little muscular strength. reporter: a former marine corps officer commanded trips in afghanistan. could you do three pullups? i was able to do five pullups. reporter: women have to learn how to do pullups. something many have never done. you sort of experiment with different techniques. you figure out what other exercises to do. reporter: critics say the push over pullups is part of a bigger problem. pressure from the white house to make the military gender neutral. something is wrong here. it s not the women s faults. it s the policy that marines are pursuing. reporter: still some women are clearly ready. 13 female marines have just passed the gruelling 60-day training course but this postponement is a setback for
generally i m not for lowering standards. she is a form he marine corp officer who commanded troops in afghanistan. i was at one point able to do five but it was that first one that took me the longest to get to. she said women have to learn how to do pull-ups. something many have never done. experiment with different techniques. you figure out what other exercises to do. critics say the big push over pull-ups is part of a bigger problem. pressure from the white house to make the military gender neutral. something is wrong here and it is not the women s fault. it is the policy the marines are pursuing. obviously this is a big deal, chris lawrence. what do the marines do next so they re not in this same spot a year from now? it is clearly a setback to put thousands of women into combat roles by 2016. look, there are women who are clearly ready. 13 female marines just finished
something many have never done. you experiment with different techniques. you figure out what other exercises to do. reporter: critics say the big push over pull-ups is part of a bigger problem, pressure from the white house to make the military gender neutral. something is wrong here. and it s not the women s fault. it s the policy that the marines are pursuing. reporter: still, some women are clearly ready. 13 female marines have just passed the grueling 60-day infantry training course. but this postponement, it s a setback for the plan to move thousands of women into combat roles by 2016. now, the marines could impose the three-pull-up standard next year, but there s no guarantee. fred? thanks so much, chris lawrence. all right. a new piece of the puzzle in the michael schumacher accident. will a helmet camera show what really happened? and the bitter cold in the u.s., wait until you hear what s coming next from mother nature. [ sneezes, coughs ]
score perfect because so few passed, the marines will let them choose to hang on the bar for 15 seconds and pass without doing any pull ups. wide grip works best for you. reporter: they admit pull ups are better than the flexed arm hang elicits little muscle strength for military tasks such as pulling yourself over obstacles and other equipment. she is a former marine corps officer who commanded troops in afghanistan. could you do three pull ups? at one point, i could do fife. the first one took the longest to get to. reporter: women have to learn how to do a pull up. experiment with different techniques. you figure out what other exercises to do. critics say the push over pull ups is part of a bigger problem, pressure from the white house to make the military