Posted on Sep 10, 2016
How do you train to max pushups on an APFT?
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I am a tall lanky guy. 6'4 and 165 lbs. I have trained many hours at home doing pushups trying to max my score on the APFT. I have no issues with the sit-ups or two mile run, but the pushups I just cannot max. The most I have ever done on an APFT is 65. I feel like I get so close but just can never quite reach the max at 71 repetitions. Any advice?
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 41
Quite a bit of decent training advice. I'm going to suggest something very simple that worked for me, although I am short and stocky. Try bringing your elbows in and doing pushups Ranger Style. It made all the difference for me. YMMV, but it's a simple fix that simply isolates different muscles.
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Eat meat, work out at the gym doing youre entire body, do pull ups, swimming
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Unfortunately us tall lanky guys have long arms and it takes us longer to complete one push up than say someone with short arms so speed as well as conditioning is something you need to work on. I would suggest resistance training with your push ups but do them as fast and as efficiently as you can.
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I would hit the weights in the evening for strength and do some diamond push ups to help strengthen your triceps, do your push-ups in sets you can only get stronger, it got to a point where I was hitting 75 for one minute and 114 for two minutes
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Way back in the eighties...I'm a tall lanky too, it's the travel time to break the plane that gets us. Try using a wide arm position, it shortens the distance significantly.
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What form do you use? 90° or tricep-ups? Try doing push-ups solely relying on your triceps. They are a more solid muscle and don't pain very easily. I easily bumped my push-ups at least by 20 by pulling my elbows in to my sides and using my triceps to lift my body weight. Give it a shot and good luck.
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SPC Jason Indreland
Start with 5sets of 50regular push up, then 5 sets of: 25wide arm, immediately to 25decline push up, immediately to 25diamond=1set. give that a week then5 sets of 100, 50,50,50 on the other 5 sets
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I use the Tabata method. I spent my deployments doing a lot of heavy weightlifting and found that I could benchpress well over my bodyweight; however I found that during the APFT, I would get extremely tight.
I've attached an article which explains a similar predicament. The article is written by a former Physical Education instructor at West Point. The author found a way to train for a bodybuilding competition and train for the APFT simultaneously.
Tabata is 8 sets of an exercise. I use it for sit-ups and push-ups. You do 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for 8 sets. I do this twice a week and consistently max push-ups and sit-ups.
Here is the link to the article: http://startingstrength.com/articles/army_weak_long.pdf
It's a good read. I have handed this out to countless Soldiers and have had success stories from those who applied it.
Best of luck.
I've attached an article which explains a similar predicament. The article is written by a former Physical Education instructor at West Point. The author found a way to train for a bodybuilding competition and train for the APFT simultaneously.
Tabata is 8 sets of an exercise. I use it for sit-ups and push-ups. You do 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest for 8 sets. I do this twice a week and consistently max push-ups and sit-ups.
Here is the link to the article: http://startingstrength.com/articles/army_weak_long.pdf
It's a good read. I have handed this out to countless Soldiers and have had success stories from those who applied it.
Best of luck.
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What I do to help me max my pushups I do Diamond Pushups until I can no longer do it. Take a 30 second rest, do regular pushups until exhausted, take a 30 second rest, and the pushups where the arms are just outside of your shoulder with. Do this 2 times a day spacing it every other day. I increased my pushups by 10. Let me know if this helps you at all
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Beginning in January, I started maxing my push-ups and beyond that. There are several things I did. First, I stop doing push-ups unless its at work. Push-ups are a waste of time and they can be counter productive unless other cross training methods are used such as a chest machine or hitting up the free weights on a bench. Another thing I did was lowering my body fat from 22 or 23 to 7 percent. My numbers improved every where not just in push-ups. My eating habits are on point. I reduced my sugar and simple carbs and raised my complex carbs. So far I am consuming nearly 500g a day of complex carbs. I have become a beast at 39 years old. I went from doing 50 to 60 push-ups in 2 minutes to doing 90 push-ups. My sit-ups went from 70 to nearly 90 in two minutes. My run has even went into the 13s in 3700 feet above elevation. My weight training in the gym consist of working upper, lower and lower at least once a week. I do some sort of cardio training nearly every day and it might be running on one day, or biking or low impact cardio machine. I am running over 10 miles now. I take my health and fitness very seriously now.
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I was a fairly lanky guy as well and used to do different hand placement about every 20 or so. This would help work different muscles throughout the 2 minutes. I think as long as your hand doesn't move from the ground you are good.
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What you gotta do is widen your arms out so you don't have to travel as far and you are still meeting the standard.
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I always maxed my push ups, and still would have time left. Go to the gym and work on declined bench press (head lower than the body) and flat bench press. I took a fellow NCO to the gym while we were deployed to Bosnia, and worked on this. He was amazed how simple the push up event became.
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If you are alloweddueing the test, (I was, as were all in my unit), keeping your hands flat on the deck, you can slide them to reposition them slightly further apart, creating an angle with them I will put more focus on your chestand less on your arms. I always started the first minute with a close placement, which works the arms more and minimal chest, then for the second minute/ last, I reposition at an angle and slightly further apart, which again puts more work on chest and less on arms.
As someone else mentioned below, do 20 and then go to a rest position for several seconds. Believe it or not, a lot of stress can impact poor performance. Have your overwatch tester annouce the time, realtime, to you.
I would do the following: (push-ups are done per second, 1pu in 1 second.)
Push 20 fast( but clean!) then rest 5, the. push 10, then rest 5, then push 5, and rest 5. (Or 10).
You now have 35 done and should be feeling warmed up, and have ten seconds left in your first minute, if you only rest for 5 on your last set.
Do the same for your last minute.
As SGT Manuel said, core exercises will help tremendously as you are using your core to maintain the "proper" front leaning rest position.
Go at YOUR pace, which you should have already established well before test time. Have a battle buddy test you and work out your own rhythm and pace. Do this every other day, at least three times a week so it becomes muscle memory. Now then, just apply that rhythm and pace (yours) come test time. Profit max pts
As someone else mentioned below, do 20 and then go to a rest position for several seconds. Believe it or not, a lot of stress can impact poor performance. Have your overwatch tester annouce the time, realtime, to you.
I would do the following: (push-ups are done per second, 1pu in 1 second.)
Push 20 fast( but clean!) then rest 5, the. push 10, then rest 5, then push 5, and rest 5. (Or 10).
You now have 35 done and should be feeling warmed up, and have ten seconds left in your first minute, if you only rest for 5 on your last set.
Do the same for your last minute.
As SGT Manuel said, core exercises will help tremendously as you are using your core to maintain the "proper" front leaning rest position.
Go at YOUR pace, which you should have already established well before test time. Have a battle buddy test you and work out your own rhythm and pace. Do this every other day, at least three times a week so it becomes muscle memory. Now then, just apply that rhythm and pace (yours) come test time. Profit max pts
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Bench press and plank until you die... But seriously, total upper body strength is key to push-ups, not just focusing on arms, shoulders, and chest. Core is essential.
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If you can do wider arm pushups the travel will be less, making it easier to max. Unfortunately, this uses your muscles differently, but you might want to consider it.
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Planks will definitely help I would also have someone place extra weight on your back ie 10lbs starting and build from there.
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