preparing for military next year, need advice. page

[breetbree]

i'm going Army infantry and want to be an airborne Ranger. the physical requirements are pretty big for these guys, 80 push ups and situps is ideal for ranger. i'm at about 55-60 range for push ups and i want to improve on them and my running mostly. i need tips for improving push up max, running speed/ endurance, sit up max, and also better at pull ups. advice would be greatly appreciated.

[dgreenwood]

Don't make this more complicated than it is. The best way to get good at pushups, situps, pullups, and the two mile run is to do these activities. I was in the Army for six years. These are perfect movements to utilize the "Grease the Groove" technique.

[breetbree]

yea, not trying to overcomplicate things, just wondering if anyone had any good methods to bettering at them. and i've done a bit of grease the groove before, just trying to do max set work outs to burn fat and what not. and thank you for your service.

[dgreenwood]

On two different installations I was a member of the team that was assigned to run the "Remedial PT" program. Remedial PT was to help the soldiers who had failed a PT test or who didn't pass the height/weight standards to comply with the standards as quickly as possible.

There was a lot of experimenting with assistance exercises and motivational tactics but nothing helped soldiers pass a PT test as quickly as concentrating on the exercises they'd be tested on (pushups, situps, 2 mile run). Trust me, everyone wanted to be the person to come up with the magic formula of complementary exercises that made it easier. A lot of stuff works but nothing better than doing a ton of repetition of the exercise you'll be tested on. The reason is that there is more to it than just building muscles; repetition of the the precise movements will cause your central nervous system to acclimate to that task and becomes more efficient.

Good luck! I liked hanging out with the Rangers, nobody seemed to be having more fun than those guys, no matter what the task was.

[breetbree]

it should be better after i cut weight too. i'm about 175-180, hopefully i'll get down to 150-160, i think that would help not having to push as much weight when i do my push ups. i have a 40 pound weight vest, i was thinking about doing my max with that then greasing the groove using that weight vest. how many weeks did you do gtg? and did you take any days off like on weekends? and how many sets today, i heard like 3 or 4 but not sure. and cool, i thought Rangers were all business, nice to know they get some time to have fun

[dgreenwood]

Cutting weight will really improve your pullups and run right away. It should help your pushups/situps too but you'll be amazed at what it does for pullups/run.

I was greasing the groove before I ever really knew what it was. It was called basic training. Again, don't think too much on this. Just pick a number of pushups you can do pretty easily (hopefully 10, 15, or maybe 20?) and do sets throughout the day. No matter what you're doing, take a minute and knock them out. Hopefully you can do this 5-8 times a day, every day. You should never feel like you have muscle failure, you're just knocking them out easily and jumping up and getting back to what you were doing. Every 3 or 4 days you could take a half hour and really smoke yourself. Do a pyramid to 10 or 12 alternating pushup/situp (1 pushup, 1 situp, 2 pushups, 2 situps; all the way to 10 or 12 and then back down to 1). This sounds easy but you won't be able to complete it at first. Just keep working at it.

[steve.mull]

Another good routine is to do 10 pushups every minute for at least a half hour. Starts off really easy but when its said and done you did 300 pushups. You get to a point similar to "the wall" for runners where you can barely do ten. Then all of a sudden you're banging them out faster then you were in the beginning. Can do the same thing for sit ups.

Just a heads up, before I got out this summer there was a new format for the PT test that was supposed to be implemented in this year I believe. A look at the Army’s new PT test - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times
Good luck and have fun on sand hill

[breetbree]

that's a great idea too. something i did for like 2 straight hours: take a hat upside down and place it 2 or 3 feet away. take a deck of cards and if one doesn't land in the hat, do the amount of push ups according to the number on the card (face cards= 10). i'll be sure to try all of those methods, thanks guys.

[ATTAACK]

Another good routine is to do 10 pushups every minute for at least a half hour. Starts off really easy but when its said and done you did 300 pushups. You get to a point similar to "the wall" for runners where you can barely do ten. Then all of a sudden you're banging them out faster then you were in the beginning. Can do the same thing for sit ups.

Just a heads up, before I got out this summer there was a new format for the PT test that was supposed to be implemented in this year I believe. A look at the Army’s new PT test - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times
Good luck and have fun on sand hill

The proposed new pt test has been scrapped. For the foreseeable future it will remain the same.

My PT score has improved dramatically from simple weight training. I do a three day rotation: back/bis, chest/tris, legs. I do some cardio beforehand. Before hitting the gym my PT was my weakness. I've added about 20 push-ups and 25 sit-ups.

[Annlee]

You might also have a look at this thread - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread36285.html and then Tor's follow-on - http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread54568.html