That is a rather misleading thing to say as there are 2 types of muscle fiber IIRC(power & endurance respectively). So if you have alot of Type 1 & not many of the Type 2 (ie. by genetics) then you will never be able to do a huge number of press-ups/whatever in comparison to someone who has loads of Type 2 & not many Type 1.

so there is actually some founding behind my excuse then!