US ARMY APFT i want to score a 300 !

[lift.iron]

this is the army fittness test and i want some advice on a workout program to help me get a perfect 300 on the apft test......here is what you have to do to get a 300

age 27-31 perfect score results...

77 push ups in 2 min 100pts... i can do 60 in 2 min...

82 sit ups in 2 min 100pts... i can only do 45 in 2 min ...... what the hell thought i could do more !

and run 2 miles in 13.18 min 100pts... i am at 1.32miles in 13 min ....this is the hard one to do this you have to run at least 9.2miles an hour for 2 miles non stop...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!holy sh*t..!!!!!!!

[lift.iron]

sh*t have to work from 2-11pm will check back tomorow

[fade2green514]

what better to improve on those than to do exactly what it says to?

do more pushups situps and running! lol

total body fitness would help but you need to get those particular motions perfected and sped up.

nobody is perfect though, i wouldn't let it bother you.

maybe you could eat more protein and less fat and carbs. you will be more aerodynamic then? lol

[wrecking_ball]

For pushups and situps just do a ****load. You want to do 2 minutes of pushups so train like your going to do 3. I have to do tons of sit ups to keep my situps above max, but ive found only situps seem to work for raising situps.

As far as running find your weakness, is it your legs getting tired or are you running out of breath? Whichever it is focus your training towards that doing intervals for breathing and longer runs for leg fatigue. Remember your running 2 miles so train like your doing 3!!

[ThiZzNation925]

It's all about pushing your self man; it's an endurance test. How bad do you really want it?

[Stope]

Great response wrecking_ball!

I agree, the best way to get good at doing something is to do it over and over again.

Push-ups
Do as many as you can at the fastest rate you can go while maintaining perfect form, then rest. Record this number you do in the first set. Do another 2 sets of push-ups, again focus on great form, but this time don't worry so much about going as fast as you can. Keep a good, consistent rate. Record the number of push-ups you do on each set here, make this a total between all 3 sets.

Once you can hit 77 push-ups on your first set, start recording the amount of time it takes to do this 77 (but keep going until you can't do any more).

On each workout from here on, you will be recording 3 things:
1) The amount of push-ups you do in the fist set
2) The time it takes you to get to 77
3) The amount of push-ups you do in total (all 3 sets added up).

What to push for:
The amount of push-ups you do in first set - should always increase.
The amount of time it takes to do 77 push-ups - should always decrease.
The total amount of push-ups you do - should always increase

The first set is for building speed and endurance, it will also build strength.
The 2nd and 3rd sets are for building strength and endurance.

If you really want to take things to the next level (as it appears you do, since you made a post here), you can look up each exercise you will be completing (push ups) and find out which muscles are primarily worked and which are secondarily worked. Focus on the secondary muscles here, and identify exercises that work your secondary muscle in the closest fashion they are used in a push up. Pick up these exercises, and start building up your secondary muscles with them. This will make doing push-ups easier, as your secondary muscles will not become nearly as fatigued come test day as they otherwise would.

Here is the link for push-ups: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exer...p?Name=Pushups

So for your secondary muscles, find exercises that involve your triceps and shoulders as primary muscles worked and in a similar pushing away motion that push-ups work them.

Here is the link to the main exercise guide page: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.htm


Sit-ups
Sit-ups are trickier. Do the same routine as push-ups as your main focus but have your goal be 82 on the first set instead of 77.

For additional exercises do the following -
Finger-Toes: lay on back with legs in air, bent 90 degrees at waist, reach with your fingers to your toes.
Leg ups: Lay on back, with legs straight out in front of you. Place your hands underneath your butt/lower back palm down and lift your legs 2 inches off the ground. Each rep involves lifting your legs from 2 inches off the ground to roughly being straight in the air causing your body to form a 90 degree angle at your hip


Running
For running, run 3 miles. Time yourself. Keep running 3 miles and always reduce the time it takes to run it each time. Remember to pace yourself, and at the end give it everything you got. As it becomes closer and closer to test-day, reduce the run to 2.5 miles (keep recording and beating your times), and then 2 miles. Furthermore, on the 3 and 2.5 mile runs, you can record your 2 mile time to see roughly where you are standing and this can be another number you seek to consistently beat despite being on a longer run. Always remember to do a light warm up that gets your heart beating and your blood flowing, and THEN stretch before doing your longer, harder run. Also remember to do some cool down jogging after running, just really light easy jogging.

Other Notes
Before tests/times when I need to perform my best I usually take 1 week completely off from any kind of strength related activity. This amount of time may vary from person to person, but for me being my absolute strongest it's 7 days or 1 week. Cardio/endurance type activities such as running I usually take 4 - 5 days off of heavy running and instead only doing very light jogging especially in the day or two preceding the test.

Alcohol consumption especially the week before the test(s) will hurt your results.

Like Thiz just said, it most certainly is all about pushing yourself. If you push yourself to make your workouts that much more intense.. and on a consistent bases.. you will be surprised how fast you can improve. Take things very easy at first. This is usually when people are the most motivated and risk pushing themselves so hard that they burn themselves out before any kind of habit/consistency can even begin to form. So take things slow at first. I promise, if you have only an ounce of competition in you, you will naturally start to push yourself as you continue your workout regiment. It is far more important to continue on a consistent basis than to initially burnout. So take my advice, and take things very easy at the beginning. This also will aid in preventing injury, as you are more likely to get hurt in your initial workouts when you and your muscles are less familiar with what is happening than in later work outs when viewed on a case by case basis.

Remember, the human body is adaptive to its physical demands. It is you who has the power to force it into adapting to exactly what you want it to be, or in your case, do.

Good luck on your workouts, and on your test! If you are feeling nice, you could also post back and let us know how things are going from time to time, especially once you test!

[wrecking_ball]

A few tricks you might try on test day -

Pushups, you know you got 2 minutes and you can rest so say you get 50 in the first minute. Go to the leaning rest then count to 5 then come down to 5 then back up count to 5 come down do 5, basically reserving your energy a little.

Situps - Make sure your not controlling the down portion, let your body fall and it will be much easier. Another thing is as long as your fingers stay interlocked you can move your arms so you can actually "bounce" once you hit if you pop your shoulder blades. Also to save energy as I come up I bring my elbows up, when my elbows hit my knees tends to be where my spine breaks parallel. The movement beyond parallel stresses the hip flexors quite a bit so its good to save some of that energy.

Run - Don't go overboard on the situps and make sure you've been stretching so your hip flexors don't lock up on ya. Also take the full 10 minutes before the run, its in the manual its yours!

Just a few more helpful pointers (FOR THE TEST, NOT THE TRAINING!), good luck man!