Hey all this is my first post on T-Nation. I have read articles before really like T-Nation. I just joined the navy and have to take a fitness test before i ship out to boot camp. Now this test is really easy to pass. Run 1.5 miles in twelve min do 47 pushups etc. But being sort of an over achiever, i don’t want to pass i want to kill the test. So the run is easy but the pushups to get outstanding is about 90 pushups in two minutes. So does anyone have a good pushup program i have a few months but i want to be as efficient as possible and not get in the way of my other lifts. Right now i am on a 4 day program upper/lower split.
When I was getting ready for the police academy, I took a ‘grease the groove’ type approach. During the work day, I’d duck into an empty meeting room or under my desk and bang out a set every hour on the hour. It wasn’t that difficult even in an office setting. I told anyone who asked it was my version of a cigarette break.
In the evenings while relaxing with the family, I’d hit a set at each commercial break or top of every inning while watching a baseball game. At sets of 25, it’s pretty easy to get 200+ in a couple hours of TV. I viewed it as my price of admission to the couch.
Google the 100 pushup website. It is laid out for you nice and simple.
Are you going for a special program? When did they institute a PT test to get INTO boot camp?
[quote]boatguy wrote:
Google the 100 pushup website. It is laid out for you nice and simple.
Are you going for a special program? When did they institute a PT test to get INTO boot camp?[/quote]
diagnostic, not a ‘for record’
So, recruiter’s thing? I’ve never heard of anyone going into the Navy having to pass a PT test prior to shipping, unless they were on a special contract, ie, BUDS/SWCC/Diver/EOD. I certainly didn’t have to. Had to pass one to get OUT of boot, but not INTO.
While you’re at it, why don’t you shoot for a sub 4-minute mile? That’ll really blow them away.
I agree with Mixicus, grease-the-groove style training is usually going to give you good returns while being easy to stick with. I’m not sure if the squids do much in the way of pull ups, but if they do I’d pick up the Armstrong program: Armstrong Pullup Program at Openbah / Journal of a Marine Officer Candidate
It worked for me before boot.
The 100-pushups program is great, it’ll tell you exactly how to start off based on how many you can currently do, and it’ll give you exact set/rep plans for each day.
The grease and groove thing is great, just be sure you aren’t ever going to fatigue. If you don’t want to do it every hour, a good thing to do is every day do a full set up to around 80%-ish of your max reps. If you max out every day you’ll overwork the muscles, but if you do a pretty good amount without hitting your max, you’ll teach your nervous system how to increase it’s work output, and increase muscle endurance.
Since you’re going for 90 in two minutes, you aren’t doing any weighted pushups or trying increase muscle strength, you’re just trying to increase your muscular endurance. Pushing them to 80-90% tops is a great way to do this, I would at least one day a week though. It’s okay to test your max number or go for as many as you can do in two minutes once a week or every other week, but doing it too often puts too much stress on your nervous system and you won’t recover adequately.
Good luck!