Building up push ups?

[Luke Florin Carpenter]

Hey so I will have a fitness test when i start NROTC this fall and my push ups are lacking, in the two minutes i can only do about 50-60 and I would like to be around 80 or so. Anyone have any tips on how to build them up? currently I do the Seal Fit workouts.

[Dimitri Dziabenko]

EDT is always an interesting way to go. You could do around 100 push ups per workout, and do, say 15 on the minute, for around 7 min. Then 17 for 6 min., etc..., keeping the number of reps nearly the same, while reducing the amount of rest time you give yourself. It's essentially like many of the CF WODs, only paced.
If this is your goal, doing a lot of push ups will almost universally work, whether you do ladders, GTG, EDT. Pavel Tsatsouline has a whole bunch of Push Up programs detailed, where you do push ups throughout the day (every hour, or so). There is also a 100 push up program on the web. Making it part of your daily routine seems to be a wise thing to do in such cases.

[Ryan Whitley]

I wouldn't stress out about your first NROTC PFT. I would be willing to bet half of the cadets (or are they called midshipmen?) aren't going to even pass it.

I can only say what works for me. I do 100 pushups every day before morning PT. I try to do it in as few sets as possible. I can usually crank 90+ pushups on the APFT. I think the best way to get to where you can do a lot of pushups is to do a lot of pushups. There is no magic bullet.

[Michael Henry]

Originally Posted by Ryan Whitley

I wouldn't stress out about your first NROTC PFT. I would be willing to bet half of the cadets (or are they called midshipmen?) aren't going to even pass it.

I can only say what works for me. I do 100 pushups every day before morning PT. I try to do it in as few sets as possible. I can usually crank 90+ pushups on the APFT. I think the best way to get to where you can do a lot of pushups is to do a lot of pushups. There is no magic bullet.

I'm also a big believer in doing more push ups to get better at push ups. Volume is the key. However you decide, just make sure you use a method that helps you track improvement. That 100 every day is a good technique, although I'd argue you could drop that to twice a week and still have the same numbers. And unless you're just testing yourself, I've found that doing a specific # to be more effective than a timed set. To me it was more of a mental thing, working towards a # than just doing push ups for 2 mintues.

And yeah, most of you guys will fail that test anyway...

And sadly, some will probably never pass it.

[Matth Challoner]

I find that doing push ups all day say on the hour helps a lot

[Colin McNulty]

This is something I need to work on too. Take today's Cindy for example, it will be the push ups that slow me down long before the pull ups or squats do.

Whether it's 100 a day, every hour (no chance whilst at work) or some other regime. What's the recommendation for rest? Would you do 100 every day, 7 days a week, for 3 months? Or follow a more Crossfit style 3 on, 1 off, schedule? I'm guessing that rest day is there for a reason after all!

[Ryan Whitley]

Originally Posted by Colin McNulty

Whether it's 100 a day, every hour (no chance whilst at work) or some other regime. What's the recommendation for rest? Would you do 100 every day, 7 days a week, for 3 months? Or follow a more Crossfit style 3 on, 1 off, schedule? I'm guessing that rest day is there for a reason after all!

I do 100 as soon as I wake up. I literally get out of bed, on the floor, and knock out 100. After PT I do 200 AbMat situps. I don't train during the weekends, so it is Monday through Friday.

[Gillian Steele]

Hi

I'm from Australia and work in Royal Australian Navy - I'm not really what NROTC is? It is something like officer training? Our fitness test, are alot easier over here we only have to do 8 push ups on our toes for women, 45 sit ups, and a 2.4km run under 14 minutes (this all depends on your age). My jaw almost dropped when you said 90 push ups!!

[Paul Coplin]

Originally Posted by Michael Henry

I'm also a big believer in doing more push ups to get better at push ups. Volume is the key. However you decide, just make sure you use a method that helps you track improvement. That 100 every day is a good technique, although I'd argue you could drop that to twice a week and still have the same numbers. And unless you're just testing yourself, I've found that doing a specific # to be more effective than a timed set. .

I agree. Last year I went from not being able to do much more than 20 at a time, to 70 in a minute. I just did pushups every workout, a couple sets of however many. Started at 20. then upped to 40 at a time. It'll build, just do more pushups!

[Carlos Cristan]

Luke,
A method I used to augment the PRT program with new recruits when I was a DS was to do timed sets and looked like this.

Monday 2 sets of:
45s pushups
45s rest
30s pushups
30s rest
15s pushups
15s rest

Wednesday
same as monday

Friday 2 sets of:
1min pushups
1min rest
30s pushups
30s rest
15s pushups
15s rest

Monday
same as friday

Every other session bump up one of the times and keep progressing until you can do 2 sets of 2:00, 1:30, 1:00. Don't do pushups two days in a row. Only every other day and do a session twice before bumping up your time. If you want to pump up the intensity sprint a 400 after both sets and take a 2 minute break before doing the 2nd set. If you use it do it with situps too or your pushups will progress past your situp ability and then you'll be relatively weak at situps.