3 second pushups - cadence pace? where did that come from and why??

[CAPMajOhio]

So as a career veteran of the military (4yrs USAF and 17yrs Army) I don't understand the concept or purpose behind each pushup being at a timed cadence (3 seconds).  Why can't it just be like situps and a 1 or 2 minute timed event to get as many done as possible.

[coudano]

It comes from the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which is the basis of our entire CPFT.

I can only speculate, that in theory, slower reps is meant to encourage proper form.
I can do a rather lot of sloppy push ups in 1 minute.
Quite a lot less "good form" push ups.

[manfredvonrichthofen]

There is a post about apes on here somewhere that describes in detail why we do this...
It doesn't make any sense to me either.

[a2capt]

Proper pushups, not cranked out ones. The CPFT is also about discipline and that means doing them at the interval. The time limit given is plenty, and we encourage them to do as many as they can, not just the needed amount and stop.

When they do the cranked out ones, you can see the difference. Most are sloppy, don't count because they hit the ground, used knees to push off, knees never left the ground, etc. Big mess.

[TJT__98]

Proper pushups, not cranked out ones. The CPFT is also about discipline and that means doing them at the interval. The time limit given is plenty, and we encourage them to do as many as they can, not just the needed amount and stop.

When they do the cranked out ones, you can see the difference. Most are sloppy, don't count because they hit the ground, used knees to push off, knees never left the ground, etc. Big mess.

When they begin doing "sloppy" pushups then you stop counting, simple, so why can't we do it the Air Force way?

[Майор Хаткевич]

You ever administer pushups before and after the change?

[coudano]

why can't we do it the Air Force way?

Because the Air Force test is normed for people age 18-30(+) not 12-17 (for the most part)
Also nobody wants to be doing waist measurements (neither those being measured, nor those doing the measuring, eghhhh)

[Brad]

We didn't do counted pushups, we just did 2 minutes at your pace when I was in NJROTC, but we still were required to do them in proper form. I've seen the sloppy "speed" pushups and they look downright awful. I may not be able to do 60 pushups, but I can do 40 PROPER pushups and that means all the more to me.

[CAPMajOhio]

You ever administer pushups before and after the change?

Yes and I always focused on proper form.  For that matter I was a training NCO for the Army and administered the APFT and made sure the troops performed the pushups properly. 
It had nothing to do with how fast or slow.... I've seen cadets do sloppy pushups now and correct them even though they have all that "extra" time to do them properly.
In our unit the cadets are shown before each test the proper form for doing each test and then expected to meet the standard.  They do it in cadence (3sec) but I hate that part of it.  Until national realizes there is no extra value in this method I will adhere to the current standard.

[CAPMajOhio]

It comes from the President's Council on Physical Fitness, which is the basis of our entire CPFT.

I can only speculate, that in theory, slower reps is meant to encourage proper form.
I can do a rather lot of sloppy push ups in 1 minute.
Quite a lot less "good form" push ups.

But there is no time limit on pushups so no need to rush...I just disagree with a cadenced pushup...I personally think it interferes with a person being able to show their true strength in performing a maximum amount (properly or course).

[TJT__98]

When I said the "Air Force way" I meant we do a set number of push-ups within a set time limit.

[davedove]

Proper pushups, not cranked out ones. The CPFT is also about discipline and that means doing them at the interval. The time limit given is plenty, and we encourage them to do as many as they can, not just the needed amount and stop.

When they do the cranked out ones, you can see the difference. Most are sloppy, don't count because they hit the ground, used knees to push off, knees never left the ground, etc. Big mess.

When they begin doing "sloppy" pushups then you stop counting, simple, so why can't we do it the Air Force way?

Right, you get counts like:   1 - 2 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 ......