Class of 18 Hopefuls!

[lillian]

I'm taking it not next week, but the week after, and I'm having trouble with pull-ups and push-ups. I'm a runner, so I've never really trained for upper-body strength, and I've been trying to do a few more pull-ups and push-ups each day, but if there's another better way to train, I'd be happy to try!

I can only do one pull up, so if you can do a pull up...I don't have much advice from there.

But. Push ups, I can do. Bench press really low weight, high reps, lots of sets. Add more weight as you get better, but retain the number of reps. DO NOT overtrain your arms. It will set you back. Do sets of push ups to failure. If you can do 30, then do 30 as many times as your arms can handle. Another thing that works is trying to do 100 push ups in a row. Once your form starts falling apart, switch to "girl push ups" and finish off the 100. Make sure you rest enough, but on days you're training, drop down and do a few push ups throughout the day whenever you have the opportunity. You should make progress fairly quickly.

 

[jackiejyp7]

I suggest doing static pull ups?? Search them online I did something where you pull up and slowly lower yourself below the bar and continue practicing pull ups that way until you can do a few at a time. I would suggest you use your arms to really push you up and do not hang in a dead lift for TOO long when testing to immediately back into the pull up or you lose complete momentum. I went from doing one to 6 in a month. I did them every day, several morning and evening.

For push-ups try the 100 push-up challenge! Planks help push ups and I would suggest finding the grip you are comfortable with. I do close grip but others do wide. Gluck!!

 

[leto8178]

I'm taking it not next week, but the week after, and I'm having trouble with pull-ups and push-ups. I'm a runner, so I've never really trained for upper-body strength, and I've been trying to do a few more pull-ups and push-ups each day, but if there's another better way to train, I'd be happy to try!

Do you have a doorway pull-up bar? That was probably my single BEST purchase I ever made when training for the CFA. It not only allows you to do pull-ups at any time during the day, it is a very handy tool for extending range of motion, and working on low impact, deep strength push-up training. I am a CX runner, so I feel your pain with coming up short on upper body. It took a lot of work to get scores into a competitive range, but a tool like that definitely helped me!

 

[Micaela]

I actually just put a doorway pull-up bar over my bedroom door today, and each time I walk in or out of the door, I do a pull-up, and hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to up it to two. Thank you, lillian, for the push-up advice. I think that will work better than the small sets I've been doing. Thank you, everyone! And good luck to you all as well.

 

[leto8178]

I actually just put a doorway pull-up bar over my bedroom door today, and each time I walk in or out of the door, I do a pull-up, and hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to up it to two. Thank you, lillian, for the push-up advice. I think that will work better than the small sets I've been doing. Thank you, everyone! And good luck to you all as well.

Hey Micaela, here is a link to the Air Force Acadey Pre-Arrival Cadet Training regiment too! Although it is designed to get you in shape for BCT, I think it is a great regimen to follow to prepare for the CFA as well! Also, lillian was spot on with the push-up advice. As far as pull-ups go, I would say definitely keep doing what you are doing. Seeing results with pull ups may take some time, but once it starts to go up, it happens exponentially! Good luck on your CFA!

http://www.academyadmissions.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/USAFA_PACT_Regimen.pdf

 

[CannotBeDisplayed]

Do you have a doorway pull-up bar? That was probably my single BEST purchase I ever made when training for the CFA

I could not agree more with this statement. When I began applying for SAs, I could only do 4 pull-ups at a time, which I knew wasn't going to cut it. My Marine vet father recommended that I get a doorway pull-up bar, so I went straight to Academy and put it on my door. After 2 weeks, I brought my single-set pull up total up to 10 using this 2 week workout routine from military.com. Their pushup workout program also gave me similar results.