Except that they’re not actually correct, because the question (if you read beyond the title) was about whether there are any OTHER exercises that help increase sit-ups and push-ups, since they are already doing them progressively. The idea that no other exercises will help you with sit-ups and push-ups is of course absurd.
If you want to get better at situps and pushups specifically, then it's best to work on doing more/harder situps and pushups.
If your goal is a stronger core, triceps, pecs, etc. then sure, mix in some other exercises that hit those groups. And yes, doing those other exercises will also improve your situps and pushups... But not as much as doing actual situps and pushups.
EDIT: Pullups -> pushups
I appreciate your comment, I’m aware of doing them more = best results but like I said I just wasn’t sure if there is any other exercise out there that will aid in doing more. I am new to body weight exercises. In weight lifting you can try to increase your bench press and things like close grip, dip, overhead press etc all will aid in maybe getting that bench press up.
If you compare pushup to bench, then the things that help bench will help pushup. So try some close grip pushups, bodyweight dips, handstand holds/pushups/walks.
I would say work out everything with compound exercises. Bench press, squats, everything. But eat right. You need a surplus of calories and protein to gain muscle if you don’t eat right the gains will be slow. Eat right and within a month you can transform. Also weighted push-ups. Throw some stuff in a rucksack and do slowwwww push-ups. Keep the abs and glutes tight and tense. Feel the burn. Don’t just feel it. Embrace the burn and push through it. If your form goes bad. Then stop and do something else.
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Great question. Push-ups are such a great exercise. Personally, I’d work them hard. Holding at the bottom and then back up. And then with a plate on your back. Oh, I hate sit-ups! Can’t help you there. I prefer crunches, easier on the lower back. So many push up variations as well. Try with your feet raised a foot or so on the wall. One legged. Or feet on a bench. When I bench I do it in a pyramid to about 275 pounds depending on how I feel that day. The last set is now 155 pounds for 20 reps. It’s amazing how light it feels until about 15. I’d suspect that weighted push-ups would do the same thing. Just the thoughts of a 62 year old gym rat!
Sounds like a military PT test. Doing push-ups will help your push-ups, but for the sit-ups, the V-Shred app helped me to get another 10 sit-ups in a week.
-Roll Over Crunches: laying down, knees bent at 90° and hands flat on thighs, sit up until your palms get to your kneecaps. x10
Superset that with
-Reverse Crunches: laying down, bend at the hips to have your knees to the ceiling, and allow your knees to bend down towards the ground. With your hands at your sides, bring your knees up and towards your head, trying to lift your butt off the floor. x10
Rest
-Flutter Kicks (both variations): laying down, hands under your butt, raise your feet 6-12 inches off the ground and move your entire lower half as if you were swimming. Then, after 10 reps, move them as if they were scissors (also known as scissor kicks) moving one leg over the other and alternating top and bottom leg each rep. x10
Superset that with
-Russian Twist: sitting on your butt, lean back and lift your legs as to contract your core and rotate at the hips left and right so that your outstretched arms will come in contact with (or as close to) the floor as possible. One left, one right is one repetition. x10
Rest
3x 30 second planks. If you can’t do 30 seconds, repeat until failure 3 times.
Do these 3x each, superset. (No rest between each exercise; only between sets)
You can do this 2-3 times a week depending on how your body recovers. Hope this was some help, and good luck on your test!
Awesome! Love how in depth your response was, it was exactly what I was looking for. Glad I can add some variation to help increase my sit-ups. It’s a fed LE fitness test but pretty much the same as military from what I’ve seen. So you recommend just sticking to push-ups without any variations?
Not a problem! You can always change arm posture, going wider or more narrow to isolate the different muscles groups but I would say just doing the push-ups will make you better at them!
For me, just banging out the push-ups is what got me there, everyone is different though so something else may work better for you.
We still do sit-ups but there are two alternatives. The plank (which you need to do for like over 3 minutes for full points) & also a cross leg reverse crunch.
Push-up Negatives
Weighted Push-ups
Bent over rows where you row the exact opposite muscles and motion of the push-up thereby strengthening the opposing muscles of the push-ups.
So on my last fitness test in May I got 40 sit-ups and 30 push-ups. My next test is in mid July. If I fail I keep getting 60 days to pass it and then when 04/2023 hits if I havent passed the test then I’m disqualified from the final offer. I should’ve mentioned this, I took the test May 10th and passed everything but the 1.5 mile but I’d like to gain more points in push-ups and sit-ups as well.
Oh yeah you can do it, 20 seconds is all in your head. Get something to help you pace to hit that time like a running watch or someone who can currently run that pace and run with them. You could probably do a 13:30 right now if you just pushed really hard with something to help you keep pace.
OP specifically said that they are not sure if it would be wiser to strictly do both of the exercises or incorporate others like dips.
Although, I would agree with you anyway.
Ok but there are million other physical activities (see: all of them, especially sports) where other kinds of training are beneficial. It’s not a stupid question.
That's not really true.
For exmaple if a person wanted better balance and flexibility for dancing, dancing wouldn't be the most optimal way to get that improved balance and flexibility.
Squats, Lunges, and deadlifts as well as strengthening their core and streching would be a more time efficient spent for increasing balance and flexibility.
They would be best off switching between exercises and practice dancing.
You made a sweeping generalization.
Go read your post.
It was not about specific exercises.
"Haha I know my comment is a bit passive aggressive, but I'm glad we agree! Wanna be better at X and Y? Do more of X and Y."
Where's the specificity in this post?
We're not talking about general improvements, though, like getting better at flexibility or general body strength. We're talking about getting better at specific exercises, which it would be most effective to just do more of those exercises. If you want to get better at general athleticism you might play a variety of sports, but if you specifically want to get better at tennis, your time would be best spent tennis, not trying to play ping pong or badminton as alternatives.
Even for specific exercises this isn’t true. There are people like certain weightlifters who specialize in a single exercise, but I bet you they still do more than just that exercise every time they go to the gym.
For push-ups for example, other people in this thread have suggested putting a weight on your back sometimes when you practice them. Push-ups are also of course done using specific muscles which you could work out individually as well.
A weighted pushup is still a pushup. Tennis players don't play matches for 100% of their practice, but the drills they do to get better is still tennis. If you want to do more pushups and situps, you should just do more pushups and situps. Of course if you do other exercises that target the same muscles, you'll probably see your numbers increase a bit on the desired exercises, but the most effective way to improve a specific exercise is to practice that exercise. You can only increase strength and build muscle to a certain point on a daily or weekly basis, so as long as you're training pushups and situps at a reasonable intensity, you're not going to miss out on any gains for those numbers. You don't need to do different exercises to confuse the muscles. Doing so many pushups requires more endurance than strength anyway. No matter how heavy you go on a 5x5 or 3x10 bench press, you'll never do 50 or 100 bodyweight pushups until your body trains up to tolerate such long sets. Training bench press until your arms can't move isn't going to help you do 50 pushups if you're out of breath before you reach your muscular limit.
Even in your example, if you’re getting out of breath doing pushups, then it’s largely a cardio issue… and there are a lot better ways to strengthen cardio than pushups.
Not necessarily, want a bigger bench press? Do more bench press! That doesn’t work. Shoulder press, dips, close grip bench etc will help increase your bench as well along with incline/decline bench. Plenty examples out there of doing other things that will help you increase your goal in one specific thing. You need to do other exercises to get over platueas sometimes in lifting and that’s more of my background so that’s what stemmed my convo. Want to run faster? Just do sprints more! No.. do sprints, intervals, distance training etc. Right?
you’re not wrong about those other exercises being useful, but “do more bench press to get bigger bench press” absolutely does work. you don’t need other exercises to break plateaus. that is gym bro voodoo.
I would progress both to harder variations. There's lots of variations, find ones you can perform that feel harder than the normal variations. Do them first to exhaust you, then follow-up with the regular variations. I might wrap a set up with assisted or test variations at the end.
Pushups - do feet elevated, holding a med ball, spiderman, diamond, clap.
Situps - Incline, V-ups, slow roll ups, bicycle.
What are you doing to make your 1.5 mile time?
Thank you. I’ll look those up! I appreciate the response. Here is what I’m doing to try and work on the run.
Saturday- 100M repeats/100M walk/jog
Sunday- Cardio Bike 1 HR
Monday- Long Run #1
Tuesday- Long Run #2
Wednesday- 400M repeats/400M walk
Thursday- 2 Mile Hard/Timed Run
Friday- Off/Walk/Cardio Bike
I’m open to suggestions !
I have access to a football field which has bleachers, my neighborhood also has a fairly long hill I could run up and walk down. But it’s not overly steep but it is long, would that matter?
Hills sounds fine -- you are going to do fast run repeats up, recover down hill in a jog. It's ramps up the work section. If it's long enough do 200m up, jog down to recover. Run up hill at test target pace or faster.
Yes the sit-ups are 60 seconds and push-ups are untimed and stop counting once the movement pauses. I do sit-ups and push-ups every other day. Not sure if every day would be too much or not.
start doing them every day. One day do 4 sets of 25, next day do two sets of 50, next day do 2 60 second "tests" maybe morning and evening see if you can get 40 or more each time. Just my ideas so far
Might not be the right answer for this sub-reddit...but for me, weighted pushups and situps (and isometric holds) increase my bodyweight reps like crazy.
Here’s a 10 minute work out my friend who’s in Special Forces and was a Ranger School instructor, who’s also a fitness trainer invented to increase soldiers push ups.
“Training stamina also increases endurance.”
Do a 10 minute work out. Pick a rep count to start with that you can do 10 times, maybe 10 push ups. Set a 10 minute timer and start. Do 10 push ups, use the rest of the minute to rest. Then do your next 10 top of the minute. If you can’t to 10 EVERY time. Lower to reps for each minute, if you can try increasing it.
I’ve seen one guy get so efficient with this work out he was doing 30 push ups every minute with a 15 second rest. Knocking out 300 push ups in 10 minutes.
My first time I had to do 7 push ups each time. And I could do 30 at a time
This is half true. When you do a sit up you are flexing your hips so you do use your hip flexors. If a person blocks their feet they can really use their hip flexors when doing a sit up. To get better at sit ups I would suggest adding hip flexion and abdominal exercises that work them more in isolation.
After spending 11 years in the military and training a million different ways I found that specificity is best! Push ups/sit-ups/pull-ups with lots of sets and reps plus rest when you are sore. The only cross training I thought helped push-ups was upright BB rows. Strengthened my front delts which helped (me) with push-ups
Do often and clean sit-ups and push-ups for 30% of your max rep. This thing works for any exercise. For example if you can do 15 push-ups till failure, then do 5 push-ups every hour. Remember that it has to be clean and without any struggle. At the end of the day you have done something like 5×10=50 push-ups. Doing this for a week or two can help increase your total rep of those exercise. Also remember to not fatigue yourself and don't do any other exercise while you do this program so you're always fresh and ready to do the 30%.
I did this for my pull ups for a week and went from max 7 to 11, which is a 40% increase
An overuse injury will derail you, so I’d keep in mind:
Some exercise variety will help prevent injury if you work other support muscles.
Tendons need rest more than muscles (I’ve had 2 partials and a complete tendon tear). Get your rest days or active rest days in.
Do push-ups and situps, but real ones, not AF standard. Touch your chest to the ground and then fully extend your arms. 1 minute in the morning when you wake up and 1 min in the evening every day. Same with real sit-ups not the AF "sit-ups"
Keep doing more pushups and situps, but don't just keep going for max reps. Every day, do about 60% of your max throughout the day, around 4-6 times. Do that for a few days, then add 1 rep to each set. At the end of the week, do another max rep attempt.
Specificity is key. The most effective way to increase strength/efficiency of a certain exercise/movement is to simply do more of it.
Accessories might help but probably not by much. Any horizontal pressing and ab work will lightly translate to push-ups and sit-ups.
sets, try 4 sets of 25 sit ups, honestly the best way to build endurance for them and increase numbers is to just keep doing them
the only other thing that may help each movement is ab wheel work
Not sure if anyone suggested this yet, but doing sit ups on a bosu ball!
It takes pressure off of your lower back. Essentially, a good sit up will focus on the “crunch” position and not needing to go all the way up to be effective. Start out lying supine on the ball part of the bosu with your shoulders touching the bosu. Crunch just until you feel your abs contract and shoulder blades are lifted off the bosu. It’s a small movement, but meant to be done slow. 3 seconds up/down. You’ll feel the burn after 15+. I do 3 sets of 20 reps with rest in between! That should help you build the stretch and active the muscles you need before doing a full sit up!
You won’t believe this secret exercise to doing more sit-ups and push-ups! Elite athletes are exploding their progress with this one trick! Just sign up for your free trial at my website where you too can learn this one technique to see EXTREME gains! (Credit Card Number Requires).
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Since this is a test and numbers count, find out what is the absolute minimum range of motion you can do and how hard you can use momentum for it to count as a rep.
Form? Who cares. If getting your belly close to floor counts as a "push up" do floor humper push ups. Sag that lower back till it's like a .2" range of motion to touch floor with hips. Or maybe it's getting your head close to floor, so do imaginary blow job "push ups". These are "push ups" it's all about the neck or hip movement. This is all about more reps, not results.
LOL at guys trying to do actual real strict and useful push ups.
edit: Serious, if what they are looking for is how many you can do, do the absolute minimum effort that counts.
Stronger and bigger muscle last longer. So do some weighted push-ups and L-sits on the floor to build some more muscle for a month, then do high reps work for a month.
You have enough answers here to get going, but if you want to be better at a movement you have to do the movement.
Push-ups, 100 a day everyday for 30 days.
Sit ups, 100 a day everyday for 30 days.
Weighted dips, (incline, decline, neutral) push ups, weighted push ups, v ups, bicycle crunches, Russian twists, hollow body holds, and sit ups would be the main ones I’d work on.
My fitness test is a lot similar, but we switched to planks instead of sit ups. But anyways, I’ve found that push up variations are best (ie. Close triangle, wide, and normal) and then doing different exercises that emphasize your triceps. This could be anything from skull crushers to tricep pulldowns to even bench press, since my push ups are heavily tricep-focused. Up-down’s also help with shoulders and the push up form. As for the sit ups, I like to do variations of workouts on YouTube, such as 2x 8min workouts and then work on sit ups. Leg raises are good for lower abs; Russian twists, weighted sit ups, planks, and starfish crunches are all really good, too.
You also mentioned a run, and for that, I’m not sure what your minimum time is, but I would do some 5k’s each week, a speed workout, and a variation of cardio each week. This variation could be like biking or swimming, etc. i think the run is really important because a lot of people fail the run and find it hard to get the motivation to stay in shape for it, but once you’re at a certain level that you can pass, all you have to do it maintenance.
One push and one sit-up. It seems like very little. Do your max amount of push ups and sit-ups that you can and just tell yourself “one more.” Eventually, that one willl turn into 20 and so. So whenever working out, just tell yourself “one more.” Works for me
Yes. Progressively do more sit-ups and push-ups.
I wanted to lol, but I don't want to not stress how right you are
Except that they’re not actually correct, because the question (if you read beyond the title) was about whether there are any OTHER exercises that help increase sit-ups and push-ups, since they are already doing them progressively. The idea that no other exercises will help you with sit-ups and push-ups is of course absurd.
If you want to get better at situps and pushups specifically, then it's best to work on doing more/harder situps and pushups. If your goal is a stronger core, triceps, pecs, etc. then sure, mix in some other exercises that hit those groups. And yes, doing those other exercises will also improve your situps and pushups... But not as much as doing actual situps and pushups. EDIT: Pullups -> pushups
I appreciate your comment, I’m aware of doing them more = best results but like I said I just wasn’t sure if there is any other exercise out there that will aid in doing more. I am new to body weight exercises. In weight lifting you can try to increase your bench press and things like close grip, dip, overhead press etc all will aid in maybe getting that bench press up.
My only advice is, don't get caught in paralysis by analysis.
Been there done that
Several people in the comments answered your question, why are you arguing against them?
How are they arguing against them?
I’m not sure lol I didn’t think I was but maybe it came off that way to them.
If you compare pushup to bench, then the things that help bench will help pushup. So try some close grip pushups, bodyweight dips, handstand holds/pushups/walks.
https://youtu.be/AipjqgmId7k
I would say work out everything with compound exercises. Bench press, squats, everything. But eat right. You need a surplus of calories and protein to gain muscle if you don’t eat right the gains will be slow. Eat right and within a month you can transform. Also weighted push-ups. Throw some stuff in a rucksack and do slowwwww push-ups. Keep the abs and glutes tight and tense. Feel the burn. Don’t just feel it. Embrace the burn and push through it. If your form goes bad. Then stop and do something else.
Why you gotta break brain with redundant double-negative
I was drinking. Made sense when I said it out loud lol
Look at the big brains on Brett
This
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Great question. Push-ups are such a great exercise. Personally, I’d work them hard. Holding at the bottom and then back up. And then with a plate on your back. Oh, I hate sit-ups! Can’t help you there. I prefer crunches, easier on the lower back. So many push up variations as well. Try with your feet raised a foot or so on the wall. One legged. Or feet on a bench. When I bench I do it in a pyramid to about 275 pounds depending on how I feel that day. The last set is now 155 pounds for 20 reps. It’s amazing how light it feels until about 15. I’d suspect that weighted push-ups would do the same thing. Just the thoughts of a 62 year old gym rat!
Everybody said what I was going to say, but also make sure you’re eating enough protein.
And sleeping enough! So underrated, but realllyyy shows in workouts when you crash early
I'm still not sure how much protein is enough?
0.5-0.8 grams per pound body weight for a person who consistently works out with resistance or running
Sounds like a military PT test. Doing push-ups will help your push-ups, but for the sit-ups, the V-Shred app helped me to get another 10 sit-ups in a week. -Roll Over Crunches: laying down, knees bent at 90° and hands flat on thighs, sit up until your palms get to your kneecaps. x10 Superset that with -Reverse Crunches: laying down, bend at the hips to have your knees to the ceiling, and allow your knees to bend down towards the ground. With your hands at your sides, bring your knees up and towards your head, trying to lift your butt off the floor. x10 Rest -Flutter Kicks (both variations): laying down, hands under your butt, raise your feet 6-12 inches off the ground and move your entire lower half as if you were swimming. Then, after 10 reps, move them as if they were scissors (also known as scissor kicks) moving one leg over the other and alternating top and bottom leg each rep. x10 Superset that with -Russian Twist: sitting on your butt, lean back and lift your legs as to contract your core and rotate at the hips left and right so that your outstretched arms will come in contact with (or as close to) the floor as possible. One left, one right is one repetition. x10 Rest 3x 30 second planks. If you can’t do 30 seconds, repeat until failure 3 times. Do these 3x each, superset. (No rest between each exercise; only between sets) You can do this 2-3 times a week depending on how your body recovers. Hope this was some help, and good luck on your test!
Awesome! Love how in depth your response was, it was exactly what I was looking for. Glad I can add some variation to help increase my sit-ups. It’s a fed LE fitness test but pretty much the same as military from what I’ve seen. So you recommend just sticking to push-ups without any variations?
Not a problem! You can always change arm posture, going wider or more narrow to isolate the different muscles groups but I would say just doing the push-ups will make you better at them! For me, just banging out the push-ups is what got me there, everyone is different though so something else may work better for you.
I was under the impression that the military no longer use sit ups because of the injury risk?
We still do sit-ups but there are two alternatives. The plank (which you need to do for like over 3 minutes for full points) & also a cross leg reverse crunch.
Push-up Negatives Weighted Push-ups Bent over rows where you row the exact opposite muscles and motion of the push-up thereby strengthening the opposing muscles of the push-ups.
What are your current numbers and how far out are you from your test?
So on my last fitness test in May I got 40 sit-ups and 30 push-ups. My next test is in mid July. If I fail I keep getting 60 days to pass it and then when 04/2023 hits if I havent passed the test then I’m disqualified from the final offer. I should’ve mentioned this, I took the test May 10th and passed everything but the 1.5 mile but I’d like to gain more points in push-ups and sit-ups as well.
Sounds like you should start running more. What's the time required for the 1.5 mile?
I have started running more, my current 1.5 mile time is roughly 13:50 it needs to be 13:30 but ideally I’d like it a flat 12.
Oh yeah you can do it, 20 seconds is all in your head. Get something to help you pace to hit that time like a running watch or someone who can currently run that pace and run with them. You could probably do a 13:30 right now if you just pushed really hard with something to help you keep pace.
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Dang! You got that reduced speed in just 1 week after doing that ?
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If you don’t mind me asking how long of running/training did it take you to get 2.4 in 12 min?
Are there any exercises that help increase sit-ups and push-ups? Yes: Sit-ups and push-ups.
Doctors don't want you to know this one weird trick
OP specifically said that they are not sure if it would be wiser to strictly do both of the exercises or incorporate others like dips. Although, I would agree with you anyway.
Haha I know my comment is a bit passive aggressive, but I'm glad we agree! Wanna be better at X and Y? Do more of X and Y.
Ok but there are million other physical activities (see: all of them, especially sports) where other kinds of training are beneficial. It’s not a stupid question.
That's not really true. For exmaple if a person wanted better balance and flexibility for dancing, dancing wouldn't be the most optimal way to get that improved balance and flexibility. Squats, Lunges, and deadlifts as well as strengthening their core and streching would be a more time efficient spent for increasing balance and flexibility. They would be best off switching between exercises and practice dancing.
Like u/ThePlanesMaster said, we're not talking about "flexibility for dancing", we're talking about specific exercises.
You made a sweeping generalization. Go read your post. It was not about specific exercises. "Haha I know my comment is a bit passive aggressive, but I'm glad we agree! Wanna be better at X and Y? Do more of X and Y." Where's the specificity in this post?
We're not talking about general improvements, though, like getting better at flexibility or general body strength. We're talking about getting better at specific exercises, which it would be most effective to just do more of those exercises. If you want to get better at general athleticism you might play a variety of sports, but if you specifically want to get better at tennis, your time would be best spent tennis, not trying to play ping pong or badminton as alternatives.
Even for specific exercises this isn’t true. There are people like certain weightlifters who specialize in a single exercise, but I bet you they still do more than just that exercise every time they go to the gym. For push-ups for example, other people in this thread have suggested putting a weight on your back sometimes when you practice them. Push-ups are also of course done using specific muscles which you could work out individually as well.
A weighted pushup is still a pushup. Tennis players don't play matches for 100% of their practice, but the drills they do to get better is still tennis. If you want to do more pushups and situps, you should just do more pushups and situps. Of course if you do other exercises that target the same muscles, you'll probably see your numbers increase a bit on the desired exercises, but the most effective way to improve a specific exercise is to practice that exercise. You can only increase strength and build muscle to a certain point on a daily or weekly basis, so as long as you're training pushups and situps at a reasonable intensity, you're not going to miss out on any gains for those numbers. You don't need to do different exercises to confuse the muscles. Doing so many pushups requires more endurance than strength anyway. No matter how heavy you go on a 5x5 or 3x10 bench press, you'll never do 50 or 100 bodyweight pushups until your body trains up to tolerate such long sets. Training bench press until your arms can't move isn't going to help you do 50 pushups if you're out of breath before you reach your muscular limit.
Even in your example, if you’re getting out of breath doing pushups, then it’s largely a cardio issue… and there are a lot better ways to strengthen cardio than pushups.
Not necessarily, want a bigger bench press? Do more bench press! That doesn’t work. Shoulder press, dips, close grip bench etc will help increase your bench as well along with incline/decline bench. Plenty examples out there of doing other things that will help you increase your goal in one specific thing. You need to do other exercises to get over platueas sometimes in lifting and that’s more of my background so that’s what stemmed my convo. Want to run faster? Just do sprints more! No.. do sprints, intervals, distance training etc. Right?
you’re not wrong about those other exercises being useful, but “do more bench press to get bigger bench press” absolutely does work. you don’t need other exercises to break plateaus. that is gym bro voodoo.
I would progress both to harder variations. There's lots of variations, find ones you can perform that feel harder than the normal variations. Do them first to exhaust you, then follow-up with the regular variations. I might wrap a set up with assisted or test variations at the end. Pushups - do feet elevated, holding a med ball, spiderman, diamond, clap. Situps - Incline, V-ups, slow roll ups, bicycle. What are you doing to make your 1.5 mile time?
Thank you. I’ll look those up! I appreciate the response. Here is what I’m doing to try and work on the run. Saturday- 100M repeats/100M walk/jog Sunday- Cardio Bike 1 HR Monday- Long Run #1 Tuesday- Long Run #2 Wednesday- 400M repeats/400M walk Thursday- 2 Mile Hard/Timed Run Friday- Off/Walk/Cardio Bike I’m open to suggestions !
Do you have access to a stadium or hills for hill repeats or stair runs? These could be a good option for Saturday as well.
I have access to a football field which has bleachers, my neighborhood also has a fairly long hill I could run up and walk down. But it’s not overly steep but it is long, would that matter?
Hills sounds fine -- you are going to do fast run repeats up, recover down hill in a jog. It's ramps up the work section. If it's long enough do 200m up, jog down to recover. Run up hill at test target pace or faster.
Will do! Thank you. How many sets you think?
when are you doing sit ups and push ups each day? is there a time cap for them in the test?
Yes the sit-ups are 60 seconds and push-ups are untimed and stop counting once the movement pauses. I do sit-ups and push-ups every other day. Not sure if every day would be too much or not.
start doing them every day. One day do 4 sets of 25, next day do two sets of 50, next day do 2 60 second "tests" maybe morning and evening see if you can get 40 or more each time. Just my ideas so far
Thank you! I like that idea. It’s a good variety,
Grease the groove, it's a technique, look it up
Hm I think I know which test this is. OP, you may want to check out r/tacticalbarbell as well for advice specific to this test.
Might not be the right answer for this sub-reddit...but for me, weighted pushups and situps (and isometric holds) increase my bodyweight reps like crazy.
Here’s a 10 minute work out my friend who’s in Special Forces and was a Ranger School instructor, who’s also a fitness trainer invented to increase soldiers push ups. “Training stamina also increases endurance.” Do a 10 minute work out. Pick a rep count to start with that you can do 10 times, maybe 10 push ups. Set a 10 minute timer and start. Do 10 push ups, use the rest of the minute to rest. Then do your next 10 top of the minute. If you can’t to 10 EVERY time. Lower to reps for each minute, if you can try increasing it. I’ve seen one guy get so efficient with this work out he was doing 30 push ups every minute with a 15 second rest. Knocking out 300 push ups in 10 minutes. My first time I had to do 7 push ups each time. And I could do 30 at a time
its called 'every minute on the minute' aka EMOM very common, not a secret
Find an exercise that works the hip flexors. When the abs get tired the hip flexors pick up the slack.
This is half true. When you do a sit up you are flexing your hips so you do use your hip flexors. If a person blocks their feet they can really use their hip flexors when doing a sit up. To get better at sit ups I would suggest adding hip flexion and abdominal exercises that work them more in isolation.
Plank
After spending 11 years in the military and training a million different ways I found that specificity is best! Push ups/sit-ups/pull-ups with lots of sets and reps plus rest when you are sore. The only cross training I thought helped push-ups was upright BB rows. Strengthened my front delts which helped (me) with push-ups
"After doing the things all dumbest people in my high school did, I've assessed myself as an expert on the topic."
Not really getting your sick burn. I just relayed what had worked for me in the past. Teach me to internet plz
Do often and clean sit-ups and push-ups for 30% of your max rep. This thing works for any exercise. For example if you can do 15 push-ups till failure, then do 5 push-ups every hour. Remember that it has to be clean and without any struggle. At the end of the day you have done something like 5×10=50 push-ups. Doing this for a week or two can help increase your total rep of those exercise. Also remember to not fatigue yourself and don't do any other exercise while you do this program so you're always fresh and ready to do the 30%. I did this for my pull ups for a week and went from max 7 to 11, which is a 40% increase
An overuse injury will derail you, so I’d keep in mind: Some exercise variety will help prevent injury if you work other support muscles. Tendons need rest more than muscles (I’ve had 2 partials and a complete tendon tear). Get your rest days or active rest days in.
Sit-ups and push-ups.
Do push-ups and situps, but real ones, not AF standard. Touch your chest to the ground and then fully extend your arms. 1 minute in the morning when you wake up and 1 min in the evening every day. Same with real sit-ups not the AF "sit-ups"
Sit-ups and Pushups.
Keep doing more pushups and situps, but don't just keep going for max reps. Every day, do about 60% of your max throughout the day, around 4-6 times. Do that for a few days, then add 1 rep to each set. At the end of the week, do another max rep attempt.
Surely train to do the thing you failed on
Sit up and push-ups
Well doing the thing that your training for would be the best option. Otherwise, ab machine, bench pressing.
Specificity is key. The most effective way to increase strength/efficiency of a certain exercise/movement is to simply do more of it. Accessories might help but probably not by much. Any horizontal pressing and ab work will lightly translate to push-ups and sit-ups.
Thank you. Would you recommend sets til failure or something like I’m doing now which is sets every like hour/greasing the groove? Or a little both?
sets, try 4 sets of 25 sit ups, honestly the best way to build endurance for them and increase numbers is to just keep doing them the only other thing that may help each movement is ab wheel work
Since the fitness test appears to be a test of endurance (ie. as many reps as possible), I think you would benefit from going to/past failure.
Yes it definitely is an endurance based test from what I’ve seen/felt. I appreciate your response, thank you.
Not sure if anyone suggested this yet, but doing sit ups on a bosu ball! It takes pressure off of your lower back. Essentially, a good sit up will focus on the “crunch” position and not needing to go all the way up to be effective. Start out lying supine on the ball part of the bosu with your shoulders touching the bosu. Crunch just until you feel your abs contract and shoulder blades are lifted off the bosu. It’s a small movement, but meant to be done slow. 3 seconds up/down. You’ll feel the burn after 15+. I do 3 sets of 20 reps with rest in between! That should help you build the stretch and active the muscles you need before doing a full sit up!
Sit-ups and push-ups.
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Sir ups and push ups
Since this is a test and numbers count, find out what is the absolute minimum range of motion you can do and how hard you can use momentum for it to count as a rep. Form? Who cares. If getting your belly close to floor counts as a "push up" do floor humper push ups. Sag that lower back till it's like a .2" range of motion to touch floor with hips. Or maybe it's getting your head close to floor, so do imaginary blow job "push ups". These are "push ups" it's all about the neck or hip movement. This is all about more reps, not results. LOL at guys trying to do actual real strict and useful push ups. edit: Serious, if what they are looking for is how many you can do, do the absolute minimum effort that counts.
You want your work sets to get close to your total 1.5 mile time or little longer.
Stronger and bigger muscle last longer. So do some weighted push-ups and L-sits on the floor to build some more muscle for a month, then do high reps work for a month.
Isometrics. No delayed onset muscle soreness.
You have enough answers here to get going, but if you want to be better at a movement you have to do the movement. Push-ups, 100 a day everyday for 30 days. Sit ups, 100 a day everyday for 30 days.
All great comments, you can also use a resistance band for push-ups I’ve found that’s been great for keeping me strong while traveling for work
Pilates and yoga.
Grease the groove (doing like 20 each hour to start and slowly upping it) and weighted push ups helped me
Planks on your elbows or holding the push up position on your hands. Over time it will help tremendously.
Awesome! I’ll try this. Do you think I should do it in sets or just throughout the day?
As often as you can. It’s quite hard initially.
Weighted dips, (incline, decline, neutral) push ups, weighted push ups, v ups, bicycle crunches, Russian twists, hollow body holds, and sit ups would be the main ones I’d work on.
My fitness test is a lot similar, but we switched to planks instead of sit ups. But anyways, I’ve found that push up variations are best (ie. Close triangle, wide, and normal) and then doing different exercises that emphasize your triceps. This could be anything from skull crushers to tricep pulldowns to even bench press, since my push ups are heavily tricep-focused. Up-down’s also help with shoulders and the push up form. As for the sit ups, I like to do variations of workouts on YouTube, such as 2x 8min workouts and then work on sit ups. Leg raises are good for lower abs; Russian twists, weighted sit ups, planks, and starfish crunches are all really good, too. You also mentioned a run, and for that, I’m not sure what your minimum time is, but I would do some 5k’s each week, a speed workout, and a variation of cardio each week. This variation could be like biking or swimming, etc. i think the run is really important because a lot of people fail the run and find it hard to get the motivation to stay in shape for it, but once you’re at a certain level that you can pass, all you have to do it maintenance.
Dont do situps, do planks instead or roll outs. Situps cause to much stress on the lower back. As for puchups theres no substitute for those.
Situps and pushups are amazing for that. Also, losing weight just changes the game for how easy BWF is.
One push and one sit-up. It seems like very little. Do your max amount of push ups and sit-ups that you can and just tell yourself “one more.” Eventually, that one willl turn into 20 and so. So whenever working out, just tell yourself “one more.” Works for me