Posted: 6/11/2014 6:17:25 AM EDT
| Looking for advice on increasing my max for pft I'm taking in a month. I need to do a minimum of thirty, and can't seem to increase regardless if I do or don't take day/s off between doing push-ups. I'm stuck on 26-27. Most days I'm doing 100 push ups in as few sets as possible. Any advice is welcomed. |
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Dont take days off do them every day and as many times in a day as possible.
I would be doing PUs as soon as I got outta bed, during lunch break, or anywhere I can get the time to do a minutes worth as many as I can. Dont just do reps of 10 or 20.... do for broke for 1 minute..then once you can maintain a constant rythem at 1 minute go to 2 minutes. I know it sucks to hear but, you just gotta keep doing em. I started at 18 yrs old in good, maybe above ave .shape doing about 55 PUs in the 2 min. test. When I went to SFAS at 27, I was doing about 100-110 in 2 minutes and could go on for a few more miniutes if I needed. Keep doing em and hit em hard. |
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Here's the "one hundred" push-up routine. Gives the progression a little structure.
http://hundredpushups.com/week1.html |
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Quoted: Here's the "one hundred" push-up routine. Gives the progression a little structure. http://hundredpushups.com/week1.html That routine worked for me. I got the app on my phone and set my alarm a couple times a day. I also mounted a set of push-up bars to the floor so I could pull my body down instead of just relying on gravity. The increase of intensity and speed seemed to really help, although it could have just been the placebo effect  Edit: I'm 41 |
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Here's a trick, although you should have come to us sooner: 30 days isn't a lot of time but then again, you're only 3 short and adrenalin should be able to make up that difference.
Try doing pushups with your hands on basketballs or the equivalent thereof and your feet on a third ball (challenging) or at least on a box/block to make up for the height difference. Until you get good at them, you will be starting with that shaky arm feeling you end up with when doing regular pushups. IME, since the ball pushups strengthen the secondary/stabilizer muscles in your arms and shoulders, it makes normal pushups a lot easier. In other words, if you can do 30 ball pushups, you should easily smoke 30 normal pushups. Other than that, if it's a timed event like the Army APFT, you need to train both your endurance, which it sounds like you are by doing up to 100 in sets, and your pace. You also need to train at "race pace" as a runner would say. |
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Did you do the daily workout multiple times a day? Or you just broke up those sets throughout the day?
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That routine worked for me. I got the app on my phone and set my alarm a couple times a day. I also mounted a set of push-up bars to the floor so I could pull my body down instead of just relying on gravity. The increase of intensity and speed seemed to really help, although it could have just been the placebo effect
Edit: I'm 41 Quoted:
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Here's the "one hundred" push-up routine. Gives the progression a little structure. http://hundredpushups.com/week1.html That routine worked for me. I got the app on my phone and set my alarm a couple times a day. I also mounted a set of push-up bars to the floor so I could pull my body down instead of just relying on gravity. The increase of intensity and speed seemed to really help, although it could have just been the placebo effect
Edit: I'm 41 |
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Quoted: Did you do the daily workout multiple times a day? Or you just broke up those sets throughout the day? Quoted: Did you do the daily workout multiple times a day? Or you just broke up those sets throughout the day? Quoted: Quoted: Here's the "one hundred" push-up routine. Gives the progression a little structure. http://hundredpushups.com/week1.html That routine worked for me. I got the app on my phone and set my alarm a couple times a day. I also mounted a set of push-up bars to the floor so I could pull my body down instead of just relying on gravity. The increase of intensity and speed seemed to really help, although it could have just been the placebo effect Edit: I'm 41 I did the daily workout once per day, usually the morning. I set my alarm 4 times a day and within 15 minutes of the alarm I would find a place to do one single set of as many push-ups as I could muster to failure. I did them in stairwells, basements, bathrooms, garage floors, wherever I was but without drawing dork attention and being 'that dude'. Sometimes I skipped because there really was no place to do them. I would start to sweat but cooled down to normal within a 5 minutes. Most times no one had any idea I just did push-ups next to my office chair like some sort of freak The idea is you can do ANYTHING for a minute so for that single minute just go all out every time. gl
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https://armyranger.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=19586&sid=52437fa51d26b3360b6ec8d3d80b1dfd
Suggest using this for long term improvement. If you also search around the forum there is a lot of information on sit up, and run time improvement. |
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I'm not worried about pace. Just need the minimum in 60 seconds. When I get to 26-27, I am 35 seconds or so in. It's just getting the endurance to go that few more. I have been there. It is mental. Do your 27 at 'race pace'. When you plateau, stop, but do not come out of the front leaning rest position. Rest for 5-10 seconds, do one more. Rest 5-10, do one more. You can do this. I know you can. Get it out of your head that you can't. You will improve. Also, don't be the guy that does 30 and stops. Be the guy that goes until the clock runs out. Make it your goal to do 50 or more. Also, do not do just one set a day. Do several throughout the day. Make a game out of it. We had a rookie that could barely do 13 good pushups when he got here. Within a month we had him doing 50 at a set. We turned it into a game. We had challenges, when he couldn't perform them, he earned pushups. At the end of the day, we all did them. Generally it was 100 or so that he owed. He would go to exhaustion, get 90 seconds to rest, then do more. By the end of the month he was up to 50 at a set. Of course, he was 21, so that helped I'm sure! |
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I don't plan on being that guy who does the minimum and stops regardless of time. I just want to make sure I can be at the minimum at race pace before signing up. Just don't know why it seems like adding these last few are being so hard. Except I am trying to also drop weight too. I have been doing 100 push-ups a day for a few weeks with no increase. I actually felt like I was better when I first started. I will just keep adding mores. Funny thing is I can do my first set of 27, follow up with 20-24 within a two minute rest. Then be at 15-20 per set until I hit 100.
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I have been there. It is mental. Do your 27 at 'race pace'. When you plateau, stop, but do not come out of the front leaning rest position. Rest for 5-10 seconds, do one more. Rest 5-10, do one more. You can do this. I know you can. Get it out of your head that you can't. You will improve. Also, don't be the guy that does 30 and stops. Be the guy that goes until the clock runs out. Make it your goal to do 50 or more. Also, do not do just one set a day. Do several throughout the day. Make a game out of it. We had a rookie that could barely do 13 good pushups when he got here. Within a month we had him doing 50 at a set. We turned it into a game. We had challenges, when he couldn't perform them, he earned pushups. At the end of the day, we all did them. Generally it was 100 or so that he owed. He would go to exhaustion, get 90 seconds to rest, then do more. By the end of the month he was up to 50 at a set. Of course, he was 21, so that helped I'm sure! Quoted:
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I'm not worried about pace. Just need the minimum in 60 seconds. When I get to 26-27, I am 35 seconds or so in. It's just getting the endurance to go that few more. I have been there. It is mental. Do your 27 at 'race pace'. When you plateau, stop, but do not come out of the front leaning rest position. Rest for 5-10 seconds, do one more. Rest 5-10, do one more. You can do this. I know you can. Get it out of your head that you can't. You will improve. Also, don't be the guy that does 30 and stops. Be the guy that goes until the clock runs out. Make it your goal to do 50 or more. Also, do not do just one set a day. Do several throughout the day. Make a game out of it. We had a rookie that could barely do 13 good pushups when he got here. Within a month we had him doing 50 at a set. We turned it into a game. We had challenges, when he couldn't perform them, he earned pushups. At the end of the day, we all did them. Generally it was 100 or so that he owed. He would go to exhaustion, get 90 seconds to rest, then do more. By the end of the month he was up to 50 at a set. Of course, he was 21, so that helped I'm sure! |
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Not trying to troll here....but....
People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? |
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Not trying to troll here....but.... People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? What do you think people who do physical work for a living do? In basic training we certainly didn't get any time off from PT. Don't see where he needs a rest from push ups unless he hurts himself. OP go ahead and do each set to muscle fatigue. Then once you're there drop to your knees and go until muscle fatigue again. Do this several times per day. By week two you will breezing through 30. BTW which academy are you trying to get into? |
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If all goes as planned, I'll be going through Macomb Community College's.
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What do you think people who do physical work for a living do? In basic training we certainly didn't get any time off from PT. Don't see where he needs a rest from push ups unless he hurts himself. OP go ahead and do each set to muscle fatigue. Then once you're there drop to your knees and go until muscle fatigue again. Do this several times per day. By week two you will breezing through 30. BTW which academy are you trying to get into? Quoted:
Quoted:
Not trying to troll here....but.... People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? What do you think people who do physical work for a living do? In basic training we certainly didn't get any time off from PT. Don't see where he needs a rest from push ups unless he hurts himself. OP go ahead and do each set to muscle fatigue. Then once you're there drop to your knees and go until muscle fatigue again. Do this several times per day. By week two you will breezing through 30. BTW which academy are you trying to get into? |
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Getting to 30 should be easy
Don't do push-ups everyday as a normal thing, or any other exercise for that matter. That's just stupid. Also strive to do more than just the minimums. |
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Quoted: Not trying to troll here....but.... People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? Valid question. Push ups aren't tearing and rebuilding at the same rate that a heavy lift does. The body is a very resilient machine which, unless really stressed, doesn't require the amount of recoup time we were all taught it did in the 1980's and 90's. This is one of the reasons that the high intensity and 90 days fitness videos exploded was because people began to get real tangible reults without living at a gym doing 3 sets of 10 all day. Your body has the ability to work much harder than the untrained mind and will.  Millions of serviceman can attest to that :-)
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Quoted:
Not trying to troll here....but.... People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? Bodyweight stuff typically doesn't take as long to recover from. Heavy weights take longer. I work my legs in some fashion probably 4 days a week- some days are heavy squats and other days it's some pistols or something. Recovery is fine. The popular myth is IMO that you have to totally rest a muscle group for days. Rest is good, but it doesn't mean do NOTHING and BW stuff isn't quite as taxing. |
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Bench heavy 2x per week. After your 3-5 sets of bench, do a max set of push-ups. On one other non-consecutive day, do sets of push-ups. Quoted:
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Would it be to my advantage to put extra weight on my back while doing them throughout the day? Bench heavy 2x per week. After your 3-5 sets of bench, do a max set of push-ups. On one other non-consecutive day, do sets of push-ups. This is another good plan. |
| I am two weeks out from my test. I have found for me at this point, the grease the groove method is working best. I am doing roughly 20 push-ups every thirty minutes until I'm around 200 for the day, M-F with the weekends off. I am now able to do the amount needed in the minute test with one short break in the up rest position to knock out the last few still with 15-20 seconds to go. So by the time my test rolls around, I should be good for the 30 consecutive, then with a rest or two knock out another 10 by the end of the time. |
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Quoted:
Not trying to troll here....but.... People always talk about "do as many as you can all day every day" in regards to pull ups and push ups. No one here is worried about rebuilding the muscle? I understand shocking the body to attempt to get it to adapt...but damn guys, it takes a muscle 2-3 days to repair minimum. Does no one remember this? Or is there some special exception for push up muscles that I am completely unaware of? well, i typically do pushups, pullups, and dips of different variations every day. it's a good warmup, and not even remotely like doing heavy bench/squat/deadlift every day. |
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I am two weeks out from my test. I have found for me at this point, the grease the groove method is working best. I am doing roughly 20 push-ups every thirty minutes until I'm around 200 for the day, M-F with the weekends off. I am now able to do the amount needed in the minute test with one short break in the up rest position to knock out the last few still with 15-20 seconds to go. So by the time my test rolls around, I should be good for the 30 consecutive, then with a rest or two knock out another 10 by the end of the time. Good deal man. Just manage your adrenaline on test day 
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Grease the groove is the way to go. I used GTG for chin-ups to get from 4 to 36 (strict) in about 3 months - this was over 4 years ago, though.
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When you reach 27, do one more...when you reach 28, do one more...etc. This is what I did for push-ups - just added 1 every day. Got up to 92, strict. Started stalling at that point, never made it to 100 because I got bored and moved to something else. Actually, thinking about this now, I would mix both of these methods. Add one everyday for a max-out set, then do GTG for the rest of the day for volume. |
| A little update. I took a 3 day break. Started back with gtg, on the second set I was feeling good and knocked out 30 and felt I had a few more without resting if I wanted to, but didn't want to go to exhaustion. I am also finding that the second or third set are some of my best feeling. So I plan on doing a few push-ups the morning of the test before I leave for the test as a warm up kind of. Ten days until testing. Thanks for everyone's help so far. |
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A little update. I took a 3 day break. Started back with gtg, on the second set I was feeling good and knocked out 30 and felt I had a few more without resting if I wanted to, but didn't want to go to exhaustion. I am also finding that the second or third set are some of my best feeling. So I plan on doing a few push-ups the morning of the test before I leave for the test as a warm up kind of. Ten days until testing. Thanks for everyone's help so far. Awesome, can't wait to hear how you nailed it. |
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I got up to 80 push ups in about two and a half weeks. When I got done with my runs I would do as many as I could and I'd try to push myself to do more every day.
To note. I was able to do 40 push ups when I started doing this. Sadly I allowed myself to get out of shape but I'm working to get back to where I was. |
| Just a quick update. Just got back from passing the physical fitness test. I needed 30 push-ups in 60 seconds, I knocked out 38 that counted. I needed 32 sit-ups in 60 seconds and I knocked out 37. Don't ask about the run, made it just by a hair. Thanks for all the advice everyone. Even thought his journey is just beginning, I appreciate everyone's help. I'm also down 15-20 pounds in the last 2 months as well. |