Yeah, original posted was 15, so that pretty much went nowhere... and the original poster didn't really articulate their point nearly as well... so here there is a discussion, where there, there was not.
I've always been a fairly big guy, and I dont' think i've been able to do ONE pull-up in my whole life... but I LOVED climbing the rope. Still not sure how I could do one and not the other, but it does use the muscles differently.
Also, I can totally see them exempting a girl who came every time she did pushups... could you imagine trying to explain to parents of other children or to your administration why one of your teenage girls keeps falls down screaming and moaning in hot, lusty ecstacy whenever she does pushups? That's an issue just waiting to make headlines with the PTA. Man, what a great visual...