LesakUSAFA
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Does anyone have a great workout to help with the CFA? I am in decent shape as we speak, but I want to MAX out on all of the parts of the CFA to improve my chances. Any help will do!
CFA Training
- Thread starter LesakUSAFA
- Start date
USNA Hopeful '20
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- Jun 26, 2015
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Look up the Murph challenge and do one or two of those a week!
JestFutureFalcon
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A tip for helping increase your scores a bit is your breathing technique. You know how power lifters take a deep breath to increase pressure on their core before going into a squat? Well the same concept can be used in the CFA.
For the bball throw I figured out first you should hold the ball in front of you and exhale. Then as you wind up to throw, take in as much air as you can and as your arm throws hold that breath. This helped my bball throw go up a good 10 feet (along with a bit of practice on form) from 75-85
On pullups, on the command hang, take in a deep breath and hold until the proctor says up. Keep holding it as you go up and exhale it all right before your chin goes over the bar(grunting out the air is quickest imo). As you go down after proctor notes your rep, inhale and hold at bottom until proctor says up and repeat
Push-ups and sit-ups just inhale as you go down and exhale near the top position. And when you run the mile take a 2-2 breathing approach(breath in on one foot then exhale next time that foot hits the ground).
Now the way you breath won't magically triple your push-ups pullups etc but I found that it helps for me. Try it out and tell me how it works for you.
As for a workout, all you can do to up your push/sit/pullups in a short amount of time is do more of them along with some supplemental exercises, eg dips, bicycle crunches, barbell rows respectively. Rep range and sets are determined by you. To build muscle just push yourself to close to failure daily for a while. As long as your muscles are pushing themselves to the limit they will grow. An example of a pushup routine I did as a sophomore over winter break is
3x50 regular push-ups
3x25 diamond pushup
3x25 wide push-ups
3x30 bench dips
The recovery in between each set was pretty much until I felt good because you have to be sure you are giving your muscles a chance to recover when you are pushing yourself to the limit(at the time I could only do 65 push-ups). At the end of three weeks of doing this daily, I had a serious muscular imbalance and shoulders that hunched forward, but I was able to do 119 push-ups in 2 minutes. Ever since then I stopped doing push-ups so my physique wouldn't be so effed up and now I can still do 85+ in two minutes.
Something that can help your mile time is tempo run. These are runs for about 3 miles at a "comfortably fast pace." Good rule of thumb is take your mile time and add 1 minute to find your pace per mile in a tempo run. You should feel like you wanna die after finishing one of these lol.
Bottom line, you have to push yourself. To get better you have to find out your body's limits and push those limits daily. There is no magic formula for a workout to improve.
For the bball throw I figured out first you should hold the ball in front of you and exhale. Then as you wind up to throw, take in as much air as you can and as your arm throws hold that breath. This helped my bball throw go up a good 10 feet (along with a bit of practice on form) from 75-85
On pullups, on the command hang, take in a deep breath and hold until the proctor says up. Keep holding it as you go up and exhale it all right before your chin goes over the bar(grunting out the air is quickest imo). As you go down after proctor notes your rep, inhale and hold at bottom until proctor says up and repeat
Push-ups and sit-ups just inhale as you go down and exhale near the top position. And when you run the mile take a 2-2 breathing approach(breath in on one foot then exhale next time that foot hits the ground).
Now the way you breath won't magically triple your push-ups pullups etc but I found that it helps for me. Try it out and tell me how it works for you.
As for a workout, all you can do to up your push/sit/pullups in a short amount of time is do more of them along with some supplemental exercises, eg dips, bicycle crunches, barbell rows respectively. Rep range and sets are determined by you. To build muscle just push yourself to close to failure daily for a while. As long as your muscles are pushing themselves to the limit they will grow. An example of a pushup routine I did as a sophomore over winter break is
3x50 regular push-ups
3x25 diamond pushup
3x25 wide push-ups
3x30 bench dips
The recovery in between each set was pretty much until I felt good because you have to be sure you are giving your muscles a chance to recover when you are pushing yourself to the limit(at the time I could only do 65 push-ups). At the end of three weeks of doing this daily, I had a serious muscular imbalance and shoulders that hunched forward, but I was able to do 119 push-ups in 2 minutes. Ever since then I stopped doing push-ups so my physique wouldn't be so effed up and now I can still do 85+ in two minutes.
Something that can help your mile time is tempo run. These are runs for about 3 miles at a "comfortably fast pace." Good rule of thumb is take your mile time and add 1 minute to find your pace per mile in a tempo run. You should feel like you wanna die after finishing one of these lol.
Bottom line, you have to push yourself. To get better you have to find out your body's limits and push those limits daily. There is no magic formula for a workout to improve.
JestFutureFalcon
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- Jul 6, 2015
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Note that tempo runs aren't meant to be done daily lol. 1-2 times a week is good. A track workout I did to get my mile time down is 8x400 meters at mile race pace. Once again don't do this every day. I admire how you wanna max out the CFA. I really want to as well, but my bball throw and shuttle aren't anywhere close to max sadly. What are your scores looking like?
LesakUSAFA
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- Jul 25, 2015
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I run cross country, so I run roughly 5-6 days a week. My main goal right now is to increase sit-ups but mostly pull-ups. I've never been able to do well with pull-ups and I want to get to that magical number. Everything else I'm pretty good with.
JestFutureFalcon
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A core workout I used to do was:
10 minute plank switching positions(2 on front, then 2 on left hand, 2 on right hand, then 2 on front again then 1 and 1 again on each side)- this first part of the workout is tough on the shoulders specifically if you aren't used to planks but just push through it because it isn't an impossible exercise.
After the plank, recover for a while, then do a cycle of 20 bicycle crunches, 20 flutter kicks, and 20 leg lifts all on four count for three sets. Between sets get full rest (3-5 min).
Remember form is everything on core workouts so don't let your back sway in any or you might start getting some back pain. At the end of this workout you will probably be spent since between exercises in the cycle there is not any rest.
As for pullups, one thing that got me pretty good at them is changing grips mid set. For example, my pull-up max was once 14, so I would do 3 sets of 12 but half of each set was with hands in chin up position (hands facing you) while other half was pull-up (hands facing away). Once sets of 12 get easy, add one of each variation and start doing 14 (7 pull 7chin). I stopped at 8 of each and when I maxed out I did 21(non cadence). That's how you get a lot stronger in pullups, but since we have cadenced pullups you gotta learn how to stay controlled. What I do now with a cadence pull-up max of 18 is
3x10 cadence pullups
3x5 4/4count pullups(4 count on way up, 4 count on way down)
And I do negatives to finish myself off. What you do is jump to flexed arm hang, then slowly drop on like a 5 count and once you hit the bottom you jump up again and repeat. I can usually get away with sets of 5 negatives before running out of steam. Remember you need to be pushing yourself if you want to be stronger so those negatives should feel like crap.
Anyways that's just my 10 cents on sit-ups and pullups, but I'm sure there are more optimal ways to train. Hope that helps you some! Remember in the end you need to listen to your muscles to figure out what you need to do, because as long as they are hurting(not like pull a hammy hurting but more of a exhausted hurting) you are getting somewhere.
10 minute plank switching positions(2 on front, then 2 on left hand, 2 on right hand, then 2 on front again then 1 and 1 again on each side)- this first part of the workout is tough on the shoulders specifically if you aren't used to planks but just push through it because it isn't an impossible exercise.
After the plank, recover for a while, then do a cycle of 20 bicycle crunches, 20 flutter kicks, and 20 leg lifts all on four count for three sets. Between sets get full rest (3-5 min).
Remember form is everything on core workouts so don't let your back sway in any or you might start getting some back pain. At the end of this workout you will probably be spent since between exercises in the cycle there is not any rest.
As for pullups, one thing that got me pretty good at them is changing grips mid set. For example, my pull-up max was once 14, so I would do 3 sets of 12 but half of each set was with hands in chin up position (hands facing you) while other half was pull-up (hands facing away). Once sets of 12 get easy, add one of each variation and start doing 14 (7 pull 7chin). I stopped at 8 of each and when I maxed out I did 21(non cadence). That's how you get a lot stronger in pullups, but since we have cadenced pullups you gotta learn how to stay controlled. What I do now with a cadence pull-up max of 18 is
3x10 cadence pullups
3x5 4/4count pullups(4 count on way up, 4 count on way down)
And I do negatives to finish myself off. What you do is jump to flexed arm hang, then slowly drop on like a 5 count and once you hit the bottom you jump up again and repeat. I can usually get away with sets of 5 negatives before running out of steam. Remember you need to be pushing yourself if you want to be stronger so those negatives should feel like crap.
Anyways that's just my 10 cents on sit-ups and pullups, but I'm sure there are more optimal ways to train. Hope that helps you some! Remember in the end you need to listen to your muscles to figure out what you need to do, because as long as they are hurting(not like pull a hammy hurting but more of a exhausted hurting) you are getting somewhere.
hahah can you even do that?
JestFutureFalcon
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- Jul 6, 2015
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Lol I might be able to do it without the weights. And if I do some cheating *ahem* crossfit style pullups. I used to run with a weight vest but it was super annoying so I doubt I'd have the patience to run 2 miles in one haha
USNA Hopeful '20
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Yes I actually did one! It was brutal and I was really sore after it, but that's how you know you are making progress!