Physically weak

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I have always been such a wimp! But to the point where as a kid I knew it wasn't normal. I was an active child and teen but I could never get my strength up. I couldn't kneel in church without trembling because of the strain on my back. I couldn't do situps and pushups in P.E. I remember one summer I decided I would get as strong as I could while I was off school. I worked out every day, throughout the day. By the end of the summer I was able to do a single pushup. I was proud...I don't think I even can now.

What is up with that? Does anyone know? Is there something I'm missing about strengthening the body?

It's really no big deal once you become an adult.

I'm not physically "strong," either---but I've done 3 marathons.

Just go out and walk, or do aerobics or yoga and stuff. Just be active, and you'll be okay.

Not many women can do "full" pushups, anyway. That's why there are "female" pushups.

Nutrition

Some diseases involve weakness

Not everyone has the same athletic potential

Perhaps its just your genetic makeup.

You dont have to be strong to be healthy!

Yeah, I can relate to that. I was also unusually physically weak, at least for my size (I was never exactly runty, though I was thin). My brother's size also did not exactly correspond to the level of his physical strength (he's big, broad, but wimpy in terms of strength).

I'm no expert in this matter, but I think that lower physical strength might be linked to the generally lower motor skills that are seen with people on the spectrum. The thing is that aside from muscle mass, physical strength (especially the explosive type of strength) is determined also by the efficiency of the neuromuscular cascade, e.g. the ability of the brain to generate and send enough of signals along the neural network to activate a corresponding number of muscle fibers.

Mark Rippetoe even claimed that you can tell a potentially great athlete from average one just by telling them to jump as high as they can. Those with more efficient neuromuscular cascade will naturally jump higher. So increased clumsiness of people on the spectrum may be the result of lower efficiency of the neuromuscular cascade, which also would be linked to lower levels of physical strength, but it's just a hypothesis I have with no real data behind it.

In terms of strengthening the body, the key things are the principle of progressive overload (exercising with manageable but challenging load and increasing this load as you get better), appropriate nutrition and enough of rest and sleep.

If you are more interested in this topic, I suggest reading Starting Strength from the aforementioned Mark Rippetoe as he has a lot to say on the topic of increasing physical strength. Thinner, Leaner, Stronger from Michael Matthews is also a good source of information for this topic + it includes a lot of useful information pertaining to proper nutrition.

You can also PM me if you like; I find the topic of strength training and nutrition very interesting and I'm more than happy to rant about it lengthily to anyone who's willing to listen.

Sounds like me. I have always had difficulty building muscle. And if I am sedentary the muscle loss is rapid. Even in my 40s I realized that if I was sedentary for months in the winter it would get painful just to walk. Here is a study of kids with ASD and diagnosed mitochondrial disorder.
Mitochondrial Disease in Autism Spectrum Disorder Patients: A Cohort Analysis

Note that Fatigability/Exercise Intolerance is the most common problem. I know that I was very quick to tire when walking and would have my father carry me on his shoulders. I don't have a mito. diagnosis, but do have an oculomotor abnormality, which is another condition they found.

On the plus side, due to my light weight, if I train as a runner I win races now in my 60s. Just have to imagine the competition is those kids who picked me last for the team in gym class and I can kick their butt .