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Getbig Bodybuilding Boards => Training Q&A => Topic started by: hrotccadet on May 03, 2008, 07:11:30 PM

Title: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 03, 2008, 07:11:30 PM
Hey whats up guys. Has anyone here who has been or is in the service or more specifically the Army National Guard ever had trouble with keeping up with the three events, Push Ups, Sit Ups, and Run? I ask because I noticed that for myself that on the last PT test that my push ups and run had gone down after I had been lifting for the previous weeks before. I want to score as high as possible or if I can get a score of 270 I will be happy with that but I also REALLY want to keep lifting weights because I personally really enjoy lifting and want to stay strong. If anyone has any advive about this that would be great thanks! :)
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: aussiejosh on May 03, 2008, 08:28:17 PM
Ok Im no expert but if you just started lifting which it sounds like you have, your body is fatigued from the excess exercise that your not use to and when you put that on top of what you normaly do it cant keep up and produce the normal standards, but once you get use to lifting you should be fine and even improve your fitness levels just have to get use to the extra strain on the muscles.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: The_Crusher on May 04, 2008, 11:24:35 AM
Hey whats up guys. Has anyone here who has been or is in the service or more specifically the Army National Guard ever had trouble with keeping up with the three events, Push Ups, Sit Ups, and Run? I ask because I noticed that for myself that on the last PT test that my push ups and run had gone down after I had been lifting for the previous weeks before. I want to score as high as possible or if I can get a score of 270 I will be happy with that but I also REALLY want to keep lifting weights because I personally really enjoy lifting and want to stay strong. If anyone has any advive about this that would be great thanks! :)

I was in for 12 years...I could never get to the next level (E-5) because I couldn't make the two mile run in time. I was 230 lbs at 5'8" back then. Stocky......and out-a-breath!
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 04, 2008, 03:12:51 PM
Damm. What was your run time?
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: fromfattoliving on May 04, 2008, 10:33:52 PM
Push ups and the sit-ups should come easy man especially if you are training and lifting. If that still doesn't work, what worked for me so I could pass the run was to try and combine light high rep lifting after some cardio that always helped me get my stamina up. I tried to drink a shake or something for calories after the cardio. I only did this for a few weeks before the PT test because gains are minimal with this.


This IMO and some guys might beat me up for this but I was in the 82nd and it worked for four years 300+ every time.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 05, 2008, 08:38:46 PM
Push ups and the sit-ups should come easy man especially if you are training and lifting. If that still doesn't work, what worked for me so I could pass the run was to try and combine light high rep lifting after some cardio that always helped me get my stamina up. I tried to drink a shake or something for calories after the cardio. I only did this for a few weeks before the PT test because gains are minimal with this.


This IMO and some guys might beat me up for this but I was in the 82nd and it worked for four years 300+ every time.

Any other advice.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: SpeedDemon on May 06, 2008, 08:32:53 AM

how is each one measured??

IE is it push ups to failure, as many as you can inside of a time limit??

what are your goals??

what can you currently do??
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 12, 2008, 01:41:47 PM
Ok to max out the PT test you have to be able to do 71 pushups in two mintues are less, 78 situps in two minutes or less, and run 2 miles in 13:00 miles.

Now what I can currenitly do is 64 pushups, 77 situps, and I run the two miles in 15:39 mintues

Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: SpeedDemon on May 12, 2008, 03:51:10 PM
ok a couple tips

I used to be a big track and cross country guy in highschool and college. one of the tricks to a distance event like the two mile is setting your pace. If you just go out there and run it you are either going to hit it to hard at the start and run out of gas or you are going to be afraid to run out of gas and hold yourself back too much.

so your time required time is 13:00 for a mile

so 13 x 60 = 780 (converting minutes into seconds)

780 divided by the number of laps or 8 = 97.5

lets round down to make sure you are under your 13min goal

you should be running 97 seconds or 1:37 per lap

do repeats at 1:37 per lap and give yourself full recovery between

as you progress begin to cut down your recovery time

week one: full rest, week two: one minute rest, week three: 30 seconds rest, week four 15 seconds rest.

then maybe switch to two laps in a row at pace, two laps at 3:14 then rest

after awhile you will be able to estimate the time you ran pretty accurately just by feel
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: SpeedDemon on May 13, 2008, 08:36:30 AM
as far as push up and crunches you might want to try out the tabata method

20 seconds and maximum effort then ten seconds rest, repeat for 6-10 cycles

another one I like to do is jump rope for thirty seconds then do five clap push ups, then repeat. I like to aim for ten minutes, I have been doing that once a week for six weeks now and I still cant get all the way through with clap push ups, i have to switch to regular. for the last couple in the last couple sets
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 13, 2008, 05:35:52 PM
What about diamond pushups? Do you do any of those? I start out with them with each workout and do at least 50 straight.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 13, 2008, 05:40:35 PM
Oh and by the way I'm considering using Gamma-O to get even stronger. Any body have any advice about that stuff.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: fromfattoliving on May 14, 2008, 07:17:25 AM
What about diamond pushups? Do you do any of those? I start out with them with each workout and do at least 50 straight.

Its push ups and sit ups man. Its not that hard to pass. those standards are set for an average joe. Just keep working hard and doing all three and you will be ok, it might come easier if you worked on it more than one weekend a month
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: SpeedDemon on May 14, 2008, 02:37:25 PM
how long is 50 diamond push ups taking you??

work on your bursts of effort, its really more of a speed and endurance test than a feat of strength

I use to get gamma o for free, they sponsored one of the fighters I train. the main things I noticed were that I gained weight and strength but I was bloated and smooth, and for me to smooth out is rare, I was that skinny little eight year old with a six pack and never grew out of it.

for me the strength gains weren't enough to balance out the water retention
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 15, 2008, 06:17:17 AM
Its push ups and sit ups man. Its not that hard to pass. those standards are set for an average joe. Just keep working hard and doing all three and you will be ok, it might come easier if you worked on it more than one weekend a month

Well I am passing them no problem but I just want to be able to max them out.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 15, 2008, 06:19:48 AM
how long is 50 diamond push ups taking you??


Two minutes to get them done.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: JackCheze on May 15, 2008, 02:25:27 PM
I just got out last year.

sounds like pushups and running are your shortcomings.

I won't touch the running because I was ok but not great.

But for pushups here is what I discovered.

DIPS DIPS DIPS.

Bench press is good, but make sure you do dips. If you can do your body weight easy start adding weight.

DEADLIFT. I know everyone always says deadlifts solve everything, but here's a test you can try:

Do deadlifts on one day, then do push ups the next. My back would be so rigid keeping it straight wouldn't even be a concern.

Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 16, 2008, 05:37:19 PM
it might come easier if you worked on it more than one weekend a month

I hope your not putting down the National Guard with that comment because the National Guard is full of great highly motivated people who I trust very much!
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: JackCheze on May 16, 2008, 10:26:02 PM
I hope your not putting down the National Guard with that comment because the National Guard is full of great highly motivated people who I trust very much!

Don't sweat that guy. I was RA and I served with a lot of Guard in Afghanistan, not only were they mostly top notch, but they'd been deployed a lot more than a lot of regular Army units
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: fromfattoliving on May 22, 2008, 08:44:41 AM
I hope your not putting down the National Guard with that comment because the National Guard is full of great highly motivated people who I trust very much!

No man like I said 82nd deployed with the NG ALL THE TIME!!! Just giving you shit don't take offense AT ALL!!!
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on May 24, 2008, 08:15:44 PM
Your right I shouldn't have over reacted to that.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: BFP on May 24, 2008, 10:37:03 PM
No man like I said 82nd deployed with the NG ALL THE TIME!!! Just giving you shit don't take offense AT ALL!!!

where at in the 82d?  What was your MOS?

Jason
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: ngm21084 on May 24, 2008, 10:53:01 PM
No man like I said 82nd deployed with the NG ALL THE TIME!!! Just giving you shit don't take offense AT ALL!!!


just say it man Those Weekend Warriors
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: danielson on May 25, 2008, 03:58:06 AM
Hey whats up guys. Has anyone here who has been or is in the service or more specifically the Army National Guard ever had trouble with keeping up with the three events, Push Ups, Sit Ups, and Run? I ask because I noticed that for myself that on the last PT test that my push ups and run had gone down after I had been lifting for the previous weeks before. I want to score as high as possible or if I can get a score of 270 I will be happy with that but I also REALLY want to keep lifting weights because I personally really enjoy lifting and want to stay strong. If anyone has any advive about this that would be great thanks! :)

Have you considered asking Candizzle? He is after all creating a masterpiece, you should send him a PM.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: buffbong on June 08, 2008, 04:12:30 PM
actually i feel training with wieghts should make all events easier.
my best pt test score which came after being on vacation for a month
was.
push ups 94
sit ups     78
run   14:09
at the time of the test i was 5-3 and 180.

the key for the push ups is to knock out as many as you could before having to pause. situps getting in a good rythm and not slowing down or stopping. and like the guy said before running is about pacing yourself and staying consistant.

i hated when guys would tell me they did 120 push ups and i would reply yea but my chest touches the ground on each rep. they would swear they go all the way down the majority go about half way down.

one thing that could make a pt test harder is training chest the day before or calves pretty painfull lol.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: Cap on June 09, 2008, 08:45:31 AM
Pyramid training is one of the best ways to maximize a PT score.

Try this for a while.

1 pullup
2 pushups
3 sit ups

2 pullups
4 sit ups
6 situps

and so on until you reach the highest number you can do.  At that point pyramid back down. Try that and get back to us.
Title: Re: Weight lifting and being in the Army.
Post by: hrotccadet on June 12, 2008, 11:25:41 AM
Pyramid training is one of the best ways to maximize a PT score.

Try this for a while.

1 pullup
2 pushups
3 sit ups

2 pullups
4 sit ups
6 situps

and so on until you reach the highest number you can do.  At that point pyramid back down. Try that and get back to us.

And I will do this exactly. I appreciate it thanks. My next PT test is in a month so I'll let you know how I do. see you in a month.