Got the following question under "FanShots" which I thought warranted a full discussion here.

I'm trying to max out my push-ups and sit-ups for a military PT test. I had great progress in my first month, but I seem to have hit a plateau. I"ve got 7 weeks to add about 20% more to my scores. I am a personal trainer but training myself has always been more difficult than training my clients. Any suggestions on some training methods to shake things up would be greatly appreciated.  --Jo-Jo

Personally, I'm a push-up freak.  As much as people do them, I still think they're an underused exercise:  for core strength and coordination, scapular stability, real-world upper-body pushing strength, and all-around fitness, it's hard to beat the good old-fashioned push-up, as it forces you to do so many things at once.

As with a fair number of other body-weight movements--the pull-up and hyperextension spring to mind--the problem is that most people stop progressing the exercise when they've reached a "good enough" point, say, thirty or forty reps in the case of the good ol' fashioned push-up.

But all these exercises are gifts that keep giving if you keep advancing them:  by adding more resistance, for one, or by working with more difficult variations, for another.  On pullups, in addition to adding a weighted belt, you can do the towel version which does obscene things for your grip strength; you can do the side-to-side version where you bring your head and shoulders up towards one hand on one rep, the other hand on the next, and so on; or you can work up to an explosive pull-up with a clap between each rep. 

On push-ups, you've got a number of equally challenging options, first and foremost being to just add weight, in the form of a standard weight plate on your back, a weighted vest if you swing that way, or a bunch of wicked-heavy chains draped over your back.  Elevating the feet is another way of making the exercise tougher; use a Swiss Ball or a TRX to elevate the feet and you've got an additional core challenge which you can increase even more by doing your reps on a single foot and/or doing an "Atomic" pushup where you draw your knees to your chest between each rep.  It's hard as hell, Bucky.  I can get about 80 standard-issue pushups in under two minutes but I die after about twelve of those little demons, can't tell you why.  You can also use wobbly things on the upper body, like a med-ball which you can pass between your hands on each rep or just use for the push-up surface itself on both hands. 

But you didn't write to ask me about fiendish variations on pushups, Jo-Jo, you just wanted to know how to get more straight-up reps for your military test.  So let's be cut-and-dried about this.

I had to do a push-up test a couple of years ago when I was applying for Law Enforcement jobs.  I wasn't hired on account of being deemed 'Not Of Perfectly Sound Mind,' but no one could deny that I flew through the push-up test.  And this is what I learned:

First, performance of the reps:  this will in all likelihood be a timed test.  And that's okay, because on push-ups, speed is your friend.  It's easier to do them fast because you can pretty much 'bounce' out of the bottom portion of the pushup--exploiting the stretch-shortening cycle to get yourself almost all the way back up up.  Then--and this is essential--let your body weight DROP.  Don't lower yourself under control.  You should provide minimal eccentric resistance on the way down until you get to the end, when you rapidly decellerate your bodyweight again and explode up for the next rep. 

Make no mistake:  this down-to-up transition will be the hardest part of these 'turbo' pushups that you'll be doing, but it will make the rest of each rep easier, and save you buckets of time and energy to eke out extra reps at the end of your test. 

So that's what your shooting for:  dozens of perfect little catch-and-throw movements, over and over, with minimal effort in between.  (On a side note, Jo-Jo, if you're also doing a sit-up test, be aware that the OPPOSITE is true:  take your time on those babies.  For some reason, most people exhaust themselves in minute one of a sit-up test and have no juice left at the end.  If you take it a little slower out of the gate, you'll finish stronger on situps.  FYI.)

Bear in mind, everyone else besides Jo-Jo:  Jo-Jo is doing a very specific test.  His goal here is NOT to build muscle, recruit any optimal thus-and-so's, preserve the health of his scapular rotators or any such precious, mamby-pamby nonsense as that.  He's JUST trying to crank out as many passable push-up reps as possible before Sergeant Roach-Up-His-Craw gets in his face with his cigar breath. 

(Hope this isn't your branch of the military).

Now:  how to get better once you've hit a wall on these?

WORK THE OVER-UNDER.

In other words:  leave straight-up push-ups alone most days of the week.  You've maxed out on them anyway, for now, so you've got to work with MORE and then LESS resistance than you're used to.

On Monday, say, go heavy:  work with chains, or a weight vest, or a plate on your back, and possibly elevate the feet (but only, say, the height of an aerobic step).  Personally I've found push-ups easier when my bench press is solid, so you might go ahead and cross-train with a few sets of regular old benches on Mondays, much as the functional police might beat me with their foam rollers to hear me say that. On heavy day, keep your reps on the high-end of the standard hypertrophy zone, right around 10-12, with a couple of heavier sets thrown in for good measure.  Remember that a push-up test is still a test of local muscular endurance.  Work to make the concentric portion of each rep FAST, to maximally challenge your explosive strength.

Then on Wednesday, go light:  elevate your HANDS on a stable surface, or, depending on how secure you are about your masculinity, drop to your knees and do girl-style push-ups (knees on an aerobic step is advisable due to the angle; they'll be a little bit harder, but you should be able to handle them, Private Jo-Jo).  Shoot for 15-20% MORE reps than you want in your push-up test.  So if you're shooting for 100 regular pushups in 2 minutes on the test, shoot for 115 or 120 with your hands elevated.

Then on SATURDAY--yes, not Friday--do the real push-up test maybe twice with a good five or ten minute break in between.  Your reps should steadily improve over the course of a month or so.

Make sure you're doing some good core work throughout:  plank variations, alternating toe touchdowns (a new favorite), ab rollouts, the whole bit.  But do them AFTER your push-up specific training.  The core can also be a limiter on these. 

Let us know how it goes, Jo-Jo, and thanks for serving! 

--Fitness Nerd Andrew