Physical Fitness

New Push-up Technique Makes Things Easier, Not Harder to Grade

New Pushup Technique Makes Things Easier, Not Harder to Grade

A story that was posted on Military.com yesterday was intriguing as it will no doubt, affect many soldiers in the Army, but especially those attempting to go thru Selection in the Army’s Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) or Ranger Selection and Assessment (RASP). Beginning in 2020, the Army is going to change the Army PT Test from the 3-Event (Pushups, situps, 2-mile run) to the Combat Fitness Test where there will be six events (Strength deadlift, Standing Power Throw, Hand-release pushup, Sprint-drag carry, Leg Tuck, 2-mile run).

Strength deadlift: Soldiers will perform three repetitions of deadlift at the heaviest weight they are capable of between 120 and 420 pounds. The deadlift replicates picking up heavy equipment or a wounded comrade in combat.
Standing power throw: Soldiers will throw a 10-pound medicine ball backward as far as they can. The exercise tests muscular explosive power, replicating aiding a fellow soldier over an obstacle or moving rapidly across uneven terrain.
Hand-release push-up: Soldiers will perform as many hand-release push-ups as possible in two minutes. In a hand-release push-up, soldiers lift their hands and arms from the ground at the bottom of the push-up.
Sprint, drag, carry: Soldiers will twice sprint up and down a 25-meter lane, drag a 90-pound sled up and down the lane, and carry two 40-pound kettlebell weights up and down the lane. The exercises are meant to simulate pulling a soldier to safety, moving quickly to cover or carrying gear.
Leg tuck: Hanging from a pull-up bar, soldiers will lift their legs up and down touching their knees or thighs to their elbows as many times as possible during two minutes. The exercise strengthens core muscles, requiring more strength than traditional sit-ups
Two-mile run: Soldiers will complete the test with a two-mile run, as they must in the APFT. However, soldiers will have only five minutes of rest between the leg tuck and the run.

The piece yesterday stated that a cadre of mobile training teams is visiting 60 battalions of the National Guard and Reserve forces to ensure that the correct techniques for grading the new Combat Fitness Test are being taught. It also mentioned that one of the changes that are being tweaked on the test is the hand placement for the push-up event.

According to Whitfield East, the research physiologist for Center for Initial Military Training, the new method of conducting and grading pushups will be easier to grade.

“During the field test, we are refining the hand-release pushup,” East said, explaining that event will either have soldiers raise their hands straight up off the ground before coming back up or extend their hands out to the sides and bring them back in again before coming up again.

The arm-extension version may be easier to grade, East said.

“More or less, the point of it is to ensure that they are totally resting on the ground. We don’t want them in a low hover over the ground,” East said.

The arm-extension also “engages a little bit of the … muscles in the back,” East said, adding that “it is good to link movements together, so a pull-type movement and a push-type movement.”

While the Army is saying that the new hand release pushups will increase the force on the body to lift the soldier by around 25 percent, it should be a welcome bit of news for Special Operations Forces candidates. Why? Because it now takes all of the worry and guesswork out of grading pushups.

How many troops have been to Basic Training, SFAS, SFQC, RASP, RIP or Ranger School et al, and have lamented about the grader who wasn’t counting their pushups? We’ve all fallen into that realm at one time or another. And as we have frequently written here, “pay strict attention to form in doing pushups.” The cadre of any Special Operations course will grade these very hard. Well thanks to the new way that the Army is grading these, it will quickly become the way that sit-ups (which will be dropped from the new Combat Fitness Test), are graded now. Either you’re doing them right or not at all. There will no longer be a gray area in what constitutes, or doesn’t… a pushup.

While the new pushups will be a bit harder to do, it is simply a need for all the soldiers to learn the new technique. Like anything else, it will require practice and plenty of it since it will be working different muscles in the shoulder and back region and the new exercise will work those muscles harder than the traditional pushup.

However, in the near future, there will no longer be the worry for the SOF candidate that the grader is being unfair, this new technique removes all of that. Whether the Army goes with the technique that only requires the soldier to raise his hands off the ground or extend them out, it will ultimately be strictly an exercise that a candidate can do or not. Just like the pull-ups that most SOF units are conducting now. In RASP, the Ranger cadre test for the candidates to perform a minimum of six pull-ups from a dead hang. Either you do them or not.

My personal trainer has long been a believer in the hand release pushup and we frequently use it in our workouts. Truth be told it is a bit more difficult as once your chest hits the ground you lose the momentum that we’re so used to having when conducting pushups. And by being flat on the ground or floor on your chest, the movement of your arms out to your sides and the force of pushing up from the floor is slightly more difficult.

Is it 25 percent more as the Army has stated? I don’t really buy that. In fact, I find doing the pushups that we more frequently use, the pushups using either a set of dumbbells or the handles of a machine that forces you to go deeper than a normal pushup, some people use boxes, as much more difficult.

Regardless, this new development, like anything else will require some more practice, but in the end will be a less worrisome exercise for SOF candidates, since the “human element” (read that as a cadre member that is looking to fail someone), will be removed from the equation.

That is good news, carry on… now go “elevate your feet and do pushups!”

Photos: Army.mil

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 5

Back to the gym this morning for a Chest and Triceps workout before heading out for a 4-mile run. Remember to stretch well before and after and to stay hydrated. Mark your progress down in your workout log book.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 12 Bench Press

3 x 10 Dumbbell Flies

3 x 10 Dumbbell Incline press

3 x 20 Pushups (alternate sets with wide, narrow and shoulder width)

3 x 20 Plank Step Ups

3 x 20 Shoulder Touch Planks

3 x 20 Cable Push Downs (rope)

3 x 20 Dips or until muscle failure

4-mile run (32-minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Train For the Long Haul in Special Operations

We have mentioned this not too long ago but it probably bears repeating, especially now that the Selection courses are running and the next batch of candidates are gearing up to attend. You don’t have to be a marathon runner, a professional weight lifter or a bodybuilder to pass Selection. Not every Special Operations trooper is built like an NFL linebacker. That’s not what you’re training for, train for the mission at hand, not the beach.

We frequently get a lot of emails, Twitter DMs and the like asking questions about Selection and how is the best way to prepare. And a lot of guys, too many in fact begin with the fact that they are freaking themselves out by going on social media and seeing pics of stud Special Operations guys, working out in the gym and all tatted up. We get the messages, “I don’t look like that!” or “Do we have to look like this to pass?” etc. Newsflash folks, 99 percent of the guys I went thru the SFQC didn’t look like that and of the small percentage of ones who did, their failure rate was rather high. And the short answer is no, you don’t need to look like a bodybuilder, in fact, you shouldn’t.

We preach the old but tried and true method of training to do the job here. If you are fit to do your job, not only will you succeed in passing Selection but you will be primed for a long, successful career in Special Operations. We publish a daily workout program on SpecialOperations.com that will help our prospective candidates get ready for the rigors and physicality of Selection. And we start with the basics.

But first, I want to clear up some misconceptions about the current Selection Course for several candidates. We received several questions about the Log PT/Rifle PT smoke session that is on video from the Discovery Channel documentary. Many were asking for tips about surviving that little exercise.

Well, first, I’ve heard that the Log PT part of SFAS has been removed or at least curtailed. I heard that the number of injuries that were occurring was too high to justify in the training and assessment. But like anything else, if it is indeed still there, there’s no secret formula, you just have to gut it out.

Functional Fitness is the Goal:

Once again, we need to train as we will fight and have to prepare ourselves accordingly. I recently had an email from a non-combat arms officer who had some questions about getting into the pipeline and of course the course itself. But for his questions on the paperwork required, I reached out to an old friend who I went thru the SF Detachment Officers Course with when he was a Captain, later he commanded a Battalion in combat and later was the SF Training Group Commander. He helped steer the way for this officer to get his paperwork straight and for his preparation, his advice was very simple and clear. “He needs to be a rope climbing, pull-up doing MFer in Selection.” He added that the upper body, shoulder strength, and body core exercises are what get guys thru.

Too many candidates spend too much time on one aspect of preparation and neglect others. As I wrote not long ago, “Remember to keep your eye on the prize. What is your goal here? It isn’t looking like an Adonis strutting on the beach. It is to be a member of the Special Operations Forces. So what does a member of SOF have to accomplish? Learn what the mission entails, which for now all you have to do is know what the physical standards are.”

That’s why we are always testing ourselves with a practice UBRR test in our daily PT prep pieces. You can identify where you’re weak and adjust your training accordingly.

Long Range Durability:

Look, if you work out and become functionally fit for Special Operations, you are going to naturally become overall bigger and stronger..it is the nature of the beast. But will it make you a cover model for Muscle and Fitness? Doubtful. And that isn’t your goal.

Some guys are naturally big and most of the bigger dudes that you’re seeing on those social media pages are guys who are longer termed members of the units and they are still maintaining the core functional fitness but have dedicated the extra time to buff up. But it is in no means a prerequisite.

Longterm durability for SOF is built from building up lower body and core strength, endurance, and pliability. Your lower body is the catalyst where everything you do springs from. That is why we always push Squats, Deadlifts, and the Weighted Sled Push. This builds up the strength and explosion your body needs to carry that rucksack, and constantly hump the mountains of Afghanistan in operations, frequently over 8000-9000 feet.

Pliability is the lengthening of the muscle so it works more effectively and is much less prone to injuries. From a noted sports clinic here up north they preach that “Pliability work turns short, dense muscles into long, soft, and resilient muscles. It gets your body to 100 percent muscle pump function, and keeps it there over time — which is a huge part of achieving sustained peak performance.”

So remember, you are training and have to use all of your focus on the training that you are doing with one specific goal in mind. To accomplish your unit’s mission. Knowing that mission, what it will entail physically is what you’ll need to know on how to tailor that prep work. Your training for Selection will be a bit different, but not radically so from what you’ll do in the units. Train for those and your success will be a much surer thing. Don’t worry about things that don’t have anything to do with mission success or failure.

Keep your eyes on the prize guys, not the mirror. Don’t Quit and Embrace the Suck.

Photos: DOD

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 4

Wednesday is a light Shoulders and Back training day in the gym before heading off to do the SOF (Special Operations Forces) Triathlon. A 3-mile run, a rucksack march, and a swim with fatigues and boots.

These are three things that you’ll have to be able to do well to pass Selection. If your plans include being a Marine Raider or a Navy SEAL, then being a good swimmer and being more comfortable in the water with your gear on is a must.

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

2 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

2 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

3-mile Run (24 minutes maximum)

3-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 45 minutes maximum)

100-meter swim in fatigues and boots

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 3

Tuesday means it is Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Start off with pull-ups, then squats, lunges and the Sled push/Fireman’s carry followed by a four-mile run.

Remember to stretch well and hydrate well during and after your workout.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Deadlifts

4 x Sled push heavier weight/ Fireman’s carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Spider-Man Planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Speed Up Your Recovery After the 12-Mile Rucksack March

Our Sunday daily workout piece to help our prospective candidates prepare for Selection featured a 12-mile rucksack march. And hopefully for those that followed it and conducted it, (it was a cold 40 degree, rainy morning here), followed our normal rucksack marching tips. Wearing the correct boots and socks, having the correct and comfortable clothes on with anti-chafing powder, packing your rucksack correctly and having the weight up high where it belongs. Now we’ll talk a bit about recovery.

Back in the day, when I was a young buck and going thru Special Forces training, recovery wasn’t something that we paid any attention to. At best, we’d drink water, eat and take a nap. As we got a little bit older, and our recovery time increased, we got a bit smarter about recovery, but the troops today have much better trainers and training staffs on hand and they’ll help the troops out in what is a very important part of fitness.

We preach here that there are “no days off” and we have to be ready to go back at it first thing in the morning. So now recovery is even more important… and then the nap will feel even better. As we mentioned above, it was cold and rainy here, and that cold and damp plays hell on arthritic joints, but it will put a damper on just about everyone as it tends to take a bit longer to get your speed and pace going. However, it does help with not overheating. Although wearing a lightweight rain jacket this morning, it was almost halfway unzipped allowing plenty of that cool air to stop overheating from occurring.

Rucking, in general, will put some strain on your joints, your knees, back, ankles. But rucking over a longer distance like a 12 or 20 miler increases that stress on your joints and these techniques will help speed your recovery time.

Feed the Beast:

While you should be drinking water throughout the ruck march, and with our Camelbak system we were doing just that, you need to eat soon after finishing. Everyone is different and your body may not react well to food or different things going into it so soon after exercise.

As soon as possible, preferably less than 30 minutes from completion of the ruck, down a protein shake. My trainer tells me that your body is depleted and hungry for nutrients to replace what was burned up during the three hours or less of the ruck march. By introducing a protein shake it stops your body from introducing cortisol into your system.

After that, eating a meal, if your body allows it is preferred. I’m always ravenous after a long ruck march. But everyone is different.

Ice Bath or Cold Tub:

While some recommend that you jump right into a cold tub as soon as the ruck march is over if you are like me, you have to shower first. I hate getting into a tub, hot or cold without having a shower. On Saturday, I bought three bags of ice from the liquor store and as soon as the shower was done, I filled the tub with cold water and dumped the bags of ice in there.

My bulldog has been conditioned to know that when the bathtub is getting filled it is HER bath time. So, with all the subtlety that bullies are known for, she burst into the bathroom using her head to push open the door and was contemplating diving in on top of me until she noticed the ice. Sticking her snout in for a second, with a quick shake of her head, she nixed that idea and promptly padded out…Bitch didn’t even close the door.

However, all it takes is about 10-20 minutes of the ice bath to reduce any inflammation in your muscles and helps ease those sore shoulders, hips, and knees from rucking. I did save two cubes for a medicinal glass of Single Barrel Jack …although that part isn’t what the docs would call smart. Ah well.

Foam Roller and Lacrosse Ball Time:

One of the best things my trainer ever introduced me to was the foam roller and a lacrosse ball. I was never a believer in either until I tried them and they help immensely. They help to get everything back in line after the strain of the rucksack compressing your lower back, hips, and shoulders.

I start with the lacrosse ball under my lower back and do some slow crunches and sit-ups. Eventually, I move the lacrosse ball up between my shoulder blades and during the sit-up motion, I extend my arms out, that will stretch out the shoulders.

The foam roller works wonders at getting your lower back, rib cage area and upper back/shoulders stretched back out and feeling like everything is back to where it needs to be. All of the compression of the ruck march is erased in just a few short minutes.

Stretching It All Out:

The last thing we do is a nice, slow stretch which really helps out after a long-range movement. Most people, myself included, feel shoulder fatigue, or sagging after a ruck. That is completely normal and once you get in Special Operations and begin carrying those ridiculous amounts of “light-weight” gear, you will too.

I begin with a shoulder shrug/stretch. Stand up straight pull your shoulders back and rotate them up and down. That will help loosen them up after being pulled down with the weight of the rucksack. And then open your arms wide, almost like a Predator pose and stretch your shoulders out wide. Keep your chest up and pull your shoulders back.

I then do some standing calf stretches and then finish it off with glute and hip stretches that always feel like they get everything back in line.

These are the things I wished I did back in the day, it may have helped many of the aches and pains I suffer from today. But they will definitely aid in speeding your recovery times. Remember that while in the Selection course, your recovery/downtime is liable to be much shorter if not almost non-existent.

But this will help you in your quest to get prepared for the rigors of the Selection course that will follow. And soon after the long ruck marches, you’ll be ready to go do it all over again. Now, I’ll finish this and head over to the easy chair and ice my aching knees. Whoever said, aging gracefully is a given? DOL, Happy Rucking.

Photo: US Army

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 2

A quick workout to start the Monday morning and week off right. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups, and dips before a 5-mile run in a mini UBRR test. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

So how was your time in the 12-miler on Sunday? Were you under the standard of 3 hours? How do your feet feel after that? If your time was near or over the time limit, then you know what needs to get worked on.

UBRR Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (No time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (No time limit)

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 1

Sunday morning Rucksack march. Do a quick warmup of pushups and sit-ups before heading out for a 12-mile rucksack march in three hours or less. Head out over varied terrain and try to go as fast as you can without running.

Stretch well both before and after the event. Remember to drink plenty of water and stay hydrated out there. It is supposed to be rainy this morning, so we’ll get this one in with the rain jacket on.

UBRR Training:

Warm up

2 x 20 Pushups

2 x 20 Sit-ups

12-mile Rucksack march over varied terrain with a 45-pound minimum. Remember the standard is 3 hours…. With the rain early, it is a good reminder that many of your gated events may be in bad weather or not in the greatest of conditions. Keep driving on.

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 13, Day 7

Saturday morning and heading back to the gym for a shoulder and back workout. Towel pull-ups if you have no access to ropes or climb 20-25 ft. ropes if they are available. Followed by a four-mile run. Log your numbers down in the workout notebook

UBRR Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

3 x 10 Lat Pulldowns, rear

3 x 10 Barbell Dead Lift

3 x 10 Wide Grip Pull-ups

3 x 10 Towel Pull-ups

3 x 10 Seated Rows

3 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

3 x 10 Seated Bent-Over Delt Raise

3 x 10 Dumbbell Shoulder Press

3 x 10 Arnold Dumbbell Press

4-mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 13, Day 6

Friday is the end of the week for some and our Leg Day at the gym. Start with Squats – (front, dumbbell goblet, and barbell), then some Lunges and the Weighted Sled Push. Follow it all up with a five-mile run. Mark your progress down in your workout log book and stretch well after the session.

UBRR Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR.

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Dumbbell Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x 10 Barbell Squats

3 x 10 Deadlifts

3 x 10 Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 10 Romanian Lunges

3 x Weighted Sled Push/ or Fireman’s Carry

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion