Increasing Pressups and Situps

[InkZ]

Hi Guys,

Well they've just altered my next thai boxing grading, and added in 50 press ups and 100 situps which weren't there before

What can I do to increase the amount of pressups I do? I currently collapse after about 25. Situps I can do about 50 before serious burn sets in.

Now I can alternate them and do them in sets, but I loose marks for doing this, and in a perfect world would like to be able to do each exercise in one go.

I current have a 3 day split for doing weights, which I'm doing 3 set of 8 reps for each exercise. My week is something like this:

Monday: thai boxing
Tuesday: Chest/Shoulders
Wednesday: thai boxing
Thursday: Back, Traps and Lats
Friday/Saturday (depending on my schedule): legs/biceps

Where should I slot in pressups/situps, how often etc?

I want to leave them out of my routine all together, but unfortunately my instructor thinks differently

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[abarlament]

Here's some tips.

During PT, we do lots of wide arm and close arm pushups, maybe 30 of each. Then we put our feet up on something (you can use a chair), and knock out 15 or 20. We also do lots of regular pushups. Other than that, I found regular chest work such as weighted dips, incline and regular press, and some shoulder work help. In addition to that, I think pullups/chinups help, because the back is involved in pushups too. Core work helps (abs and lower back) stabilize you during the pushups.

About situps, basically, doing lots of situps and static/weighted ab work is the most important thing. Technique is important too. If your main goal is to do MORE situps, you should use what I call the "PT Test Technique." The basic difference is once you reach the top, you throw yourself down (using your lower back), it hurts at first, but you get used to it. The theory is that on the eccentric of your situp, you are using your abs to lower yourself, if you throw yourself down, the eccentric TUT (time under tension) is decreased, so you fatigue less.

[InkZ]

Hi Abarlament,

Thanks for the tips, I'll take a look around and see if I can find some info on the diff types of pressups. I like the situp idea, I'm going to give that a try. In fact, I think you can do something similar with the pushups by keeping the speed up, going to try that also.