One of my personal goals is to be able to pass the Army Fitness Test I had to pass when I was enlisted. That meant being able to do 40 push-ups in under 2 minutes. The Army administers the test differently today giving points to how many reps you do based on your age. You must score 60 points in order to get a pass for the push-up portion of the test.
To get myself back to that "Combat Ready" level, I've tried a new way of doing push-ups.
Its really simple. I started at 8 push-ups, then rest for 8 seconds, then I do 7 push-ups and rest 7 seconds, repeat in descending order until you get to 1. Do the math. 36 push-ups in about 3 min. Based on the current Army fitness test standards for my age group I scored a 70.
Now I was really struggling at the end and you should start where you feel comfortable doing the exercise with the right posture. Continue doing them until you can get through them all, then start at a higher number.
After doing this routine every other day for awhile I should get to 42 push-ups pretty quickly, and that's the passing score of 60 for a 17 to 21 year old. Hooah!
