I wanted to celebrate with all of my Beach Buddies!! I took the Air Force Fitness Assessment (they say, "It's not a test." Right -- tell it to the Marines!) I scored the full 100 points Pushups (16 in < 1 min seconds), situps (30 in <1 min), abdominal girth (29.5, by the skin of my teeth and the generosity of the tester), and I ran my 1.5 miles in 14.20. I am thrilled!! I thought I was going to collapse, what with all the pollen and the heat -- I always run on the treadmill indoors. But I did it!
Natter, that is awesome! I wish you lots of luck with your future career...I know my friend Grace (who is the mother of a couple adults and teenagers) feels so good when she gets through one of those tests (she's Army, but same idea )!
So, the question now is....how did you train for this? I cannot even do one pushup! Can you suggest any exercise or steps to take to work up to doing that many pushups that quickly?
You guys are so nice!!! Laurie, I trained starting last November. I began by doing 16 "girl" pushups, the ones on your knees. Also, I had broken my foot, so I couldn't do any other kind until 6 December. I also started on the recumbant bike 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes, which didn't bother my foot. In December, I started doing as many "guy" pushups as I could -- which was 1 the first week. Then I'd finish out the 16 with "girl" ones. As I added "guy" pushups, I decreased the others until after about six weeks I could do 16 real pushups. Then I started working to do them fast enough to finish within one minute. I found that I had to give myself a day in between pushup days to recover -- I was using brand new upper body muscles, and it was very easy to overtrain. I had started alternating power walking on the treadmill with the bike in December; in January, I started running on the treadmill verrrrry slooowly. It took three months of running 15 minutes (5 minute walk warmup) 2-3 times a week to build up to 1.5 miles in <14:24. The crunches never were a problem, so I just kept doing 30 in < 1 minute every time I did a pushup day. I gotta tell you, though, that losing 15 pounds before the test really helped
Did you do any weight training as well for your arms? I can't even do girl pushups...my arms are these puny things that can barely hold an armful of books, let alone push up hundreds of pounds of body weight...though I would *love* to try! Something new to do at the gym tomorrow!
I did do weight training, Laurie. On days that I ran, I did upper body work for strength and toning using the Life Fitness machines. On days that I biked or did the eliptical machine, I did lower body machines. I think that made the SB work even better -- I had improved my muscle tone by Easter -- it was just still covered with too much fluff
I Passed!!!
I took the Air Force Fitness Assessment (they say, "It's not a test." Right -- tell it to the Marines!) I scored the full 100 points 
Pushups (16 in < 1 min seconds), situps (30 in <1 min), abdominal girth (29.5, by the skin of my teeth and the generosity of the tester), and I ran my 1.5 miles in 14.20. I am thrilled!! I thought I was going to collapse, what with all the pollen and the heat -- I always run on the treadmill indoors. But I did it!
)!
Then I'd finish out the 16 with "girl" ones. As I added "guy" pushups, I decreased the others until after about six weeks I could do 16 real pushups. Then I started working to do them fast enough to finish within one minute. I found that I had to give myself a day in between pushup days to recover -- I was using brand new upper body muscles, and it was very easy to overtrain. I had started alternating power walking on the treadmill with the bike in December; in January, I started running on the treadmill verrrrry slooowly. It took three months of running 15 minutes (5 minute walk warmup) 2-3 times a week to build up to 1.5 miles in <14:24. The crunches never were a problem, so I just kept doing 30 in < 1 minute every time I did a pushup day. I gotta tell you, though, that losing 15 pounds before the test really helped 
