Speed of pushups/situps

[Mad Rocker]

Hey rebels, I've been trying to meet the standards of the British Army for these two exercises and their requirements for men are 44 pushups in 2 minutes and 50 situps in 2 minutes. I just roughly timed myself and could only manage 33 pushups and 25 situps. The problem wasn't so much that I couldn't do any more, it was that I was still going when the time ran out - I can't seem to do them quick enough.

Obviously one could cheat when practising at home by not keeping their form correct, but that wouldn't be much good when you have someone else doing the counting. So does anyone have any tips on how to increase the speed?

[cianalas]

Can't help with the sit-ups, that should get faster with practice.

With push-ups, you could start doing clap push-ups to get your muscles used to working faster.

[Waldo]

Its almost taking 4 seconds a pushup? Wow. That is a really, really slow pushup tempo. 1 second per pushup is a more normal pushup tempo. At a very slow tempo you aren't taking advantage of the spring action in your muscles. Going down should be like pushing a spring closed, immediately release it the instant your nose/chin/chest (I use the tip of my nose) touches the ground and pop back up.

What about your form is compromised by speeding up? A super slow tempo is as hard as a pushup gets, they get easier as you speed up (to a point). Do you use a hands under shoulders, elbows tight to your side, straight as a board form?

I also agree on the clap pushups, pushup tempo will be greatly influenced by power output, instead of a slow and steady application of force, use a high power pulse at the bottom, recapture energy on the way back down.

I can't help much with the situps.

[Zorch]

The same principle for pushups should apply to situps as well - work on power/explosive movements to improve your speed. One idea might be holding a weight to your chest and doing brief sets of situps, moving as quickly as possible - not working all the way to failure, but treating it more as a sprint - working on your speed when you're fresh, rather than trying to stretch for that last rep.

[Bamboozel]

Are you doing the push up/sit up to the British Army form standard? You may be using up time by using more range of motion than you need to. The descriptions from the British physical training manual are below.

Push Up

1. Participants are to lie flat on their stomach/chest with legs straight and feet not more than 30cm apart. Their hands are to be positioned, palms down (they may face inwards slightly) in a comfortable position from which they are able to commence the exercise. The hands and feet must be on the same level (i.e. both on the mat or both on the floor). This is known as, the “Start Position”.

2. The Press-up is performed from the Start Position by straightening the arms until they are fully locked at the elbows, using the toes as a pivot. The body is then lowered (by bending the elbows) until the upper arms are at least parallel to the floor. The body must be kept straight throughout the Press-up.

Sit Up

Both male and female candidates must complete 50 sit-ups in two minutes. Using a mat, lie on your back, knees bent at 90°, feet flat on the floor and secured. Your arms should be crossed over the chest with fingertips touching the shoulders. Sit up until your upper body is in a vertical position then, under control, return to the starting position, making sure your shoulder blades touch the mat (your head/hands/elbows don't need to) before you start the next sit-up. You should not flick your hips or bounce off the mat for extra momentum.

While doing sit ups don’t use your abs muscles to lower yourself from the vertical to start position. Just fall back and let you body weight pull you down, you will bounce off the ground a little bit and make it easier to get back to the vertical position.

[Kristen]

Pushups and situps are both so much easier if you do them fast! I've given this exact same advice before on these forums. When I started training for boot camp I could only do about 30 pushups in 2 minutes. Now I'm in the 70s. There's no special plan or workout that will get you there. If you're training to be tested on pushups, do pushups. It doesn't matter if you do them all at once or break it down throughout the day. It doesn't matter if you do 100 a day or 200. Just do a lot. Get down and push the ground. A lot. You will see an improvement.

In the text that Bamboozel referenced, both exercises are described exactly the same as for the US Navy fitness tests. The only difference is on sit ups we have to actually touch our elbows to legs. You're wasting time and energy if you go all the way up and all the way down on situps. Only your shoulderblades need to touch the floor, you shouldn't be lying flat out at the end of a rep. If you need to rest, rest, but otherwise just pull yourself up and fall down--only to your shoulderblades--and repeat, as fast as you can.

For pushups, don't lock your elbows when you raise up--just push up fast, enough to straighten your arms and fall back down again.

For the actual test, the key is to go fast--hammer out as many reps as quickly as possible. When practicing and doing workouts, a mix of fast movements, slow movements, and even isometric exercises is ideal. It doesn't really matter how you do them. Just do a lot of them.