I plan on working out with my brother doing a modified approach to Navy Seal Training.

We will initially be:
1. Running 2 miles per day Monday-Saturday in the morning at 6 am bright and early.
2. Swimming for 30 minutes at a time we've yet to decide on. (probably noonish before pushups/situps)
3. Doing a combination of pushups and situps around noon.

He is having me start on 150 pushups a day, whereas he's doing 200. And then I kick his ass doing situps, which he sucks at...

We are currently have a small argument on the amount of pushups/situps we're going to do on a daily basis.

He wants to do pushups/situps every single day, then take off Saturday and Sunday. Naturally to me this seems like overtraining, and will also prevent maximum muscle growth since we'll be training our muscles day after day.

I had been thinking of doing a split, where we'd do run/swim Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Pushups and situps Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. With Sunday off for rest.

Also, we'd both currently cutting.

His stats:
164.5 lbs
32% body fat
18 years old

My stats:
164.5 lbs
17% body fat
19 years old

I cut 500 calories out of both of our BMRs after multiplying them by 1.55, and was wondering if that was too little or too much calories.

I'd love to hear some comments or results with similar experiences.

It is no good at all to just work your chest/triceps and abs. You're only working a third of your body that way; what about at least your back/biceps?

Add pull-ups or pull-up negatives.

Also, check out this thread: http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=11281

for a routine like yours, Id rather do the FBI training program.

its quite intense and focuses on the entire body

Pushups are an endurance exercise, not a mass building exercise.

To build muscles, you must use weighted resistance more than what your body is accustomed to.

Pushups are an endurance exercise, not a mass building exercise.
To build muscles, you must use weighted resistance more than what your body is accustomed to.

Push ups can be used as a mass building movement by simply adjusting your loading. For instance, by elevating your feet higher than the rest of the body you can create more load on the chest, though you're also changing the angle of the loading as well. There are alot of variations that you can perform to make these a great(er) exercise.

Pushups are an endurance exercise, not a mass building exercise.

To build muscles, you must use weighted resistance more than what your body is accustomed to.

It's fault lies in not being progressive in nature, unless you gain weight. All of these things are good for a change of pace. Endurance isn't a bad thing to have.

It's fault lies in not being progressive in nature, unless you gain weight.

Switching to 1 arm push-up's would be one way to add progression. Or Push-up w/ Rotation (http://www.ptonthenet.com/displayexercise.aspx?ExerciseID=2009) either with or without a dumbbell...the list of variations is fairly lengthy.

I was going to mention elevated pushups (I was an officer in the US Army), but while you are increasing the resistance, you are also changing the angle of the exercise and bringing the shoulder into play. Anyways, unless you are increasing the weight resistance, you are not going to be building mass.

If I remember the army manual, the 2 minute push-up test (one of three parts of the Army PT Test: 2 mile run, 2 min push-ups, 2 min sit-ups) it states that the the intent of the test is to measure upper body endurance.

Push-ups are a great exercise for warming up and getting the blood flowing. But you are not going to be putting inches on your chest.

Push-ups are a great exercise for warming up and getting the blood flowing. But you are not going to be putting inches on your chest.

During my martial arts days, I was taught to stay away from weights. At one point I was doing 300 push ups each morning(3 sets of 100), and would simply switch hand positioning each day(diamonds, standard, wide).
I have to admit that I've probably got the right genetics on my side, but even back then before weights entered the picture, I was pretty jacked.

Seems like a special training program. No one can calculate how your body will react to it, so I think if you confident trying it you should give it a try.

We don't plan on just sticking to normal pushups and situps everyday. :D

I will look into the FBI training program, sounds interesting.

Weights - I don't personally want to become huge, though I could always change my mind. I plan on constantly changing the workout, so I may eventually incorporate weights into the training.

I know I personally always sucked at doing weights, and restarting in the basics may prove to be a very good thing. (I can't bench worth a damn)

I was also going to look into getting a book called Combat Conditioning, which describes how to do hindu pushups, squats, and some other exercises.

I'll check that thread out though, thanks for the info.

Hi Zerone.

I think that what your doing sounds like a pretty good idea.

You have to remember that with pushups and pullups you CAN train every day. The load on the CNS is completely different than with weights, so the parameters for overtraining are different.

I agree with chicanerous in that you need to incorporate other movements. Pullups are ESSENTIAL for navy seal style training. For the fourth movement you need to hit your legs. Look into the Hindu Squat.

Some resources you may want to consider:
Matt Furey's Combat Fitness
Pavel's naked warrior program

Also, as previously mentioned, focus on progression. This is the key. Decrease rest periods (increase volume density) and add repetitions continuously. When you can no longer progress, change leverage points on your movements (pavel discusses this in his naked warrior book). An example: After your progress on pullups stop, try bringing your legs forward to a 30 degree angle. Progress with that for however long you can and then change the angle. There are ways to change all bodyweight exercises to increase difficulty/muscle recruitment.

Good luck and let us know how the program goes.

Nothing new to add, except that I'd love to see some sort of journaling of that program. Let us know if you decide to do that.

Nothing new to add, except that I'd love to see some sort of journaling of that program. Let us know if you decide to do that.

I plan on.

Interesting note, today I was busy the whole damn day and almost wasn't able to run. What I ended up doing. Instead of running 2 miles, I ran/walked 5 miles with my brother. I would of run 5 miles...but I want to do it with someone else so.

I can say I could of done 10 miles if I wanted to. We did this around 10 pm in almost pitch black behind my college. (we had some dim lights around the baseball field) It was pretty cool, I have to say running at night is the best, you can do whatever the hell you want and no one is there to stop you. I'm no longer using fitday, and am just using excel like John. I still need to work out problems with the meals, I will probably make a journal in here in a day or so when I have some free time. We need to find a real pool to swim at too.... :confused:

Keep at it! I've been trying to do this SEAL routine for so long but I can't seem to get past all the running! I've re-started up and I'm taking it slow, concentrating on the running because the calisthenics is easier for me.

Make sure you know actual distances of one place to another when running. Most people can not estimate the distance they ran with reasonable accuracy (within .1 miles)

I've got a mile course mapped out. I make a point of starting at the same spot everyday and finishing at the same point or further each run. I'm three runs into it and I'll hit that mile soon. But for now, I'm walking about 0.2miles to the start, then running about 0.4miles, then walking 0.1miles, then running 0.2miles, then walking 0.3miles. It's not much but it's a start.

I just use a 1/2-mile track behind my college.

I am still going to do Seal Training...but I plan on adding in weight training.

Would continuing to do pushups/situps/pullups everyday hurt muscle growth?

It would probably slow down muscle growth due to the lack of recovery time. The muscle needs time and nutrients to repair. The SEAL program I have seen calls for Pushups/Pullups/Situps 3xweek or every other day. This would give you the recovery. But other literature says that bodyweight resistance exercises are OK to do everyday. Basically, if you feel that you are losing muscle size or overtraining then cut it back. If you feel comfortable doing them everyday then go for it!