Hi everyone, I'm 16 and I'm trying to get in shape i can do about 27 push-ups max till lose form but i want to be able to do 50 or so and i was wandering if i should do them till cant to do anymore then rest a minute then do it again till i collapse I'm not trying to get buff or anything just trying to get in shape for the army. and should i also do this for pull-ups or running?-Thanks
Amber - I'd do in between the maximum I can do. Like, do 15 then take a 30 second break. Then do 15, and take another break. The short break in between will take some of the "pain" away when you start your next rep.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, do the same with pull-ups.
With running, run until you almost get tired. Then stop and walk for about a minute, then continue running.. and so on.
joe714 - below is the 7 weeks to 100 push ups site.
ReplyDeletebetter advice than i'd give you.
H - Rest maybe 2.5 minutes or so. This should allow you to recuperate some energy. The short 1 min interval is also fine though, if you want a higher intensity training.
ReplyDeleteTraining for endurance isn't too different from other forms of training. You still need occasional rest. However, from my limited experience, the army/navy isn't the best place to focus on proper exercise safety and optimization. The military is about pushing you past your limits. You are going to hurt. You are going to be pushed past your breaking point. You are going to be sore. You are going to have some joint stress. You might end up with some injuries. Who knows. But the military is not a personal trainer or physical therapist. It's the military.
All that said though, I would recommend taking rest days here and there. Pushing your muscle's limits requires you to train hard and back off. Don't do pushups all day. That's not going to help. However, one tip I've seen floating around is: Get a doorway pullup bar for your room. Every time you walk past it, do as many pullups as you can do without strain. Once you get a little tired, stop. Do this repeatedly throughout the day. This way, you are 'coasting' on your muscles without pushing them to exhaustion. Other days/weeks, you could alternate this strategy with a strategy that DOES tax your muscles (max reps to failure, etc.). This will ensure that your body knows how to handle stress/exhaustion.
I'm no expert, just throwing out some ideas.
Byron B - Ok the best thing you can do to increase the amount of push-ups you can do is increase your endurance AND your strength as there is a correlation between the two.
ReplyDeleteFor example on Monday - Get a back-pack if possible (or a bench and barbell) and add weight until you can do no more than 12 reps, then rest 2 minutes and go again. Do 3 sets total.
On Thursday - Now lets do plyometrics, or clapping push-ups, this builds power/strength/endurance. Do a clap in between push-ups until you fatigue then do ordinary push up to fail out on the set. Do 2-3 sets.
On Saturday - Do 3 sets of ordinary push-ups to failure on each set.
Each Monday try increase weight, each Thursday try do more reps, or go for 2 claps for the first few push-ups, each Saturday go for a higher number. So you can do Mon, Thur and Sat or Tue, Fri, and Sun etc which ever suits but space out like i have there, best of luck.