Newbie here. How important are push-ups for shoulder/arm/back/core strength. I have a morning routine where I do several sets of 20, 30, 40, or 50 for between 150-300 a few days a week. Then swim 1000 yds or more later in the day.
Push-ups are very convenient. Unlike presses with weights, push-ups also work major muscles throughout the body. I personally avoid going much lower than horizontal upper arms, to keep the joints and tendons happy.
If you are interested in swimming distance events then you are going to need to swim considerably more than 1,000 yards per day.
Yes, 1000 minimum, up to 1 mile every 4 weeks. I only got back into this last July. I plan on getting up to 3 miles by summer, but first I have signed up for 10 weeks of stroke improvement classes. After the 10 weeks comes OWS triathlon training.
When someone landed on my shoulder this summer, part of my physical therapy was tricep pushups. I've found a variety of pushups all seem to target the areas they were trying to strengthen.
I would say this is a good general fitness exercise and a good injury prevention exercise.
If you are interested in swimming distance events then you are going to need to swim considerably more than 1,000 yards per day.
:hijack: Kirk, in your opinion, what would be the minimum daily (quality) yardage necessary to improve my 1650 race time, if I am training 6 days/wk? In 2013, I put in 434 miles for the year, and 397 miles in 2014. Since having hip surgery in December 2014, I have been topping out at 2,500 yds/day on most days, and I just started maxing out at 3,000 yards on a couple of the days each week to see how I do. Hip soreness won't allow me to push it to 3,500 - 4,000 yards I used to put in when I trained with my coach a couple of the days each week.
High intensity training is still out of the question, because I had a setback in August when I popped the scar tissue in my hip and had to start over from square one. Instead, my "sprints" are not at 100% effort, and I'm training hardest for the events my hip handles the best at this point: distance free and 200 fly.
:hijack: Kirk, in your opinion, what would be the minimum daily (quality) yardage necessary to improve my 1650 race time, if I am training 6 days/wk? ...
High intensity training is still out of the question, because I had a setback in August when I popped the scar tissue in my hip and had to start over from square one. Instead, my "sprints" are not at 100% effort, and I'm training hardest for the events my hip handles the best at this point: distance free and 200 fly.
Since we're talking about the 1650 it's not really sprinting, so you could still get a lot of benefit from doing USRPT if you want to go that route. With that training you could probably keep the yardage you're doing now. You certainly would not need to do more than 3,000 yards per workout. And if you do USRPT you can't worry about total yardage. Just be concerned you are doing those sets correctly.
If you want to do more traditional, longer aerobic training I would suggest that on the majority of your training days you get in at least one set where you are swimming for a minimum of 20 minutes and preferably 30 minutes without a lot of rest. Not straight swimming for 40 minutes, but a set where you're not getting much rest between swims. You'll still want to do some sets where you're maintaining your goal 1650 pace, but you don't need to do those day in and day out like USRPT advocates. If you can swim six days per week and average 3,000 yards per workout you'll be over 500 miles for the year.
It depends upon what you're looking for. For general strength and fitness, I am sure they are good. Can they help you swim faster? Possibly. Are they required for you to swim fast? No.
