Fitness help - Upper body strength

[ukkpa]

I've applied for officer in the RM, still in the first few stages of the process at the moment though, as you'll see from below.

I'm probably looking at POC around February/March so I've got a bit of time to work on my upper body strength, but I seem to have reached a plateau...

I can currently do about 35 press ups but can't go any further with or without time limit. I'm also stuck on about 3 pull ups. Obviously, neither of these scores are good enough for POC so I know I still have a lot of work to do. I'm wondering if anyone can suggest good exercises for building the muscles needed for these two things.

Elsewhere, my muscles aren't bad - I'm around 60 sit ups in 2 minutes, and 2.4km in sub 8.30, can run at a steady 7 minute mile for up to 10 miles (haven't tried beyond that). I run most days, swim twice a week, and do circuits 5 afternoons a week, with weights in the gym 3 or 4 times per week. I'm also strictly observing two rest days a week. Whilst my general fitness seems only to be increasing, I'm stuck with upper body!

Would appreciate any help that anyone can give me, thanks in advance!

UKKPA

[druadan]

Best thing if you're weak at pull-ups is to use one of the assisted pull-up machines you'll find in most gyms, which allow you to essentially 'remove' some of your body weight. I had exactly the same problem when I joined, no upper body strength. Find a weight where you can do 15 pull ups - I'd hope as you can already lift your body weight it will be no more than 20kg, but experiment. This way you can knock down the weight you're taking off week by week until you're doing the 15 free. Lat pulldowns help, and apparently press-ups are also an excellent exercise to improve pull-ups, something to do with using the same shoulder muscles. I'm no expert, that's just what worked for me.

Press-ups, depends which part of your body is holding you back - triceps, shoulders and chest could all be at fault. I'd try to do one or two strength sessions on those muscle groups per week, and vary your press-up routine - one week bang out your max every hour on the hour, the next try some pyramids, etc etc.

Stick with it, these are endurance exercises rather than outright strength, so free weights will only be of so much help.

[803troop]

3 pull ps and 35 press ups?? Are you ghey??

J/K

Seriously, with pull ups do what you can then do negatives. Jump up and get you chin above the bar the lower yourself as slowly as possible. Fight that gravity.

You can only get better at press ups by doing them. I don't know what yor circuits are like, but just do random sets throughout the day.

Baz