New York City's urban landscape has become an unconventional gym for a burgeoning movement of women challenging traditional fitness norms, particularly the perceived difficulty of pull-ups.
These women are using scaffolding, subway rails, and streetlights as impromptu workout equipment, showcasing their strength and inspiring others through videos shared widely on social media. This trend is not only a physical display but also a social one, with women performing pull-ups during nights out, commutes, and even dates, proving that fitness can be integrated into daily life.
Paige Bullard, a 36-year-old founder of Bar Proof, an event series focused on calisthenics and street workouts, has become a prominent figure in this movement. With a substantial following on Instagram and TikTok, Bullard shares videos of herself performing pull-ups on various city fixtures, often in stylish attire. She noted that men often underestimate women's upper-body strength, making their displays of power particularly impactful. "A lot of men don’t expect us to be strong in that area," Bullard said. "So when you go up there and you bust out, like, 15, 20, they’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t even do that.’" She also highlighted that these feats often inspire other women, as she hosts free calisthenics sessions aimed at encouraging female participation in the sport.
Yami Nevarez, a 26-year-old Equinox coach, was inspired by Bullard's videos and attended one of her sessions. Nevarez, along with friends Felicia Waithe and Rose Joseph, formed the "Cali Puff Girls," an all-women calisthenics group. Nevarez, who previously struggled with pull-ups, has progressed to performing pull-ups, muscle-ups, and bar dips on scaffolding, embracing the "certified New Yorker" experience of using the city's infrastructure for fitness.
Rose Joseph, a project manager and fitness creator, also found inspiration in online videos of women performing pull-ups across the city. She began documenting her own attempts, incorporating pull-ups whenever she encountered suitable structures. Joseph achieved her first unassisted pull-up in 2025 after two years of effort, aiming to demonstrate to other women that such feats are achievable.
Karen Modesto, a licensed daycare provider, took up pull-ups after encountering videos of women performing the exercise. Initially skeptical, she was motivated by claims that a small percentage of women could do pull-ups and resolved to defy that statistic. Modesto now posts videos of her pull-up sessions, emphasizing the significant physical transformation and strength she has gained.
The perceived difficulty of pull-ups for women is often tied to unsubstantiated statistics, with viral social media audio featuring men guessing a very low number of pull-ups the average woman can perform. Women have used these sounds to pair with videos of themselves exceeding those low expectations.
Exercise physiologist Lauren Colenso-Semple, known as Dr. Lauren, has addressed the lack of reliable data on the percentage of women capable of performing a pull-up. She cited a 2003 study from the University of Dayton where college-aged women trained for three months, showing strength increases but limited success in achieving a single pull-up. Dr. Lauren explained that the study's program was not specifically designed for pull-up strength and may not have been long enough.
Dr. Lauren advocates for strengthening back muscles through exercises like rows and pull-downs, as well as practicing negative pull-ups and assisted pull-ups to build towards a full pull-up. She also noted that while untrained men generally possess more strength due to hormonal differences like higher testosterone levels, women's capacity for muscle and strength gains through training is comparable to men's relative to their starting points. This suggests that physiological differences do not inherently limit women's potential for strength development.