Pull ups and Push ups

for pull ups try a reverse one. *read that on a forum post here but lost the link*

This is where you start off holding yourself at the top of the pull up and lower yourself until you can't, repeat.

As well for pushups try with your feet 12 inches apart...no further tho.

I have to say tho I am surprised that the USMC only requires 10 push-ups and 2 pull ups seems low...20 years ago when I joined the Canadian Artillery my test was (as a female) 50push ups (male style) and 4 pull ups...

I am not sure if you have something compelling you to join the marines so quickly but it might be a good idea for you to get in to far better shape before you even consider joining the marines.

'Grease the Groove' training, have never found any way to increase strength faster, especially when muscle mass is not the goal.

http://humanmachine.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/grease-the-groove-for-strength/

Written by a top-notch exercise scientist.

Basics are, strength is largely skill, like hitting a baseball or dancing. The more you practice a skill, the more efficient your neural pathways get at performing that motion. Strength has far more to do with skill and far less to do with muscle than most people think! Tough muscle and connective tissue is just your body's adaptation to increasing the 'safe zone' for expressing strength, IE allowing the body to express more strength without hurting itself. This is where the 'mother pulls car off of child' stories come from, emergency adrenaline overriding the safety limits of the body and expressing all possible strength. (usually leaving the person quite injured in the process)

Also, like any skill, you learn best when fresh. The first lift of a workout is literally the most useful, with diminishing returns for every following lift, because you are your most fresh and able to express strength without limitation. Ideally to gain the most strength, you would lift in small rep sets all day long.

You can actually do this in a way. Set a trigger, either a timer or a situation, and do your target exercise whenever you hit the trigger. I do single-legged squats and pushups every hour at work, my phone always running a timer. You could set a situational trigger like in the link, where every time you go to the kitchen you do a pushup. Either way, you end up doing a TON of very useful reps every day without getting all sweaty or needing to go to the gym.

Again, I have done a LOT of working out, and I have never gained strength faster with any other method.

if you weren't there to improve your physical fitness then why would you be PTing at 0500?

'Grease the Groove' training, have never found any way to increase strength faster, especially when muscle mass is not the goal.

http://humanmachine.wordpress.com/2007/06/22/grease-the-groove-for-strength/

Written by a top-notch exercise scientist.

Basics are, strength is largely skill, like hitting a baseball or dancing. The more you practice a skill, the more efficient your neural pathways get at performing that motion. Strength has far more to do with skill and far less to do with muscle than most people think! Tough muscle and connective tissue is just your body's adaptation to increasing the 'safe zone' for expressing strength, IE allowing the body to express more strength without hurting itself. This is where the 'mother pulls car off of child' stories come from, emergency adrenaline overriding the safety limits of the body and expressing all possible strength. (usually leaving the person quite injured in the process)

Also, like any skill, you learn best when fresh. The first lift of a workout is literally the most useful, with diminishing returns for every following lift, because you are your most fresh and able to express strength without limitation. Ideally to gain the most strength, you would lift in small rep sets all day long.

You can actually do this in a way. Set a trigger, either a timer or a situation, and do your target exercise whenever you hit the trigger. I do single-legged squats and pushups every hour at work, my phone always running a timer. You could set a situational trigger like in the link, where every time you go to the kitchen you do a pushup. Either way, you end up doing a TON of very useful reps every day without getting all sweaty or needing to go to the gym.

Again, I have done a LOT of working out, and I have never gained strength faster with any other method.

I don't see how this would do much for muscular endurance. Military exercises and drills tend to focus a whole lot around muscular endurance with only some emphasis on muscular strength.

Plus, Pavel persuaded his 60-year-old father-in-law, Roger Antonson, to do chins every time he went down into his basement; each day he would do between 25 and 100 chin-ups. After a few months of such training (and a few days of rest), Roger knocked off 20 chins, more than he had been able to do 40 years earlier in the Marine Corps. That did it. I decided to test Pavel’s formula: Specificity + frequent practice = success.