Crunch Time

[Picaroon]

I'm going to be taking my PRT in about 2 months. My goal is to hit good high at least on everything.

The run is fine. I can run 1.5 miles in good high time no problem right now, and I haven't been running much at all.

Sit ups are a joke. No problem there.

But push ups are where I have trouble. I lift at the gym on this schedule (I only started a couple months ago):
Day 1: Biceps, back
2: Shoulders-triceps-chest
3: Rest
Repeat

How should I go about increasing my push ups? Is it better to just rest on my off days, or should I be pumping out push ups every day, even if I'm lifting using those muscles every 3 days?

I can only crank out a little more than 30 push ups in 2 minutes. The first 20 pushups are really easy, but then suddenly I have to rest a lot because my triceps just give out after that, and I'm not sure why (other than the fact that I'm apparently an extremely weak bitch of a guy).

I guess what I'm looking for is someone who understands muscles well to give me a good idea as to what my workout program for the next couple months should be.

I'll also start doing dips on my gym days.

 

[jt71582]

Sorry I'm no bodybuilder but I just wanted to let you know I'm in the same boat. I'm rocking out situps, run is decent and improving, and doing about 45 pushups in 2 minutes so they need work.

I try to do pushups every day. I don't know if that is the correct way to improve them but my logic was that there won't be rest days at OCS. I'd appreciate some input from AW as well. One thing I will say is DIPS! Dips suck at first but they seem to be helping immensely.

 

[DSL1990]

I'm going to be taking my PRT in about 2 months. My goal is to hit good high at least on everything.

The run is fine. I can run 1.5 miles in good high time no problem right now, and I haven't been running much at all.

Sit ups are a joke. No problem there.

But push ups are where I have trouble. I lift at the gym on this schedule (I only started a couple months ago):
Day 1: Biceps, back
2: Shoulders-triceps-chest
3: Rest
Repeat

How should I go about increasing my push ups? Is it better to just rest on my off days, or should I be pumping out push ups every day, even if I'm lifting using those muscles every 3 days?

I can only crank out a little more than 30 push ups in 2 minutes. The first 20 pushups are really easy, but then suddenly I have to rest a lot because my triceps just give out after that, and I'm not sure why (other than the fact that I'm apparently an extremely weak bitch of a guy).

I guess what I'm looking for is someone who understands muscles well to give me a good idea as to what my workout program for the next couple months should be.

I'll also start doing dips on my gym days.

2 months? just enough time for this plan then:
http://www.navy-prt.com/trainingpushup.html

 

[Cams1215]

Use the Navy-prt.com plan. I did it, and was in a similar boat... (no pun intended).. now i'm cranking out around 60-65 pushups and i've got two weeks until I PRT. The other thing about this is pace and form. If your form is off it will take extra effort, reducing the number you can crank out. If your pace is slow you are going to tire quickly. It will take a little time to find the combination of the two that will work best for you.

I also find it helpful to do some pushups outside of your normal PTing. Every 30min or so just drop down and do one or two sets to max. If you can still hold yourself up then you can do more pushups. If you're at the point where you cant push any more, fight against falling to the ground. It may not seem like it is helping, but you are training your muscle to work past the fail point. Basically the more you push yourself to failure, or a little beyond

Also right after long runs is a good time because the body is at the point of using stored energy systems to sustain itself, doing pushups when you are tired will help you push past the initial phase of fatigue during the PRT.

 

[xgrafcorex]

when i began working out to pass the PRT, i was doing the different types of exercise at different times. it's best to just do them all together. i was looking for help with my push ups as well..but the best way to get good at push ups is to do them..a lot. :icon_tong

 

[Spekkio]

Oh yay, weight lifting .

Weights are great, and they actually can help you increase the amount of pushups you do. The thing with weightlifting, as with any training where you are looking to increase your performance, is to train to failure each and every time. That sounds a lot easier than it is. It's very easy to become "comfortable" with a certain weight. For example, when you started you could barely get 6 reps of weight X up. Now you can do 10, so you feel good about that. Well, you really should be struggling to do 9 with the next higher weight up. That sorta thing.

Now as for your workout: The order of days don't matter, but the order of muscle groups within that day do. You want to work bigger --> smaller muscles. That means back first, then bis. Chest first, then tris. Shoulders should be your third day because you should not weight lift for more than 1 hour straight due to drops in testosterone; if you don't want to do legs on day 3 (and I don't because then I can't run for the next two, which is counter-productive to training for OCS imo), then do cardio after that and rest on day 4. If you do do legs, then do cardio on day 4. Rest on day 5. Wash, rinse, repeat.

The other thing is when you lift, you should be looking to do 12-16 sets for Chest/Back/Shoulders/Legs, and 9 sets for arms, assuming you do the arms after the respective "big" muscle group. Focus on pushing yourself to the max during each of those sets rather than doing more sets.

Since you're looking to build strength and endurance, I would recommend a shorter rest period between sets - 45-90 seconds. I would also recommend doing sets of 12-10-8-6 (3 exercises) or 12-10-8 (4 exercises). Something I personally like to do is a set of ab exercises between sets on every day, and some sets of pushups starting 48 hours after my chest day just to keep the muscles going. You're not looking to go nuts with the pushups on these off days, but doing them will add to your chest strength.

Other important exercises that you should do, even though they will be very difficult at first because you can't adjust the weight: pullups, dips, deadlifts.

Try to time it so that your chest day is 3-4 days before the PRT. Then do a set of pushups the day before, but stopping before failure. By then, you should know what that means. This is important because you need the extra oomph for the next day, so don't break your muscles completely down just yet.

 

[nzachman]

I was reading the OPNAV 6110.1H and it said for a correct sit-up, your elbows have to touch your thighs, which technically start just below your hip joint. But the picture shows the participant touching elbows half way up the thigh. Which is correct?

Cheers

Nick

 

[Spekkio]

I was reading the OPNAV 6110.1H and it said for a correct sit-up, your elbows have to touch your thighs, which technically start just below your hip joint. But the picture shows the participant touching elbows half way up the thigh. Which is correct?

"Thigh" refers to the entire section between your knees and hips.

 

[nzachman]

"Thigh" refers to the entire section between your knees and hips.

Thanks

 

[Achilles]

"Thigh" refers to the entire section between your knees and hips.

So I don't have to touch my elbows to my knees? That'd make life easier.

 

[CalPolyPilot]

Push-ups

The secret to doing a lot of push ups in a small amount of time is working on your muscle endurance. Overall strength is great; however, for the PRT, its a test of endurance not strength. If you want to improve your muscle endurance you need to start training your core, arms, and back to lift your body weight. Here is the program I used that got me to 90 push-ups/2min.

First- if you find that after 20 or so push-ups your core (abs, lower back...etc) starts to hurt, you need to strengthen that are first. Without a strong core, the rest of your body is nothing.

(1) Start with 20 regular push-ups (or as many as you can do comfortably without muscle failure)

(2) Next, divide the reps you did from step 1 by 2. This is the amount of reps for the next type of push-up. For the next one you will need something to put your feet on (chair, coffee table, something to incline your feet preferably about a foot off the ground). With your feet on the chair, table...etc, and your hands on the floor, do half the reps of step one. This is called a decline push-up.

(3)The next push-up is the incline push-up, which is opposite to the decline push up. This time put your hands on the chair, table,...etc and your feet on the floor and try to perform the same ammount of reps from exercise 2.

(4) Lastly, you are dead tired from the last three sets, but your arms still have a little energy left and you want your muscles to fail. Endurance comes from bringing your muscles to failure. So for the last excersise, do push-ups from your knees(girl pushups, no offense) untill you can't possibly do anymore.

The goals is to increase the ammount of reps you do on the first exercise. I started at 25 and I am now doing 60 push-ups in my first set after 2 months. So every other day you do this workout, try to increase your reps by 5.

Overall, the key is to bring your muscles that perform the pushups to failure every time you workout. Eventually, you will notice that it takes longer for your muscles to fail (increase in endurance!!).

Hope this helps, always remember to push yourself

 

[CalPolyPilot]

hmm posted twice on accident

 

[Spekkio]

A proper weight routine will work on both strength and endurance as well.

 

[VIZKRIEG]

One thing I was told when I still wanted to go Navy was to practice staying in the leaning rest for long periods of time. Nothing crazy, like a half hour, but I started just staying there for two minutes, and worked gradually up to eight minutes. I never got less than the max in a PRT after that, and I was not good at push ups at all prior to that.

 

[BACONATOR]

One thing I was told when I still wanted to go Navy was to practice staying in the leaning rest for long periods of time. Nothing crazy, like a half hour, but I started just staying there for two minutes, and worked gradually up to eight minutes. I never got less than the max in a PRT after that, and I was not good at push ups at all prior to that.

Leaning rest?