Pretty mcuh, I am not the fittest of people, I can only do 15 pushups max, but for my belt test the day after tomorrow I need to do 20 (I just found out about this yesterday) I have been doing pushups when ever I can just trying to get better (though I understand this is a very short amound of time) any other exercises tha tcna help me maybe do two or three more so I come close enough to have the teachers let it slide.
Dude, if you can do 15 you can do 20 but you gotta dig deep. Dig real deep and push like you've never pushed before I bet you can do it. Try not to practice too much before the test. You want to be fresh.
do a little dumbbell lifting a few days before, then wait a day or so for your muscles to refresh and train pushups i'm an overweight short physically weak guy but i can do 50 pushups before tiring, and sometimes more if i'm fit at the moment i do them Fish Of Doom
I think the implication was about effort. And while I'll personally be wishing you luck on it, the person who said if you can do 15, you can do 20 is not far wrong. Do you want the belt or don't you??? I am huge on pushups myself and I think the key is to find a focus point or thought ( and I often think about problems or unresolved issues in my sets as opposed to focussing all that negative energy , fear and pressure on not being able to do it), so you end up distracted and just keep pumping. Distract yourself ( and deeply to the point of detatchment and automative function is a good place to shoot. Go ahead and let your mind wander ............. even if it's just visualising yourself performing the test for your belt easily and how it will feel when you do........ be in that moment if this one's a little rough......just don't forget to keep the exercise going ) and before you know it you've done your set and solved some of your personal world crisises at the same time A day and a bit is kind of short to be asking but really, we're only talking 5 reps. If you want it, just go ahead and take it. Hope it helps Blooming Lotus
Keep your back straight for the push ups, bending it only makes it harder even though it seems easier (Or is that just me )
Don't sweat it. When you hit 15 and tire out, just take a second and crank out some singles until you hit 20.
Since it probably too late now, I'll give my cheap advice for the next test. You can even do this everyday without pumping any iron. Since you can only do 15 reps in 1 all out set, try doing three sets of 5 with 1 minute of rest between sets for starters. Here is what your push-up only workout should look like: 1st day: 3x5 2nd day: 3x5 3rd day: 3x6 4th day: 3x6 6th day: 3x7 7th day: 3x7 8th day: rest 9th day: 3x7 (reduce rest period between sets to 30 seconds) 9th day: 3x7 (with 30 second rest) 10th day: 3x7 (with 30 second rest) 11th day: 3x8 (with 30 second rest) 12th day: 3x8 (with 30 second rest) 13th day: rest 14th day: try doing 2x10 15th day: rest 16th day: 2x10 (30 second rest).From this day on try increasing only the reps every 3 days. Increase the # of sets as you see yourself improve. This should guarantee that you can perform 15 pushups within 2 months.
It's not going to help with your test now but it will still help you with the future. Doing pushups at every chance you can is not a good thing. Overtraining can happen with body weight exercises just like it does with pumping iron. I personally do pushups every morning. Once a day that is all. For some people they find once every second day works better for their recovery. The point really is to find the balance. Busting your guts a few days before a test to make up for months of training you should have already been doing isn't going to cut it. It's hard to swallow but you will have to realise if you want to develop yourself as a martial artist consistency to all things is the key. Good luck with the test friend.
It turns out it was 12 and not 20 [I accidenlty posted 16 before] (I misread the cirruculum) so it's a load of my back ,but I however still want to increase my pectoral strength (The rest of my upper body is pretty strong but for some reason my chest is weak) so I will keep doing pushups.
I don't think I could do 20 right now. I've NEVER been good with pushups. I was getting good a few years back. I'd play Diablo 2 and everytime a game would load I'd have like a minute, so I'd just do 10 or so pushups. Now, games go FAST in D2, so I'd do like 60 in an hour on average. I started being able to do a fair amount, but then I got a faster computer and it all went to hell. PL
Try watching films and doing pushups. If you watch the kind of films I like to, you can do 10-20 pushups every time somebody gets killed and get a decent workout
LOL! Or if you want a really good workout, watch south park and every time they say a curse word, do 10 pushups. (be careful so you don't watch the episode where they say the F-word about 350 times... or you're gonna be doin LOTS of pushups)
You can also do the deck of cards work out. Do the number of pushups for the value of each card. Face cards are worth 10 and the Aces are worth 1. you can also break it down into suits. Hearts you do regular push ups. Diamonds you do narrow arm position push ups. Spades you do wide arm position push ups. Clubs you can do hindu or dive bomber push ups.
