Pushups, having trouble.

Cdt Matteo

Cdt Matteo

Active member
Hey, I'm having lots of trouble with pushups and I can't do anymore than 22ish (sometimes 25). I'm doing my pushups right but I just can't do as many as I would like to. I do them every day, about 120 (20 each) but I can't get it over 20 per repitition. I'm stuck and being stuck at 20 pushups and Army Reserve in 2 years (33rd Combat Engineer Battalion), that isn't good. Could anyone give me some tips of any sort to improve my number of pushups per repetition?

As for sittups, I can do 200 without stopping and with a little sweat on my forehead if I'm wearing those wool socks that I'm issued by my Cadets. If not, no sweat, litteraly!:D

Thanks a lot in advance.
 
I would say that any type of upper body workout you can get into will help. Obviously, bench press and tricep exercises will help build upper body strength for pushups. The key though, is endurance.

When you go through your initial training, you'll get 'dropped' for everything.....uniform not up to par, goofy expression on your face, being too "Hooah," getting sick, asking a stupid question, eating too slow, you name it. Depending on your training and the cadre, you can literally expect to do at least 1000 pushups a day.

In other words, having an upper body like Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't going to help you with military pushups. You want to develope strength, but also be able to pump them out all day long.

I'm no fitness guru, but I would suggest getting in the habit of doing pushups all the time....do a set when you get up in the morning, another before breakfast, before lunch, before dinner, and again before going to bed. Elevate your feet (on a chair or something...at least) and do four count pushups: "1, 2, 3, ONE; 1, 2, 3, TWO; 1, 2, 3, THREE..."

Do widearm, closearm, diamond, regular. ... ...

Do this in conjunction with your normal workout program (running, weights, etc). Hope this helps a little.

Good luck! Now, go beat your face!
 
And don't spend the money on those special push-up bars that you see on TV that were developed by a Navy SEAL for two easy payments of $19.95, but do get a cheap set of them. Back in the day, I used to do 20 push-ups every morning using push-up bars before I showered. One day, just for the heck of it, I started cranking out regular push-ups, and stopped at 70 -- and still felt like I could go on.
 
Exaggerate the push-up form, i.e. if the standard is for your back to be at least parallel with your arms, exaggerate by going further (like all the way to the ground), so when you are tested, doing the standard is no sweat. Concentrating on quality over quantity, in my opinion and experience, is the key to doing well on tests. It may be hard at first, but after a while, when you're totally smoked from doing exercises all day long, at least you won't be worried about cadre yelling at you for your form.
 
Just keep working at it, but also make sure to give yourself a break once in a while. Doing nothing but upper body every single day can actually do more damage than good.

And as for the number of push ups in the run of a day, TI is a little off, as you'll only end up doing maybe 200-300 a day on BMQ, and it might ramp up a bit during SQ and subsequent training. 25 push ups is the maximum your staff can give you at one time, and they usually will only make you do them once per screw up.

In any even, good luck when you join up, and whatever you do, don't flaunt the fact that you were a Reservist when you join the Reg Force and come to RMC. Experience is good, but thinking that you're better than others isn't.
 
Drop yourself every hour on the hour for 20 PU,s.
You will soon be able to increase repetitions.
DO NOT trade endurance for form, keep them strict and you will in a matter of days be able to increase.
 
Cdt Matteo said:
Hey, I'm having lots of trouble with pushups and I can't do anymore than 22ish (sometimes 25). I'm doing my pushups right but I just can't do as many as I would like to. I do them every day, about 120 (20 each) but I can't get it over 20 per repitition. I'm stuck and being stuck at 20 pushups and Army Reserve in 2 years (33rd Combat Engineer Battalion), that isn't good. Could anyone give me some tips of any sort to improve my number of pushups per repetition?

As for sittups, I can do 200 without stopping and with a little sweat on my forehead if I'm wearing those wool socks that I'm issued by my Cadets. If not, no sweat, litteraly!:D

Thanks a lot in advance.
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Like TI said, it's about acclimation and endurance. When I train, I think of it like this- people are depending on my strength and endurance, and that's my motivation to do well. Latch onto an idea like that, and don't accept anything less than 25 per set. Gradually increase your number of reps in a set per week- say, 20 one week, 25 for a couple, bump it up to 30 by the fourth, until you're up to fifty, then start tacking on more sets. It's as much a mental block as physical, and like these other guys said, keep your form to avoid injury and learning a crappy pushup.
 
Cdt Matteo said:
Hey, I'm having lots of trouble with pushups and I can't do anymore than 22ish (sometimes 25). I'm doing my pushups right but I just can't do as many as I would like to. I do them every day, about 120 (20 each) but I can't get it over 20 per repitition. I'm stuck and being stuck at 20 pushups and Army Reserve in 2 years (33rd Combat Engineer Battalion), that isn't good. Could anyone give me some tips of any sort to improve my number of pushups per repetition?

As for sittups, I can do 200 without stopping and with a little sweat on my forehead if I'm wearing those wool socks that I'm issued by my Cadets. If not, no sweat, litteraly!:D

Thanks a lot in advance.
Click to expand...

Try backward arm dips, 5 sets of 10 repetitions every other day. Also start doing elevated push ups.
 
More good advice, but like I said- focus on quality, not quantity, and don't leave your form until you have the basic locked into muscle memory.
 
A- If you are worried about improving- slowly increase the noumber of push ups per set. I am talking over periods of weeks, not days. In a couple of months youll be doing easily twice as much pushups, unless your physology is diffrent than all other human beings(and as a former boot commander, trust me ive seen some very phiscally backwards soldiers:))
B- As for tests- In my experience when you know there is no choice your physical abileties enhance dramtically. I am not a very big fan of fitness(classic IDF tank trooper) but when i had tests i usually could do twice as many push ups as in other situations.
C- One last thing- and this is a sound truth for any high level effort- pain is somthing you can ignore. Your arms and legs will hurt like hell, your stomach muscles will feel on fire, but its not beyond your(or anyones) abilety to ignore it. Just think about what you are doing it for, and try to pretend there is no physical link between your brain and your limbs. I cant count the ammount of times i told my self "there is no pain, there is no pain" or tried to convince my self my shoulders or legs are too numb to hurt. It worked for me, and i could usually carry a strecher, for example for much longer than the other guys. I also managed to carry one on one some very big guys, and i weigh in at about 65 kg. Its not cause i super strong, far from it, its like we say in the IDF "All in your head".
 
Thanks a lot guys, that's really helping me a lot actually. I never thought at the psycological aspect of it but it's helping a lot thinking about it. I like to believe that pain is weakness leaving your body.

Any who, I'm back from a FTX (Field Training Exercise) with my Cadet Corps. We did a good amount of exercise so I'm a tad tired to start on my pushups today, but tomorrow is a different story :)
 
You should work yourself when you're in your weakest state. It hurts but it helps a lot.
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yes but its very important to get good sleep(6 houres anight at least) and eat proteins. Other wise your just tearing muscle tissue down and your boday cant rebuild it.
 
KJ said:
Drop yourself every hour on the hour for 20 PU,s.
You will soon be able to increase repetitions.
DO NOT trade endurance for form, keep them strict and you will in a matter of days be able to increase.
Click to expand...

Worked for me, came from the same person too (imagine that... :)

There is no quick fix to a low push up score all you can do is push yourself. Do 20 one day and do not stop until you hit 21 the next, then 22, then 23 and so on. If you get to the point where you cannot do more pushups, do inverted push ups. Do wide arm and diamond, do all kinds of pushups but absolutely remember form.

Work your body, and your body will work for you.
 
repetition, doesnt matter what fancy way you divide em up or how you do it end the end... just keep doing it and push yourself alittle farther daily and you will be able to do more with time...
 
Wow, this is working wonders for me, I jumped from 20 to 25 by pushing it and now my standard is 25. Working on 30!
 
Cdt Matteo said:
Wow, this is working wonders for me, I jumped from 20 to 25 by pushing it and now my standard is 25. Working on 30!
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Way to go dude. Never sell yourself short and keep pushing. Trust me, it pays off in the end. Apply yourself to every area of your workout too... it will do wonders for your total fitness.

And when you run out of motivation, redneck has got your back. :whip:
 
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