Rate my work out

[BarrettRC8]

So your saying that you have to use weights to build upper body strength? And pushups won't do that?

Not to the degree that weights will. It is generally assumed that you are pushing between 55 and 65% of your weight in a pushup. Assuming you are 200lbs, then you're pushing about 110 to 130lbs - Not bad, and if one has not been performing any exercise at all then they will certainly see muscular strength and endurance gains. However, getting stronger is all about progression, (certainly you can increase the reps, but there is the law of diminishing returns) and you can't exactly add weight, efficiently, to pushups in a way that will force your body to adapt that you can with iron.

Pushups will indeed help upper body strength. BUT weight lifting will signifigantly increase your gains. Especially dumbells will help isolate your triceps and chest. Don't go and grab the heaviest weight you think you can do 10 reps with tho. Your looking to increase endurance as well as strength. Do 3 sets of 20-30 on top of intermingling pushups with your runs. Heck a set of pushups in the morning is almost as good as coffee. Almost. That should help with the P/U prt.

Looks like I'm in the same boat as you guys, Damcrac and Krafty. I'm strong in the lower and upper body, with a pretty solid core that sadly is obscured by the extra pounds. Im 25 and my metabolism went from insaitiable to keep feeding me but its not going anywhere :tongue2_1. Thankfully I'm lactose intolerant so dairy is nonexistant in my diet which is pprolly why I never fully jumped off that cliff to completely outta shape. I'm just trying to lose this extra 15 and hit 195 before OCS. And I'm trying to twique my run to improve it before my prt even with the weight. And Ryan_cunningham I'm gonna try the sprints and ill letcha know how it goes.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend doing sets of 20 to 30 reps, save for maybe a drop set at the end of a workout. If you want to try it and see how it works, absolutely - Go for it. In my experience I've found that lifting heavy will provide you the muscular endurance that long sets of bodyweight exercises will, but will also allow you to handle much heavier loads. Not to mention its a much more efficient use of time.

When I was in Army ROTC and a member of Ranger Challenge, I continually competed with a buddy of mine in nearly everything. What started as 250 pushups and 250 situps a day in an attempt to score a 350 APFT on the extended scale, soon turned into 750/750 a day. It was boring, and took a little over 1.5 hours for the entire workout. When I was done, had my pushups improved? Absolutely. After a month of that, boredom took over however and I got back into the gym using weight that I can press 2-10 times. I can do more pushups now than I ever could then, and I'm much stronger.

Like I said, you're more than welcome to try whatever you want. Its how I've learned what works, for me. And perhaps that is what you will have to do because everyone responds different to specific stimuli. Find what works for you, but if you want to progress quickly, and don't have time for experimentation, lean on others who have gone before you and found what generally works the best.

And definitely let me know how those hill sprints work out for you. Tabata intervals on the erg machine might also help.

 

[MidWestEwo]

Back when I used to work out I alternated with the bench press. One of the best things that helped me do more push ups, and I can still do around 70 to 75 at failure, was to set up a bench press with about 135 pounds. I would then do a quick 10 reps, then lift my legs in the air and do 10 reps, set my legs down and continue with another 10 reps, and lift my legs up in the air again for the last 10 reps. That was pretty intense for me, and it was pretty embarassing for someone to help lift 135 pounds off of my chest when I couldn't finish the last 10 reps, but it helped out tremendously. I was able to do around 85 pushups at that time.

Edit: Also, putting your legs up on a couch arm and doing push ups are a good way to add variance to the work out too.

 

[callsignecho]

Issues I am having include shin splints (interior muscle type) and forgetting to breathe while running ( odd I know, but I actually have to remember to breathe enough to keep my legs from cramping up!)

Me too! A suggestion I got that helps a lot is to listen to cadences when you run. Singing along really helps regulate your breathing.

I do not suggest doing this in a gym, however. Muttering military chants in a crowded room kind of makes you look schizophrenic...

 

[Bell]

So how does the Navy test body fat percentage? I used a number of different methods and each of them are giving me completely different numbers.

 

[Jynx]

So how does the Navy test body fat percentage? I used a number of different methods and each of them are giving me completely different numbers.

The Navy tests you by taking your weight, the circumference of your neck, and the circumference of your waist. They then apply magical hocus pocus, and declare X%.

Going back to the other stuff, mind that when you're lifting upper body, you don't neglect the other portions of yourself. I'm a very T shaped guy, and love the bench, bicep curls, etc. Trouble is, if you add weight up there whilst neglecting abs, you'll cramp them because they can't support you during the run. You also risk your lower back. And your legs will have more to carry as well.
I'm not saying don't lift. I'm saying remember to keep your training proportional.

 

[Bell]

Thanks for the info.

 

[Archanan7]

Just an update, hill sprints did help improve my run time. After one session I dropped 30 sec off my 3 mile PR the day after while fatigued at the end of the week. Lets see what happens after a couple weeks eh? A big guy like me getting below 10 min on the PRT run should be respectable. (30 seconds more to go.)

 

[HH-60H]

The Navy tests you by taking your weight, the circumference of your neck, and the circumference of your waist. They then apply magical hocus pocus, and declare X%.

That's not quite right. The Navy estimates body fat % by taking your height and the difference between the circumference of you neck and the circumference of your waist and looking that up in a chart.

 

[Jynx]

That's not quite right. The Navy estimates body fat % by taking your height and the difference between the circumference of you neck and the circumference of your waist and looking that up in a chart.

It's by height? I stand corrected.

 

[smonahan]

Thought I would toss my two cents in here. I would not even begin to know how to gauge the best diet for a hard gainer/ectomorph but I will tell you that in my own personal experience with PFT/PRT/PFA's I have discovered that practice of the particular exercises paid the most dividends, I know that sounds like a no brainer but if you are doing lots of different exercises to get better at another the results might be marginal. This is just an opinion but I have gone from the worst scores to pretty good and have done it more than once sometimes. There was a time I could not run 1.5 under 13min, no pull-ups and less than 10 push-ups. I was 19 FML. What I found out over the next 9 years or so through trial and error was that continual practice of the specific exercises throughout the day made my scores sky rocket(obviously not referring to the run or swim). I would only max out once a week and just work on increasing the number of "easy" reps per set. Like I said this worked for me and every body is different but I have been able to bench 270 and do 120 push-ups but never during the same time frame, usually several months apart. As far as swimming and running go there are people who are naturals at swimming or running, maybe even both but the rest of us just have to bust our butts, intensity is the key for me I bought a heart rate monitor and kept track of my work-outs intensity levels for particular distances and different kinds of running routines. If you are having trouble with shin splints it could be because you are like the 80% who over pronate, so go to a running store have them analyze your run and set you up with the right shoes, those type of people usually take a lot of pride in helping you. Also, try a foam roller, I think it is called myo-fascial release, but it really can help your recovery time it really worked wonders for me, but I am a stiff old man. I would also limit the distance runs until you can run without soreness the next day. If swimming is more of your bag, i assume you know you can do that for the PRT, I always did. I would concentrate on keeping the swim sessions as intense as possible, if you are swimming 500m in over 10min then you really need to work on form before thrashing around for a mile. Total Immersion is a great book for that. I read that only 2% of America can swim 400m(random stat) so Bravo Zulu on the mile swim.

Hope something was helpful, if you want a pros advice google "stew smith" and go to his web page, can't remember what it's called but it has some fantastic advice for free and he really knows his stuff when it comes to military training.

Here are my scores on my SEAL PFA around late April. Swim 7:46(sidestroke), Push-Ups 119, Curl-Ups 86(dropped the ball there), Pull-ups 22(I have maxed at 27), 1.5 Mile Run 10:12. I'm 6'2" 205

These aren't fantastic numbers and there are people who could shame me in every aspect but I achieved these scores in relatively short order doing the things I talked about. Best of luck to you.