injury-CFA at summer seminar?

R

robinhood17

USMA Cadet
5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
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Hi, I've been training pretty hard for the CFA, as i am hoping to max all scores possible. about 3 weeks ago, i stepped off a curb and sprained my ankle (minor, but enough to stop running just in case)

Well, i am fully healed, and I went to run a mile today, and found it difficult again to get past a mile and a half. :mad: My ankle does not hurt, i have just lost some conditioning it seems. I am afraid my CFA will be aversly affected.

with little more than two weeks until summer seminar, what can i do to majorly kick up my running..or any other pt scores? (of course without hurting myself)

I took a practice CFA this morning:
mile: 8:15..
Pushups- 42
situps 85
basketball throw- 60 feet
pullups- 4
did not attempt shuttle run.

Any input is greatly appreciated!:smile:
 
From my understanding, the AFA Summer Seminar does not conduct the CFA as "official"...it's done as a practice. Whatever scores you receive while at AFA Summer Seminar do not count and cannot be submitted. That differs from both USNA and USMA Summer Seminars where the scores can be counted as official. With that said, you will end up taking the CFA at a later time when you've given your ankle more time to heal and had more time to get back in running shape. Good luck to you!
 
Hey,
I have also been getting ready for the CFA, I know it does not officially count (thank goodness!) but I do want to do well and I think it is important to make a good impression. Your scores look really good and in terms of running I would just be careful not to hurt it further, let it rest and maybe keep in shape with just some easy runs.

I am curious what you have been doing to train. Running and situps I can beat the average 7:24 mile, 86 situps but the other areas which test upper body I only have (this is embarassing) 24 pushups, 1 pullup, and ~35 feet throw :(. What have you done to be practicing? I am going to the third session, so 1 Month! Thank you and I hope your ankle heels up :thumb:
 
kfacademy: I am also a female and I have been applying to the academies for the past two years now. I have taken the CFA many times, since I attended a prep school this past year and we took it about every 4 weeks or so. My mile and sit ups are about the same as yours with a little bit better (but then again I have been doing this for 2 years) so with those you are looking good. With your basketball throw just keep practicing, honestly that is how I got mine better just work on the form and once you figure out the best way to do it you will see improvement. Pull ups are not bad, remember most girls cannot even do a pull up so being able to get one does look better than a hang. My advice for pull ups is get an assisted band and use that and max out with the band and then max out without the band. It will help build your muscles. Push ups for me were never hard and I maxed out on it every time. The one thing that would help with push ups, is just like everything else, keep practicing and max out as much as you can and do multiple sets to build up the muscles. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.
 
usafacandidate8 said:
kfacademy: I am also a female and I have been applying to the academies for the past two years now. I have taken the CFA many times, since I attended a prep school this past year and we took it about every 4 weeks or so. My mile and sit ups are about the same as yours with a little bit better (but then again I have been doing this for 2 years) so with those you are looking good. With your basketball throw just keep practicing, honestly that is how I got mine better just work on the form and once you figure out the best way to do it you will see improvement. Pull ups are not bad, remember most girls cannot even do a pull up so being able to get one does look better than a hang. My advice for pull ups is get an assisted band and use that and max out with the band and then max out without the band. It will help build your muscles. Push ups for me were never hard and I maxed out on it every time. The one thing that would help with push ups, is just like everything else, keep practicing and max out as much as you can and do multiple sets to build up the muscles. If you have any more questions feel free to PM me.
Click to expand...

You said most girls cannot do one pull-up, well, that's me. And I am training to be able to do pull-ups, but it still needs a lot of work. I want to know if you can pass the CFA without doing a pull-up? I am fairly good at the other stuff, ca. 7 min. mile, max push-ups and sit-ups, don't know basketball throw.
 
Yes you can still pass the cfa without being able to do a pull up. I am not sure how long the hang time has to be to pass, but I believe it is around 15 seconds, but I do know that is the bare minimum. But is is still possible to pass without being able to do a pull up. But try one of the assisted bands and work on them that way.
 
usafacandidate8 said:
Yes you can still pass the cfa without being able to do a pull up. I am not sure how long the hang time has to be to pass, but I believe it is around 15 seconds, but I do know that is the bare minimum. But is is still possible to pass without being able to do a pull up. But try one of the assisted bands and work on them that way.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm working on them. I have a year until I can even take the CFA, so I hope to manage a couple by that time. ;)
 
hang one of those door frame pullup bars in your room doorway. try to do a pullup or more every time you go in or out. even if you jump to start.

also, you can do negative pullups. start in the up position, then slowly go down to as low as you can straightening your elbows but still be able to pull back up. as you get stronger you will be able to go lower and lower. it also helps improve your "hang" time.

another way for females to improve is to use a bar that is lower. hold on with your hands on the bar and hang under it with your hips under your shoulders but your legs in front/ with bent knees so that you do a pull up with partial body weight. (almost as if you are sitting in a chair to start your pull-up) do high repetition this way for a week or more until you can do 1 or 2 'full ones' on your own.

I am a personal trainer and use these 'tricks' with my own clients.
 
I started out being able to less than one pushup. and not even half of a negative pullup. sad...i know. Lucky for me, I played softball/soccer for a long time,so the basketball throw was natural (Ever watch the goal keeper throw the ball in?) :smile: What helped me the most was just persistance. now, i go to the gym twice a day. What helps with pushups is just practice..as cliche as that sounds. I would just do 10 perfect pushups whenever i got 20 seconds. always do sets of 3 or so. I would
do ten
rest 1 minute
do ten
rest 1 minute
do ten
drop to your knees if you have to,just keep doing sets until you can do more. do this 3 times a day, and continue to add pushups each time. :) pm me if you need any more help, i could write out my weekly plan for you to see if you want :smile:
 
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