IPPT reality check update plus free training guide

About a month ago, I wrote about how the protein intake of one of my clients was inhibiting his IPPT training progress. Today, I am going to discuss his training plan and strategy, as well as how he managed to pass his IPPT in such a short training window.

IPPT results: Pass

Thankfully, my client did pass his IPPT. It was not the best period to be training for IPPT because he fell and scraped both knees pretty hard a few months ago. As his knees recovered enough to return to running, he sprained his ankle that resulted in a significant limp. This limited how much training we could do, and the results that we could have pushed for.

If you read my previous post, you recall that we were aiming for 28 push ups, 33 sit ups, and a 2.4km run of 15 minutes and 20 seconds. This will give you a pass that will allow him to skip the NSFIT sessions, which will be mandatory if he failed, next year.

During his IPPT test yesterday, he was awarded pass (54 points). He did 21 push ups, 33 sit ups, and his 2.4km time was 14:19. It’s not the best but given the limited time we had and his injuries, this was a fantastic outcome.

IPPT test day push up mishap

His push ups should have been higher. Based on what he has been doing on his own, he should have been able to do at least 28 push ups. What happened during the test was that his push up Electronic IPPT Scoring System machine malfunction.

In the first round, he did five reps that he machine didn’t detect. In the second round, he did two reps which the machine also didn’t detect. The fitness instructor then asked him to wear an orange vest and the machine was able to detect his push up.

I know seven “wasted” reps does not sound like a big deal but it does add up. Having to do the push up station for a total of three times does mess with the mind. There is no doubt there would have been some frustration. This would have affected performance.

Because of the limited time we had to train, we only trained for max reps of push ups in a minute. I did made special effort to train for fuller range to account for test day conditions. Just in case the client got a poorly calibrated machine that kept throwing no count reps. What I did not plan for was to repeat the test over and over again because of a faulty machine.

At the end of the day, he did pass. That is all that mattered. The moral of the story, however, is that you have to be more than adequately prepared for the unforeseeable circumstances.

How to train for push ups with knee scrape injury

My client fell running in the dark and scraped both knees. The wounds were pretty bad and took weeks to heal. During the healing period, it was painful to move the knee because the tension on the wound would cause some pain.

There was no way I was risking my client doing push ups. Imagine if he had landed on his knees during the push ups, it would not only hurt a lot but also delay his wound healing. I was not going to risk it.

Because we couldn’t do push ups, we did bench press and incline pull ups to train the upper body. We also did core work such as crunches and russian twists.

When the wound has sufficiently healed, we started doing bench pull ups. It was really so if he had to break out of a rep, he could rest on the bench without crashing his knees into the ground.

It took about three weeks before he could perform regular push ups. They were done then with special care. For example, he never rested on his knees. He would either assume the push up position from a A frame or downward dog position and slowly walk his legs to a push up stance. Sometimes, he would lie down on the floor then roll himself into a push stance without the knees touching the floor. This is to reduce weight bearing on the knee injury so it can heal better.

During the last personal training session before the IPPT, my client did 31 reps in his first set of push ups and 17 reps in the second. This was why I do believe that he could have done at least 28 push ups if not because of the machine error.

Push up objectives: full range then power

I feel the IPPT machines is a heng sway (i.e., by luck) situation. Some machines are better calibrated than others, and how you perform for IPPT will depend on which you get for the day. Of course this is entirely andectocal and I cannot be sure that it is true.

The most common complaint to the machines, besides blatantly not counting, is that they are “too strict”. In other words, the machine can have a bias towards “no count” reps. This was what happened with the same client last year.

To get past this, we trained fully reps push up for most parts until about a month or so before IPPT test date. By full reps, I mean the chest would have to touch the ground before coming back up again. This is definitely more tiring than a regular push up but it does train proprioception and end range movement to allow for a fuller-range push up once we add explosiveness in.

Fast-twitch or type II muscle fibers

The push up station counts how many push ups you can do in a minute. As such, it is not just strength that matters cos you do need to do them fast, with proper range of motion, for the machine to count it as a successful rep.

Thus, it’s important to work on power and explosiveness when training for IPPT. Explosiveness depends on the fast twitch muscle fibres. If you are struggling with getting these fibres to fire up, you can consider doing push ups on a bench (i.e., incline push ups) and emphasise the explosiveness first.

Once it is more intuitive to do fast reps push ups, while maintaining adequate range of motion, you can try doing them on the ground.

How to train for 2.4km run if you have sprained your ankle?

The most important thing about running if you have chronic ankle pain or a history of spraining your ankles is to go super slow. I get that we subscribe to taking it easy when we are just back from injury.

But when I say going super slow, I don’t mean just taking it easy. I meant that you should practise lots and lots of restrain to do less that what you might actually prefer to do. Going slow and easy is not always a passive process. Sometimes it takes a concerted effort to not overtrain.

For his ankle sprain, we started with ankle range of motion exercises. Once his ankles were able to weight bear adequately, we started exercises such as romanian or stiff leg deadlift. This variation is preferred because it involves very little movement at the knee joint and even less movement in the ankle joint. It will allow us to to strength the leg muscles and also load the ankle joints and ligaments without actually moving the ankles.

The next step was to add movement. We always start with the good old squat. The squat is really one of the most useful functional movements. It’s perfect for muscle strengthening. The squats, however, does involve moving the ankle joint so it’s pretty important to be cautious and go to go slow. Once the squat movement is no longer an issue, weight can be added for a true strengthening outcome.

2.4km is more about power than strength

This is strictly my opinion: 2.4km is more about power than strength. If you know better and think otherwise, please do reach out to me. I’ll love to hear your thoughts.

It is important to do squats and weighted squats to train for your 2.4km, don’t get me wrong. But what is even more important, in my opinion, is power. This is where jumping exercises can come in.

If you have an ankle injury or an ankle that is very susceptible to injury, you definitely want to assess the ankles multiple times to be certain that jumping is something that is safe and that the ankles can tolerate.

My favourite jumping exercises for power training for 2.4km is half squat jump. I would get my client do a couple of jumps than an isometric half squat hold at the end. This will train power and also train endurance of the quads during the hold. It is a high intensity workout so it will help with the cardio and VO2 max aspect.

About a month before his IPPT, my client was able to do 100 half squat jumps. That was also the last half squat jumps he did as I had decided to focus more on the 2.4km running. In the sessions before doing 100 half squat jumps, he also did half squat jumps with 5kg for 40, 60 reps. The most intense jumps and hold we did was 30 jumps and 45 seconds hold.

Cramming 20 runs in a month

I highly don’t recommend someone who just sprained their ankle to cramp 20 runs into a single month. It’s not that I wanted to do that but his IPPT window was closing and we had no choice.

We had a tight follow up  schedule during this period. I would see the client in person twice a week for most weeks. He would do his own 2.4km runs on his own. After each run, he would send me an update of the distance and time taken as well as a mini reflection on how he was feeling overall.

Based on his feedback and run times, I decided when exactly he should be running as well as how fast or how slow should each run be. We tried as much as possible to push for speed because he hasn’t run for a long time and we really needed to get him up to gear.

These are the his run times over the month or so prior to his IPPT test:

• 30 July – 24:41
• 31 July – 20:42
• 2 Aug – 18:20
• 3 Aug – 16:32
• 5 Aug – 16:08
• 6 Aug – 15:57
• 7 Aug – 15:33
• 9 Aug – 15:25
• 10 Aug – 15:50
• 14 Aug – 14:41
• 15 Aug: 23:40
• 16 Aug: 25:09
• 19 Aug: 14:45
• 22 Aug: 14:23
• 23 Aug: 14:04
• 24 Aug: 14:31
• 27 Aug: 14:40
• 29 Aug: 14:17
• 31 Aug: 23:32
• 2 Sep: 22:19
• 3 Sep (IPPT): 14:19

Dynamic training or play by ear

There is no fix 2.4km training programme that we were following for the client. Mostly because we don’t have the luxury of time so we have to push every bit we can. The upside of working with a coach or trainer is that you can really push your body very close to 100%.

Despite the sudden increase in running volume, we were able to avoid any ankle pain or issues.

The key is really about being dynamic and not be too stubborn about a fixed running schedule. There are times with three consecutive days of running and there was also an occasional with three consecutive days of rest.

For this client, the overall load on the lower body is not just from running alone. We also did strength and conditioning exercises for the legs. So that is also something we also took into consideration when deciding when to run, how hard, and how far.

There were some signs of poor recovery a few weeks before the IPPT test date. This was more observable in the upper body than lower body. It is likely due to poor nutrition (i.e., under eating) on the client’s part.

Sit up training for IPPT

I feel like sit ups may be one of the more intuitive training for IPPT. It does take training and practice, but usually is not a technique issue.

The key is to practise doing max reps of sit ups in a minute. Maybe repeat that two to three times with about two to five minutes rest between attempts.

If you are really struggling to do them (i.e., <15 reps), you can work on the abs separately by doing crunches for the upper abs and leg raises for the lower abs.

You should also assess to see how long you can hold a plank for. You are aiming for at least a minute but closer to two minutes will be better for you.

Other accessory training that will help with sit ups include core exercises like side bridges and russian twists.