Goal in mind... Not sure how to accomplish (a little lengthy)

[Sydnie]

Okay, guys. I have a goal in mind and a time frame in which I want to accomplish it. The issue is I'm not sure how to train for it and I need a little bit of "you can do it!" haha.

Short term goal: i want to reach this by May. Early May.

Pushups- 21

Situps- 58

3 Mile Run- 27 mins

Pull Ups- 2

I want this because I want to be able to join either the National Guard or Air Force Reserve (single mom, the only options I've got) and I also plan on eventually going to the Police Academy, but the Academy is a couple of years away. I want military training first. Now, these are mixed goals from all of the different branches (Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army) and their minimum standards. I took all of their minimum standards and took the TOP from that. My long term goal is to MAX the best of the best, which is:

Pushups- 48

Situps- 105

3 Mile Run- 21 mins

Pull Ups- 5

Right now, I can do 10 pushups, 0 pullups, 20 situps (with 15 lbs worth of weight on my chest), & my run is unknown, but I do know that it's slow. I can't run much more than a half of a mile without getting winded. I already know that the run is going to be my most difficult challenge, but it'll be the one that makes me feel the most accomplished. Pull ups will, too, though. Heh.

I'm under the impression that preparing for a run is best done by going FARTHER than the goal, so running at least 4-5 miles to train for a 3 mile. The rest, however, I'm at a loss. I've gotten into weight lifting and I absolutely love it, but I don't know if that's enough. I also don't know the best exercises for core/ab training besides doing situps with weights on my chest. I'm just a beginner in the gym and don't know a lot of exercises, so I need some help. I've read through the nerd fitness website and have been trying quite a few of those and they feel GREAT but I didn't know if there was more I should be doing. These aren't the only goals I want, but they're the most important in my mind. I've fallen in love with free weights since I started reading this site.

Thanks, guys!! You're the best.

[Knightwatch]

Sounds like some great goals.

You say you're in love with weights, which is always an excellent start! What's your program look like right now?

To add volume in your pushups, one of the best ways is to do a lot of sets spread thinly throughout the day, and very rarely take them to failure. So if you can do ten right now, do sets of 6 or 7 several times throughout the day. It'll only take you a few seconds for any given set, but you'll start racking up a lot of reps. Each week, add either an additional set, or an additional rep to some or all the sets you're already doing. Every couple weeks, retest a max set and see if it's working.

For situps, you can still do some weighted ones, but if you're going to be testing unweighted, that's how you should train. If you can do a set of 20 with weight, you can probably do, what, 30 or so unweighted? Do that, and literally just add a rep per day, and you should be right on target for your goals. Or, do them slightly less often, a few times a week, but add 3-4 per session.

A lot of beginner running programs train you to run your first 5K, which is a bit over 3 miles. A popular (and free!) one is Couch to 5K, but Steve has put our a very well written running program with a similar goal, for sale right here on Nerd Fitness.

As for the pullups, well, I'd ask some of the amazing ladies around here how they progressed to their first pullup. It's a big moment when you get that first one. I'd start by training lat pulldowns and/or assisted pullups. You can do assisted chins with either a band hung from the bar which you slip your knee or foot through, or my supporting yourself with a chair and helping yourself up with only as much leg drive as you need to get over the bar. A couple times a week, you can do a jumping pullup or get yourself above the bar with a chair, and then slooooooowly lower yourself, working the negative portion of the movement.

In addition to that work, just follow a very streamlined, simple resistance program, and you'll be blowing your goals away in no time.

Those are just a few strategies. There are many paths to get where you want to be. Best of luck!

[doc_brietz]

Army guy here. Seen this before. Lets look at those goals again:

Short term goal: i want to reach this by May. Early May.

Pushups- 21

Situps- 58

3 Mile Run- 27 mins

Pull Ups- 2

I know our PT bible is TC 3-22.20 (i think). For any excersize, form is a must. If you do these wrong, they will not count. Trust me.

I say start with the "Body Weight Brigade" rank 1. Now, for this, you may want to add 2 excersizes:

Sit-ups and

maintaining Front leaning rest Position

Now, for pushups....in the rank one, you do 4 sets of max reps. If your test is 2 minutes, then you can change this to 4 sets of 30 seconds. Your initial goal is 5 pushups. If you reach this, keep going until failure, even if it means knee pushups. do this for a few weeks then up it to max pushups for 1 minute x4 sets. Your goal is half of what you need to pass. same rules apply. then on to 1:30 and 2 minutes. You could also skip all of this and do a few every time you see a commercial on TV at night.

Do sit-ups the same way, adding it to your existing PT routine. Use heavy weights to brace yourself and aim for the same goals in respect to the number you need. A few 80 lb dumb bells can brace your feet. You can also do them without anything holding your feet for a little added challenge.

Steve has some excersizes for pull ups. There are a few of them. One of the best things you can do is drop unnessecary weight. Once I do my own chin-ups and pull-ups, I can help more.

For running, 2-3 days a week I focus on 3 different types of runs

day 1 - a short run (that gets progressivly longer) based on time. Start with half a mile at no slower than a 4:30 split, then 1 mile @ 9, and so on. Push yourself and work towards this.

Day 2 - sprints or strides. you can do a 30 second run,60 second slow jog (called 30/60's) or do 100 meter strides like steve says. I used to run track and we would do 220/440's where you either sprint the straight away and jog the corners on a 1/4 mile oval, or do the oposite starting out. I did 10 sets of 30/60's the other day, which was almost a mile worth of sprinting. It helps.

Day 3 - a long decent run at a pace you can forget. Start with 2.5 miles and slowly work your way to 4-5 you can increase maybe 1/2 mile every week or two. Do it gradually.

I could go on and on, as I have my own standards to meet as well. To get the score I want, I have to do 60 PU, 63 SU, and a 15:00 2 mile. I am slowly getting there. Eat right and get good rest during your workouts. Also, find my first thread where I welcome myself here. Me and another guy talk about this sort of thing.

divide and conquer. remember, form is the utmost of importance.

[161803398874989]

For pullups, use negatives and jackknife pulls. Negatives are where you jump up to the top and lower yourself down slowly, taking 5-6 seconds. Jackknife pulls are where you grab the bar, put your feet in front of you (on a chair or something) and pull yourself up. An angle of 0.5pi (90 degrees) between your torso and your legs is ideal. Start with 3 sets of 3 repetitions for negatives and 3 sets of 5 repetitions for jackknife pulls. Alternate. (so one day you do jackknife pulls, day after that you do negatives...) Once you get your first pullup, keep working the jackknife pulls once every two days. Once you have build up a little more strength (so that one pullup doesn't leave you completely broken), start using grease the groove (do pullups throughout the day, look it up) to get your numbers up.

For pushups, you will want to GTG like knightwatch said.

For situps, same protocol. Training weighted is alright, but it will do little for your endurance.

For the run, you should do something like Couch to 5K to build endurance at first. Once you get that, keep running 3 miles once a week. Two other days, you'll want to build up base speed by use of intervals. One day high intensity, one day a little lower intensity. Here are a couple of intervals you could use:

High intensity: 12x200m with 300m rest, 6x400m with 200m rest, pyramids (so 100m run, 100m rest, 200m run, 100m rest, 300m run, 200m rest, 400m run, 200m rest, 500m run, 300m rest and back down). A pyramid I like is 1-R1-2-R1-3-R2-4-R2-5-R3-6-R4-5-R3-4-R2-3-R1-2-R1-1 (in hundreds of metres, R is rest) Make sure to keep the maximum distance pretty low.

Lower intensity: 5x800m with 400m rest, 800m- 400m rest - 1K - 400m rest - 1K - 400m rest - 500m finisher.

"Rest" doesn't mean that you're going to sit on your ass and do nothing. You're going to walk. Jogging slowly is better. For a 400m rest, I usually walk the first 100m, jog about 350m and walk the last 50.

If you take a look at the total amount ran, you'll see that for high intensity it's typically around 2500-3000 m and for low intensity it gets more into the 3 mile territorium, but with intervals.

For your running technique, you will want to run lightly. This doesn't mean you have to take long strides, just don't bash your feet in the ground. Once you get the hang of sprinting, you'll know what I mean.

[Book]

I'm in the National Guard now, and I agree with Knightwatch's comment about spreading push-up/sit-up exercises throughout the day. That's what I do particularly when a PT test is coming up. I'll often go into an empty conference room at work, pump out a couple of sets of push-ups and crunches, and then I'm right back at my desk.

However, in terms of your short-term goal, remember that those minimum standards basically apply to what they expect *after* basic training. Many, many people show up for basic not able to come anywhere near those standards. Basic is definitely a great way to get in shape, as long as all the other, uh... baggage isn't a problem (You know, like getting sent to the Middle East for a year). Of course, the better shape you are going in, the less painful Basic Training will be.

Another thing to consider is that (at least in the Army and Army National Guard) the physical fitness test may be changing to the new APRT. The tests and standards are different, the tests more diverse. And then, there's also perhaps a new combat readiness test.

But heck yeah, you can do this! You're already a mom, you've been training for harder stuff than this already.

[Sydnie]

Thanks, everyone! Awesome advice, and it's getting me super pumped. I'm heading to the gym now, and I usually bike the 2 miles there and back just because the neighborhood makes me feel better when I'm on a bike, not on my feet. The couch to 5k sounds awesome, too. Pretty excited. I definitely need to lose a few pounds before a pullup is really going to be manageable but that's also why I started working out. Getting back down to a healthy weight and endurance. Best shape I was ever in I could still only run 2 miles in 19 mins. Hardly an accomplishment, so I want to beat that and then some.

However, in terms of your short-term goal, remember that those minimum standards basically apply to what they expect *after* basic training. Many, many people show up for basic not able to come anywhere near those standards. Basic is definitely a great way to get in shape, as long as all the other, uh... baggage isn't a problem (You know, like getting sent to the Middle East for a year). Of course, the better shape you are going in, the less painful Basic Training will be.

Yea, I do know that that's what's required to graduate but the fact that I'm a woman puts me at a disadvantage. Not only do I have to work harder to earn their respect, I need to work even harder every day to maintain that. So I want to go in ready to kick some ass. I also don't want Basic to be too too painful. Heh.

I really appreciate all of your help, and I'll definitely be keeping track of my progress on here.

But heck yeah, you can do this! You're already a mom, you've been training for harder stuff than this already.

Hahaha! Thanks! Yes, he's definitely a handful.