summer seminar cfa

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2ndgenerationusaf

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My DS is going to USAFA summer seminar this June, and will take the CFA while there. My DS is a cross country runner and his pull ups and push ups are not as high as they could be. On the USAFA web site it says 12 pull ups and 67 pushups for males to pass the CFA. Is this written in stone? Can he opt out of the CFA at SS. Does anyone out there know of a good exercise regimen that could help him with his upper body ?
 
2ndgenerationusaf said:
My DS is going to USAFA summer seminar this June, and will take the CFA while there. My DS is a cross country runner and his pull ups and push ups are not as high as they could be. On the USAFA web site it says 12 pull ups and 67 pushups for males to pass the CFA. Is this written in stone? Can he opt out of the CFA at SS. Does anyone out there know of a good exercise regimen that could help him with his upper body ?
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It's diagnostic-those scores aren't kept anywhere after SS, just a chance for the candidates to get used to the test.
 
Also, they give AVERAGE scores on the USAFA website. You can get below the average and still get in (I did) but of course he should try to shoot for the max if possible :)
 
You're not gonna like this, but in my opinion the best way to get good scores on pushups/pull-ups is to do them. I put a pull-up bar up and just did them a few times a day and within a month I went from 7 to 14. Your DS has plenty of time before he will have to take the CFA so go ahead and start now.

The CFA at summer seminar is just so candidates can get a feel for it. As far as I'm aware even if you want to keep the scores you can't due to being at a higher altitude and having others there to pace/push you along with other reasons I'm sure.
 
As bailey said, the only supply the Max and the Average scores that have been scored on the CFA. I feel the reason they don't provide the minimum is so people don't shoot for minimum but that's just speculation. I started not being able to do 10 push ups and now I can do 40+ in my two minutes. What I did was just doing them everyday and lifting weights. The pull ups are a challenge but same concept. Just keep trying and encourage your DS to simply do his best and work his hardest.
 
He should be able to meet those averages and look good at the summer seminar if he starts working toward it now. He has two months or so.

For what it's worth, I've posted quotes below of my recommendations for improving on the pull-ups and push-ups from some other threads. Granted, I am a woman, and I was just giving encouragement and guidance to some young ladies, but I think the general idea would help a young man who needs to improve his upper body strength.

I honestly think just doing the push-ups and pull-ups with good form until failure, then doing modified versions after failure is the best way to improve your reps in the shortest amount of time. Your DS probably won't take my advice, my own son didn't. Boys seem to like to have a plan to get there that involves using weights and machines in the gym. My son was able to improve his reps with his weight room plan, but he would have improved a lot faster (in my opinion) if he would have simply practiced the push-ups and pull-ups. It's probably not as exciting to just practice the simple exercise as to do the "lat. pull-downs," etc.... Realistically, a person could crank out a few sets of push-ups and pull-ups at home in the amount of time it would take to just travel to the gym and back.

SDMom2019 said:
yrangd, I've been there and hope what worked for me will work for you. When I was a 23-year-old woman, I applied for a wildland fire hotshot crew and was accepted. The acceptance package told me the fitness criteria I would need to meet on day 1 in order to be on the crew. All of the crew, men and women, were expected to meet the same criteria. One of the criteria was to do 7 pull-ups. I thought I was in decent shape from working outside all the time, but like you, I couldn't even do one. There was no gym in the town where I lived, but luckily, I had an old clothesline in the backyard, and the clothesline post worked for me to practice pull-ups on.

What I did was grab the bar and jump up to get my chin above the bar, then lower myself down as slowly as I could. In the beginning, I just did this to the point of fatigue. Pretty soon, I could do one pull-up, then two. I would just do as many pull-ups as I was able to...then, switch back to jumping up above the bar and slowly lowering until the point where I couldn't control lowering myself. When I reported, I was able to do 10+ (I wanted to make sure I could still do 7, even on a bad day.) I did the second highest number of pull-ups of the crew that showed up. The person who did the most was also a girl. Many who showed up, both men and women, had not taken the preparation packet very seriously and thought they could just do everything without much preparation. They didn't realize that what you could do when you were fresh wasn't similar to what you could do when you were already tired. Some failed. Determine that you will not be one who fails. Don't use the excuse "women don't have much upper body strength" and not try to do the best you can. I am a small-frame woman in her mid-40s who doesn't have a gym membership, and I can still crank out at least 5. Since I started doing them, I have never allowed myself to reach the point where I couldn't do any. I don't want to feel weak again. Realizing I couldn't do any made me feel weak.

You probably don't have a handy clothesline like I did, but they sell a bar that you can put in the doorway. That's what I use now. I think it's called an Iron Gym or something. You can find them at sporting goods stores or on Amazon. You just put it up in the doorway when you want to use it, then remove it when you're done.

You have plenty of time to ace the pull-ups. Just determine that you will. You got this.
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SDMom2019 said:
Brooke, just get started and improve as much as you can between now and then. If you don't like the score you get at NASS, I'm pretty sure you can take it later, allowing you several more months to get where you want to be. Maybe you could get a book like "You Are Your Own Gym" that focuses on strength training. Also, work your way into running.

If you can't do regular push-ups yet, you could start by using a step, chair, table, or even a wall and doing push-ups with your hands elevated. Then lower the elevation as you get stronger. Soon, you'll be able to do them on the floor. When you hit failure on the floor, add in a few more with your hands elevated. If they get easy on the floor, you can make them harder by elevating your feet.

Start working on the running by warming up with a fast walk, running what you can, then switching back to walking when you have to. Alternate until you've met your mileage goal. Try to run farther without walking each time. Pretty soon, you'll be able to meet your mileage goal without walking.

I talked about how to work on pull-ups on the other NASS thread if you need a plan to reach that goal.

Good luck. You can do it.
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Those are NOT "pass/fail" scores...those are more of a "high average."

"Once upon a time" USAFA used to post the minimum, mean, and maximum scores...they don't do that anymore. The goal should be the highest score a candidate can achieve...focus on the numbers USAFA posts and forget the rest.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
As stated abive, SS was a dry run of the CFA, not official. Also...just FYI...for girls the pull-ups are all about muscle memory. Our daughter could knock out push ups with no problem at all but was struggling with pull ups. She went from struggling with 2 to being able to do 6-7 for CFA. We put a pull up bar in her doorway and she would do them every time she walked in or out. Once she got the muscle memory down she was able to increase quantity.
 
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