PT, Proper form, and When is Enough, Enough?

[Big_King]

This one's for any resident PT studs. First off so this isn't completely out of place, some history. I've recently submitted my package for SF and soon I'll be training specifically for the entrance tests. For now though I'm doing the same long-term muscle endurance PT that I've been doing for the last two years. However, the stories of guys failing to do their best on PT tests because the PSP staff administering them were nazis on form has left me at an impasse.

Like I said my PT focuses on long-term muscle endurance. It currently involves circuits of push-ups, pull-ups and abs. Over two years I've tried other workouts from Cross-fit to USAF special tactics routines and everything in between including pyramids, upper-body supersets, etc, etc.. but I've found the simple push-up, abs, pull-up circuit to be best kick in the nuts.

Here's my problem. I've gotten to the point where I can do sets of 20-35 reps for upper body parts till the cows come home. I'm talking 20+ sets.

Fine.

The problem though, is that it's hard to maintain interest doing this over the course of an hour or more. My solution was to up the reps and lower the sets.

Simple enough.

What I'm experiencing now once I reach my last 5 sets is extreme muscle failure. I find myself doing partial reps just to get through to the end. This has me wondering what the benefits (if any) partial reps have, or am I really just burning myself out and not properly training myself for selection (creating bad habits)?

My solutions are;

-Cut back the number of sets to the amount I can perform proper form for. Sure this works, but I don't feel the achievement associated with really pushing myself like the next workout:

-Keep the current # of sets, and continue to perform partial reps on the last few circuits. I like the 'gut check' feeling of this type of workout forcing myself to complete the set regardless of how crappy my form is. I'd like to think there is some sort of long-term endurance benefit to this, but I'm not sure. Am i just wasting my time doing useless shi**y reps and overtraining?

-Stop during a set, rest a few seconds, carry on... Cross-fit recommends this if you can't reach the recommended number of reps for a given set although it feels bit like quitting in the middle of a set to me.

-Rest more between sets - Of course this helps, but I don't like standing around, letting my heart rate go down, and I don't like that 'fresh feeling' that comes with too much rest.

That's as condensed as I could make it. I'm not sure If I'm over-analyzing it, but I think another perspective might help. Thanks.

[Stiletto11]

Incoming!

[The Reaper]

1. Are you joining the US Army? CF standards could be different.

2. The way I was always taught was to work the sets so that you reached exhaustion on the last few reps of each set. If you are going to be dropped for low rep sets repeatedly throughout the day, you might train differently than if you were going to be asked to do max reps in a given period, like the US Army APFT. Train to acheive the results you are going to be tested on.

TR

[Big_King]

Sir,
Right, I should have clarified. I'm staying with the CF. That said, other than the initial fitness testing, I have little info as to what to expect during selection.

From DHTC recruiting cell:

c. Cands will undergo endurance runs of up to 10 km in PT dress interspersed with circuit trg stands every 200-500 m (eg: pushups, situps, squat thrusts, dips, fireman and deadman lifts, and wind sprints). Mbrs must complete the runs within restricted timeframes

I guess that sounds like periodic low rep sets if time is involved.

Thanks for the input.

[The Reaper]

Then you are likely not joining "SF" in the sense that it is used here, i.e., Special Forces.

I would do sets of each of the events focusing on low reps for speed and correctness of form, followed by sprint training of 100-500 meters, concluding with the circuit training itself executed properly in the minimum amout of time.

But what do I know? I was never in the CF and have never taken your test.

TR

[Big_King]

Roger sir,
I understand the difference, didn't mean to cause any confusion with the 'SF'. Back to lurking.