What do I have to do to get STRONG enough to do....

You can use a resistance band to mimic an actual pull up. That is what I will be doing when I decide to do P90X

I started doing karate Dec. of 2008 and I had to do girlie push ups (on my knees) almost 2 years later I can do an actual push up,

Great job on your progress thus far

Try chair assisted chin-ups, you will be working the same muscles with lessened intensity... it's still a close replication - similar to pressups on the knees before graduating to the real thing. Here's an example - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlNDaeZI3A0

Hope this helps..

start with knee push ups (affectionately called "girly" pushups by the women in my boot camp classes). That's only about 1/2 the weight of a regular push up. Do as many as you can, every day. Eventually, probably after 7 to 10 days of this, you should be able to do 1 or more regular push ups.

Once you get 1 down, then do 1, and then switch back to the knee push ups, and gradually increase the regulars that way. If you can't do 1 knee push up yet, then just keep doing bench presses with gradually increasing weight until you are at about 1/4 your body weight, that should be enough to allow you to do knee push ups.

Pull ups are harder, but as sweetn3ss said, the resistance bands are a good simulator, gradually increasing the repetitions and the tension until you can do 1 on your own and continue from there. Or if you go to the gym, you can do the assisted pull ups on the machine, they can be set to almost any resistance.

Excellent replies. In my Fit Test, I could do maybe 2 push-ups, not very deep and no pull-ups. After 119 days doing P90X I can do 2 pull-ups. But I am strong! I do a lot more push-ups but still have to go to my knees to knock out the last few. Do your best and forget the rest. We took breaks all the time at the beginning and still take some now.

Lisa

There is a technique that I haven't tried yet, but have heard some people swear by as a means of reaching some target number of chin-ups and pressups.

Say someone had a goal to do 3 sets of 10 chin-ups. You do as many regular as possible and then make up the rest with negatives. So say you intially can only make 5, you then quickly grab a stool or something to allow you to get into the "top" position and slowly (over 3 or 4 seconds) lower yourself down. Keep repeating for the 5 reps your failed by, each time using the stool to get up in that top position to do the negative.

So intially your sets might be something like only 2 chin-ups, 8 negatives. But (I am yet to test this theory) more than one person I know who can do kazzilions of chin-ups has said that they used that technique to keep pushing towards a goal, the negatives gradually developing the strength to do more "positives" next time.

A negative press-up is starting in the top position, slowly lowering down, holding for a say two-three seconds near the ground and then just collapsing.

I will let you know how this theory goes because as soon as I get over a flu I intend to try it in order to work towards some chin-up/press-up goals.

I started my first round of P90X on April 3rd, 2009. I could not do one push-up. Seriously, I couldn't even lower to the bottom of a push up on my toes. So, I did them on my knees. I tried every night before going to bed to do one on my toes. I finally succeeded in week #6 of that round of P90X. From then on, I made myself start on my toes, and I dropped to my knees when I couldn't do anymore. I also used the p90X log sheets and wrote down how many I did on my toes and how many on my knees, and I pushed myself to not slide backwards on the 'real' push ups. You'll get there...it will take time. For me, dropping about 12 lbs. in 6 weeks helped a TON.

Pull ups were a different story. I used resistance bands for my first full 13-week round of P90X. In round 2, I got a pull-up bar. I used a chair to modify. As I got stronger, I did negatives...I used the chair to pull up, then took my foot off and lowered on my power, resisting the whole way. I was about 10 weeks into round #2 before I could finally do an unassisted chin-up (NOT a true pull up with palms facing away). So...that was 23 weeks into working out seriously. By that point, I was doing all of my push-ups on my toes...right around 180 in the chest and back workout.

You'll get there, but it'll take time. Lowering your body weight, increasing your muscle mass, and pushing yourself to try to do more each week will get you there.

After 3 rounds of P90X, I could still only do 6 true pull-ups unassisted before I had to put my foot back on the chair.

Great info! I was going to post something similar. It is frustrating not being able to do ONE darn pushup!