Building strength for push ups and sit ups
Midnightwine5
Posts: 11 Member
Hi everyone, I am new to this community. I have recently lost 30 pounds but just started working out this past 3 weeks. I need help increasing my push ups and sit ups as I am going into the Army. I can't even do a real push up yet; I am doing about 15-20 girl push ups max. I can also do 15-20 sit ups max. As I am new to exercise, I'd like some help figuring out how to strengthen my core and arms so I can increase my number of sit ups and push ups. Please let me know what's worked for you. Thank you!
0
Replies
-
Hey there! Great job! I also have just started exercising. My boyfriend helps me along. The first day he had me do my max on push ups/sit ups and then the next day I did half. So if you're doing 20 do 10 until you feel confident in doing those ten with no problem. Then slowly push yourself to 12, 15, 18, and then 20. Then push yourself a little more once you get comfortable. I also plank and increase my time as I go. I started at 10 seconds and now can do 25. I do high knees and flutter kicks too along with a 1.5 mile jog daily. Good luck to you! Hope this helps.2
-
Start with your hands elevated on a chair or stairs. Keep working those and as you get stronger, you'll be able to put your hands on the ground.
Also do negatives. Get into the top of a push up and slowly lower to the ground trying to control your descent the entire time.10 -
there's a program / app called you are your own gym that can really help you begin to strength train. the reason i'm suggesting it is because there are several levels / variations of the exercises that allow you to start small and build strength so that you can advance. additionally you can do everything at home with your furniture and a towel basically.
edited because i covfefed the name of the app in the first version9 -
Practice, practice, practice.
Push ups, get yourself to the bottom of a flight of stairs get to an angle where you can comfortably complete 10 push ups then drop down a step. Once you can complete 3 sets of ten then drop down another step, rince and repeat until you're on the floor.
Sit ups, this has taken me time as I had a hernia repair and seriously weak core, I couldn't even do crunches back in Jan. I go to a legs bums and tums class 2x week where we do some serious core work plus we do stuff in other classes. As well as actual sit ups, we do several varieties of crunch, leg raises, scissors, planks, tempo sit ups (coming up and down to a count of 4) and a lot more. On Tuesday I ended up doing about 80 sit ups, it's just taken time getting that strength up (a fun one on Thursday with PT was a sit up variation with a weighted ball, start laying down ball in outstretched arms behind head, sit up, place ball between knees, back down, sit up, take ball, back down, leave ball behind head, back up, back down pick up ball, repeat as fast as you can for 45 seconds)5 -
Thanks for serving the US!!1
-
Also, Dumbell presses and Planks.
Specifically the "hard style plank"
Ideally, start on the floor, tuck your hands under your shoulders.
Then, starting with your toes bring tension into your body progressively through the legs, glutes, back/abs, shoulders and as it runs down your arms, press up. You may find that you can do a press up after all. When you get to the top, hold for 10-15 seconds then reverse/relax back down in a deliberate manner.
Once you get comfortable, practice lowering to the "down" position aka 90 degree bend/arms parallel with ground while maintaining tension as necessary. and holding in the down for 3-5 seconds before reversing up and then relaxing down
I've gotten folks to double or even triple their number of reps in as little as 3 weeks.2 -
More push-ups, and more sit-ups.2
-
Do as suggested to increase strength to be able to do full plank pushups.
It is a great compund body weight exercise -
- that involves muscles in the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, back and core - - which is indicative of superior upper body strength
On the other hand, stop doing situps. Threy are unnecessary for core development and are dangerous to your back, neck and spine.
I didn't do any situps and developed a 6 pack just by losing Wt & BF while only doing compound lifts - - SQT, DL, BP, & OHP - - and compound body weight ecercises - - pullups, pushups and dips.
No sit ups (or crunches) are required.
0 -
Do as suggested to increase strength to be able to do full plank pushups.
It is a great compund body weight exercise -
- that involves muscles in the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, back and core - - which is indicative of superior upper body strength
On the other hand, stop doing situps. Threy are unnecessary for core development and are dangerous to your back, neck and spine.
I didn't do any situps and developed a 6 pack just by losing Wt & BF while only doing compound lifts - - SQT, DL, BP, & OHP - - and compound body weight ecercises - - pullups, pushups and dips.
No sit ups (or crunches) are required.
Except maybe for the fact that she said she's joining the Army, and sit-ups are part of their training regimen and their physical fitness test. So whether they're unnecessary and/or dangerous or not, she's going to be doing a lot of them.
OP: DopeItUp gave the best advice - to get better at pushups and situps, do more pushups and situps.2 -
This. To get better at any exercise, you repetitively do the exercise. If you can only do one FULL push up, that what you do till you can do 2 and so on. Repetition is what gets people more efficient at ANYTHING.More push-ups, and more sit-ups.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
2 -
Do as suggested to increase strength to be able to do full plank pushups.
It is a great compund body weight exercise -
- that involves muscles in the hands, arms, shoulders, chest, back and core - - which is indicative of superior upper body strength
On the other hand, stop doing situps. Threy are unnecessary for core development and are dangerous to your back, neck and spine.
I didn't do any situps and developed a 6 pack just by losing Wt & BF while only doing compound lifts - - SQT, DL, BP, & OHP - - and compound body weight ecercises - - pullups, pushups and dips.
No sit ups (or crunches) are required.
The other stuff he lists (along with dancing) did a LOT more for getting my core stronger than trying to do sit-ups/crunches back when my core was weaker (which mostly only resulted in me straining my neck). I can do sit-ups now quite easily...but the ability to do them easily wasn't developed by doing them but rather other stuff.
0 -
I was in the military. I sucked at push ups. Unless you have to meet a requirement before you go, just practice doing them how your are supposed to and if you can only do a few then work your way up from there. You could add in some planks and knee pushups too. Same for sit ups, just do as many as you can and work up from there. Don't forget to work on your run as well. They will whip you into shape when you get there, trust me!1
-
kimkimcoleman wrote: »I was in the military. I sucked at push ups. Unless you have to meet a requirement before you go, just practice doing them how your are supposed to and if you can only do a few then work your way up from there. You could add in some planks and knee pushups too. Same for sit ups, just do as many as you can and work up from there. Don't forget to work on your run as well. They will whip you into shape when you get there, trust me!
They sure will whip me into shape lol. I just want to get as physically fit as I can before I get there so I won't be as physically exhausted. I know I'll have to deal with a lot of mental exhaustion, so I'm just trying to make my life easier before I get there. ☺️ I want to get as close as possible to being able to pass my PT test before I get there.
I appreciate everyone's helpful advice!0 -
Except maybe for the fact that she said she's joining the Army, and sit-ups are part of their training regimen and their physical fitness test. So whether they're unnecessary and/or dangerous or not, she's going to be doing a lot of them.
Missed mention of the Army. Don't suppose it's possible to convince the military that it's unnecessary to do situps to strengthen the core. You'd think they'd be more sophisticated about physical training.
In the police academy, I never had to do them but that PT program was pretty much a joke. If you weren't in shaoe already, their PT program would be of no help. Oh well . . .0 -
Aswome0
-
Do you like workout videos? Why not do something that will incorporate strength and core, like 30 Day Shred, or something similar? Level 1 has push-ups ups and there are 3 different sets of ab exercises. T25 also has push-ups and core.1
-
what's a 'girl' pushup? yeah, nevermind.
i do best in my pushup projects with the progressively-lower-incline thing. so start from the wall, move lower and lower, and for myself i concentrate a lot more on maintaining stability than on either my 'steepness' or the rep count. it's too easy for me to cheat and let my unstable left shoulder just fend for itself, and that never adds up to permanent progress for me.0 -
canadianlbs wrote: »what's a 'girl' pushup? yeah, nevermind.
i do best in my pushup projects with the progressively-lower-incline thing. so start from the wall, move lower and lower, and for myself i concentrate a lot more on maintaining stability than on either my 'steepness' or the rep count. it's too easy for me to cheat and let my unstable left shoulder just fend for itself, and that never adds up to permanent progress for me.
Sorry for the lack of clarification. When I say girl push up, I mean doing a push up but with your knees touching the floor.1 -
I found 'reverse' push ups alongside planks helped me a lot to getting onto my toes. You start laying on your belly, and push up into plank position before dropping slowly down. Or belly flop. NGL I did a few of those.
Don't let your butt go too early, or hang, it's one smooth motion because otherwise you'll hurt your back. 
1 -
My strength-training book starts with wall push-ups and shelf/counter push-ups. Presently, I do "half-push-ups with cardio step". Basically, I brace my hands on a cardio step, a bit more than shoulder width apart. Shift weight to just in front of knees, lower legs raised, ankles crossed, tighten abs and lower my upper body to the step, then raise. Right now, I'm doing two sets of 20 reps. When it's no longer an effort, I'll either move on to full push-ups or add another set. (In your case, it would probably be the former.)1
-
There are some websites specifically oriented to help people pass their military physical fitness tests. I googled something like "navy seals pullups test" or something and got several. I know that doing circuit training helps quite a bit.1
-
I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
1 -
ArmyStrong05 wrote: »Hi everyone, I am new to this community. I have recently lost 30 pounds but just started working out this past 3 weeks. I need help increasing my push ups and sit ups as I am going into the Army. I can't even do a real push up yet; I am doing about 15-20 girl push ups max. I can also do 15-20 sit ups max. As I am new to exercise, I'd like some help figuring out how to strengthen my core and arms so I can increase my number of sit ups and push ups. Please let me know what's worked for you. Thank you!
Make sure you talk with your recruiter and understand how to do pushups/situps to the correct standard.
There are 25-50 different ways to do them, and as of last check, each of the services has a slightly different standard of correctness.
If I recall correctly, the army is now the only service that does "old school situps" ie hands behind head elbows to knees and head to ground The Navy and Air Force have moved to crunches/curlups which are fingertips touching shoulderblades/elbows to legs(anywhere) and shoulderblades to floor.0 -
TilKingdomCome wrote: »I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
I've observed that many people don't do 'girl'/modified pushups correctly.
Step one: get into the front leaning rest(AKA pushup-Up position) plank
Step two: while maintaining the plank tension, allow your knees to join your feet on the ground. your body should still be in a rigid plank from nose to knees and your feet should remain on the ground with tension.
Step three: lower down/forward while maintaining the modified plank.
Step four: press up.
At all points, the tension from nose to knees and knees to toes should be maintained. and knees and feet should remain in contact with the ground.
There should be no bend at the waist or hips and the fulcrum should be the knee and only the knee.
Most people bend at the waist and bob from a high crawl position, and this will do nothing to increase your strength towards pushups.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »ArmyStrong05 wrote: »Hi everyone, I am new to this community. I have recently lost 30 pounds but just started working out this past 3 weeks. I need help increasing my push ups and sit ups as I am going into the Army. I can't even do a real push up yet; I am doing about 15-20 girl push ups max. I can also do 15-20 sit ups max. As I am new to exercise, I'd like some help figuring out how to strengthen my core and arms so I can increase my number of sit ups and push ups. Please let me know what's worked for you. Thank you!
Make sure you talk with your recruiter and understand how to do pushups/situps to the correct standard.
There are 25-50 different ways to do them, and as of last check, each of the services has a slightly different standard of correctness.
If I recall correctly, the army is now the only service that does "old school situps" ie hands behind head elbows to knees and head to ground The Navy and Air Force have moved to crunches/curlups which are fingertips touching shoulderblades/elbows to legs(anywhere) and shoulderblades to floor.stanmann571 wrote: »TilKingdomCome wrote: »I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
I've observed that many people don't do 'girl'/modified pushups correctly.
Step one: get into the front leaning rest(AKA pushup-Up position) plank
Step two: while maintaining the plank tension, allow your knees to join your feet on the ground. your body should still be in a rigid plank from nose to knees and your feet should remain on the ground with tension.
Step three: lower down/forward while maintaining the modified plank.
Step four: press up.
At all points, the tension from nose to knees and knees to toes should be maintained. and knees and feet should remain in contact with the ground.
There should be no bend at the waist or hips and the fulcrum should be the knee and only the knee.
Most people bend at the waist and bob from a high crawl position, and this will do nothing to increase your strength towards pushups.
Thankfully my husband was in the Army just two years ago and he helps me with my form daily to make sure I'm doing it correctly. On Thursdays, I also go to my recruiter and work out together and he has also given me some tips. He's actually the one who started me on girl push ups because I could not do a real push up with proper form. I was not bending my elbows far enough and then extending the arm when coming up. I feel like it can just be a big jump from going to the girl push ups to real ones because it's a lot harder for me. I have a very weak core as well so I can do the sit ups with proper form but I can only do about 10-15 at a time. By the time I ship out to basic, I my goal is to pass the push up and sit up portion of the PT test. I'd need to do 13 push ups and 47 sit ups.
1 -
More push-ups, and more sit-ups.
^^This, also you need to ask your recruiter what the entrance minimum is. The first day that I was at inprocessing, it was required that you were able to do at least 10 push-ups before even being allowed to enter BCT. I was at an all male BCT course, so I'm not sure the requirement for females but it's something you should get clarification on.0 -
ArmyStrong05 wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »ArmyStrong05 wrote: »Hi everyone, I am new to this community. I have recently lost 30 pounds but just started working out this past 3 weeks. I need help increasing my push ups and sit ups as I am going into the Army. I can't even do a real push up yet; I am doing about 15-20 girl push ups max. I can also do 15-20 sit ups max. As I am new to exercise, I'd like some help figuring out how to strengthen my core and arms so I can increase my number of sit ups and push ups. Please let me know what's worked for you. Thank you!
Make sure you talk with your recruiter and understand how to do pushups/situps to the correct standard.
There are 25-50 different ways to do them, and as of last check, each of the services has a slightly different standard of correctness.
If I recall correctly, the army is now the only service that does "old school situps" ie hands behind head elbows to knees and head to ground The Navy and Air Force have moved to crunches/curlups which are fingertips touching shoulderblades/elbows to legs(anywhere) and shoulderblades to floor.stanmann571 wrote: »TilKingdomCome wrote: »I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
I've observed that many people don't do 'girl'/modified pushups correctly.
Step one: get into the front leaning rest(AKA pushup-Up position) plank
Step two: while maintaining the plank tension, allow your knees to join your feet on the ground. your body should still be in a rigid plank from nose to knees and your feet should remain on the ground with tension.
Step three: lower down/forward while maintaining the modified plank.
Step four: press up.
At all points, the tension from nose to knees and knees to toes should be maintained. and knees and feet should remain in contact with the ground.
There should be no bend at the waist or hips and the fulcrum should be the knee and only the knee.
Most people bend at the waist and bob from a high crawl position, and this will do nothing to increase your strength towards pushups.
I feel like it can just be a big jump from going to the girl push ups to real ones because it's a lot harder for me. I have a very weak core as well so I can do the sit ups with proper form but I can only do about 10-15 at a time. By the time I ship out to basic, I my goal is to pass the push up and sit up portion of the PT test. I'd need to do 13 push ups and 47 sit ups.
This is why doing knee push ups is a terrible way to build up to full push ups. Hands placed on an elevated surface and decreasing that height as you get stronger is much much better.1 -
stanmann571 wrote: »TilKingdomCome wrote: »I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
I've observed that many people don't do 'girl'/modified pushups correctly.
Step one: get into the front leaning rest(AKA pushup-Up position) plank
Step two: while maintaining the plank tension, allow your knees to join your feet on the ground. your body should still be in a rigid plank from nose to knees and your feet should remain on the ground with tension.
Step three: lower down/forward while maintaining the modified plank.
Step four: press up.
At all points, the tension from nose to knees and knees to toes should be maintained. and knees and feet should remain in contact with the ground.
There should be no bend at the waist or hips and the fulcrum should be the knee and only the knee.
Most people bend at the waist and bob from a high crawl position, and this will do nothing to increase your strength towards pushups.
We do a circuit warm up where I train kickboxing and our teachers always go through proper form for each exercise at the beginning of session and you can tell one of them gets frustrated with bad form 'girl' push ups. He's like: '[bent at the waist as well as knees] or this [literal huge teepee butt in the air] is not a push up.' It's hilarious until he makes us do walk outs with one or two push ups at the bottom depending on the class (ladies only is one, mixed is two).
1 -
ArmyStrong05 wrote: »stanmann571 wrote: »ArmyStrong05 wrote: »Hi everyone, I am new to this community. I have recently lost 30 pounds but just started working out this past 3 weeks. I need help increasing my push ups and sit ups as I am going into the Army. I can't even do a real push up yet; I am doing about 15-20 girl push ups max. I can also do 15-20 sit ups max. As I am new to exercise, I'd like some help figuring out how to strengthen my core and arms so I can increase my number of sit ups and push ups. Please let me know what's worked for you. Thank you!
Make sure you talk with your recruiter and understand how to do pushups/situps to the correct standard.
There are 25-50 different ways to do them, and as of last check, each of the services has a slightly different standard of correctness.
If I recall correctly, the army is now the only service that does "old school situps" ie hands behind head elbows to knees and head to ground The Navy and Air Force have moved to crunches/curlups which are fingertips touching shoulderblades/elbows to legs(anywhere) and shoulderblades to floor.stanmann571 wrote: »TilKingdomCome wrote: »I used a Runtastic app for pushups. The first level is free and I’m pretty sure they also have a sit up one.
With my work fitness standard I had to be able to lower my chest to a fist from the floor, I see a lot of people not lowering enough.
The Runtastic app counts a push-up each time your nose touches the screen, I had the phone sitting on a low cone, about 5cm off the floor, and started by slowly lowering myself to touch the screen with my nose. After a few days I could struggle back up again. Within a couple of weeks I could do 10 and within about 3 months I got my record of 50.
I found doing ‘girl’ pushups did nothing to assist me.
I've observed that many people don't do 'girl'/modified pushups correctly.
Step one: get into the front leaning rest(AKA pushup-Up position) plank
Step two: while maintaining the plank tension, allow your knees to join your feet on the ground. your body should still be in a rigid plank from nose to knees and your feet should remain on the ground with tension.
Step three: lower down/forward while maintaining the modified plank.
Step four: press up.
At all points, the tension from nose to knees and knees to toes should be maintained. and knees and feet should remain in contact with the ground.
There should be no bend at the waist or hips and the fulcrum should be the knee and only the knee.
Most people bend at the waist and bob from a high crawl position, and this will do nothing to increase your strength towards pushups.
I feel like it can just be a big jump from going to the girl push ups to real ones because it's a lot harder for me. I have a very weak core as well so I can do the sit ups with proper form but I can only do about 10-15 at a time. By the time I ship out to basic, I my goal is to pass the push up and sit up portion of the PT test. I'd need to do 13 push ups and 47 sit ups.
This is why doing knee push ups is a terrible way to build up to full push ups. Hands placed on an elevated surface and decreasing that height as you get stronger is much much better.
My observation has been that if knee pushups are done correctly, it's not that big of a jump. It also allows for additional reps in training if the form is kept tight.
I certainly use it as an element of training when working with folks who have fallen below the standard for one reason or another.2 -
I'm not sure if anything has changed - it's been a while since I've been out of the Army... but when I entered one of the first things the Drill Instructors did was make us do push-ups. We had to do a minimum or 12 before we started Basic Training - if you couldn't they put you into a special program for a couple of weeks prior to entry. I'm pretty sure they did something similar for women. Women recruits ages 17 to 21 must be able to do 13 push-ups and 47 sit-ups to pass the APFT to graduate basic training. It's not a whole lot - just start working on it now unless you want to be in that "special" class.
edit: I see that you know what the minimum standards are - what you don't know is that you are going to be half dead from the constant physical training in basic. Those minimum requirements can be much harder to achieve because you will be worn out when you take that test. Later tests, when you go to your AIT and then your regular unit are much easier because in most cases you are actually given enough time to physically recover.1
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.8K Introduce Yourself
- 43.9K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 176K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.6K Fitness and Exercise
- 428 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153.1K Motivation and Support
- 8.1K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.4K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 15 News and Announcements
- 1.2K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions