rediculously strong, nor am I pathetically weak. I can do 25 or 30 push-ups (MAN push ups, not the girly ones), and can jog up to the 8th floor… Other than that, I don’t have a good way of measuring my physical strength.
I walk quite a bit (I’m sure you’d never have guessed), and enjoy cardio-kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do. Consequently, my lower body strength is pretty good. I leg pressed 245 pounds the other day. Since I was able to do two sets of more than 12 reps, it’s time for me to move up another 5 - 10 pounds.
I’m rehabilitating a rotator cuff injury, so I’m not testing my limits on upper body too much these days.
Another short woman checking in. I am 5’1" and maybe 140 lbs (I don’t own a scale). I’ve ridden horses for years and have a good deal of both upper body strength and leg muscle. I don’t work out with weights but I have no problem carrying around bags of horse feed. as a kid my father expected daughters as well as sons to help carry furniture, etc. Once at work I was able to move my boss’s U-shaped desk to get something that had fallen behind, when one of my (smallish) male co-workers couldn’t budge it. He told me I was as strong as an ox, which probably wasn’t a compliment, but I took it as such.
I’ve always been strong for my size: 5’ 4". I’m not particularly athletic and don’t work out, but have surprising upper body strength. Just good genes I guess.
I said nursing home type setting because it seemed easier than to explain. I actually worked in an adult foster care home for physically and mentally ill adults. It was a small facility (only 28 beds), and we were short staffed most of the time. I was capable of doing the transfers on my own safely, so I did not bring another co-worker in to assist when they had their own patients to be dealing with. After I was there for about a year, we got a machine called a hoist that could help in larger spaces, but person transfers were still required in their small bathrooms. For me, it was just another part of my job.
Sorry, kind of a long explanation. I hope that made it more clear.
I started weightlifting in high school as a powerlifter, but never took it seriously. The coaches used to get me to do my stuff and show up the boys.
Got into it again during college, because a PE activity was required. Then found it was good at reducing stress and helped me get into better shape, so worked out 4 - 6 days a week.
My legs are the strongest part of my body. Still have good upper-body strength, but problems with my hands and wrists affect me quite badly: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands has required surgery - twice in my right and I’ve just had my left done today. My right wrist has also been broken multiple times and has had extensive surgery performed on it - a partial fusion and, later, a full fusion that needed an 8 inch metal plate, so it makes it hard for me to do much in the gym with my upper-body. That said, I can still throw 50lb bags of cement around.
I’ve not been near a gym since I came to live in the UK (May 2000), but I used to be able to leg press a max of 750lbs, leg press 5 sets of 10 at 400lbs and toe press 5 sets of 10 at 300lbs. I also used to military press 175-200lbs and butterfly (pec deck) 5 sets of 10 at 125lbs.
I can hoist from the floor a case of paper onto my Shoulder and walk the entire distance (200 square feet) of the Printing Plant/Company, I work for and then walk up a flight of stairs and then walk halfway (100 square feet) the second floor, and not be winded or tired.
In my teens, I could bench press 150lbs (more than once!).
Not so strong now that I have a desk job and I’m pushing 40. But I can still lift 80lbs and carry it 100 yards. The 110lbs electric piano is probably as much as I’d care to try to lift off the floor these days.
And, oh, yes, I routinely shove 2300lbs airplanes around the airport ramp by myself. The only woman at the airport who can do it solo. Must confess, when tired I do ask for help - not looking to prove women can get hernias, too!
I’m sure I could be stornger still, if I worked at it, but don’t have the incentive right now. Still think I’m stronger than most women my size.
Strongest part? Legs, definitely - which is a common thing among women.
Compared to men, women tend to have a wider lower body, which accounts for why so many women are strongest in their legs. Of course, it’s the same for men–the two largest muscle groups in the body (quadriceps and gluteus maximus) are located there, so it makes sense.
I recall reading that if you take a man and a woman of the same height, you can expect her to have about 50% of his upper body strength and 75% of his lower body strength, all else being equal.
I am 5’0" and 118 and I work at a hospital. I look smaller (thinner) than that. When we move patients from bed to stretcher and vice versa, coworkers are always amazed at my strength. I don’t know if it’s because they think I am weaker that what I am or just because I am stubborn and have to prove it. I am extremely stubborn about my size. I think I can do it all. I have very strong legs and if I work out with weight my biceps and shoulders get *extremely toned and I don’t like it. I don’t want them to look so toned, in my opinion nothing looks worse than a woman body builder, I think women should be a little soft, not hard and muscular. Don’t flame me folks, we each have an opinion and that is mine.
Now…not physically, I am incredibly strong. I can do more tasks, and take on more problems that just about anyone I work with. And if I do say so myself, it always gets done right.
Thanks for the offer, Deadly, but I’m leaving my job at the end of the month and I have nowhere to put such a large thing anyway. It will have to wait until I have my own apartment or house again.
I lift weights on a regular basis, though I don’t push to lift more and more. I’m 5’9" and about 165 pounds. I actually think my legs are my weak point. I have trouble putting much bulk on them, and it takes me a long time to increase weight on leg presses or squats. I can curl 40 pounds for reps with strict form. I can beat up on horses, move 100 pound bales of alfalfa, and stand up to rock concert moshers. I try not to throw my weight around too much. The last time I saw my ex BF, I nearly beat him at arm wrestling before I realized I’d better let him win. Oops.
My mom was very proud of her physical strength in her 20’s and 30’s. She used to do handstands on logs and the beach then walk. She went through Seattle Fire Department recruit school, rowed a boat from Seattle to Alaska singlehandedly, manhandles 40’ extension ladders, fought forest fires, and participated in lumberjack competition. I’d have to say I get my positive image of strong females from her even though next to her I look like a prissy little wimp.
I mean yes, I’m quite strong for a woman my height (5’5"), but I also weigh 160