Brian and others: What are your thoughts on physical training for golf. Is going at it hard at the gym bad for your golf swing or is it something you recommend. I know many thought that Johnny Miller screwed up when he bulked up and many feel Tiger has overdone things. I can see that Yoga and other exercises that increase flexibility would be beneficial but does bulking up tend to hinder more than help IYO? What kind of gym work do the pros on tour do? I can't see how they can exercise hard during a tournament without it having a negative impact on their game. To me that means they can only have one intense workout a week on Monday giving Tuesday and Wednesday as recovery days with back to business on Thursday. What are the best workouts for golf? Is this a subject you know much about?Brian: What are your thoughts on this subject? Thanks
Brian: Physical training and golf?
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Jim Kobylinski
Super Moderator
i'm a perfect example...last year i was swinging 108-110, now i'm swining 104-106. Not a big difference really but enough to take 10-15 yards off my irons and 15-20 yards (if not more) off my drives.
You just need to learn how to work out without bulking up and it isn't that hard to to. You just need to learn how your body responds.
For the fastest gains you need to trigger the most amount of testerone in your body...those are:
squats
dead lifts
leg presses
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work out without doing those 3 above and you won't make as many gains as fast as you might. For swing speed and overall strength you really need a stable base (abs down) and strong back muscles.
You'll thank me.
You just need to learn how to work out without bulking up and it isn't that hard to to. You just need to learn how your body responds.
For the fastest gains you need to trigger the most amount of testerone in your body...those are:
squats
dead lifts
leg presses
----
work out without doing those 3 above and you won't make as many gains as fast as you might. For swing speed and overall strength you really need a stable base (abs down) and strong back muscles.
You'll thank me.
I hit the gym 3 times a week, with each workout focused on different muscles. I'm usually good to go the next day, unless I'm doing different exercises than normal in which case I might be more sore than usual. After my back day I also sometimes am a little too sore for golf the next day.
But if you keep good form and the correct weights and exercises, you should have no problem playing the next day. If you're really concerned about it, be sure to schedule your workouts so that they don't take place the day before an important tournament or something.
But if you keep good form and the correct weights and exercises, you should have no problem playing the next day. If you're really concerned about it, be sure to schedule your workouts so that they don't take place the day before an important tournament or something.
Jim Kobylinski
Super Moderator
If you haven't been working out in a long time you will be sore because you are going to really shock your muscles.
So i would reccomend that if you haven't worked out in a while, i'd work out for a couple weeks and not play any golf until your muscles start recovering faster
So i would reccomend that if you haven't worked out in a while, i'd work out for a couple weeks and not play any golf until your muscles start recovering faster
Turfspanker
New
In golf, you need "tendon pull" for the hip turn/action and for extensor action as opposed to "muscle pull". Post workout your muscle fibers are injured and in a state of repair. The repair period depends on the intensity of your workout, your diet, and age. It is difficult to have tendon pull in your swing during the recovery period unless you spend a good deal of time stretching prior to the round and during the round. Swinging using muscle pull shortens that part of the swing. I hit the gym 4 to 5 times a week and lift heavy. As long as you are aware of the above, bulking up won't hurt your game. It's easy to stereotype bodybuilders as inflexible and in most cases it's true. Due to the stereotype, most golfers are fearful of working out aggressively. But I've seen some big guys that are extremely flexible and graceful. I've gained 10lbs of muscle from lifting this last year and my game is still improving.
Jim Kobylinski
Super Moderator
I agree.....45 min tops. Unless you're adding in stretching time (quality 20min here) and maybe some running before or after (20-40min)
I arrive at the gym and do 10 mins of stretching. Then have a little rest and do 10 mins on the cycle machine to warm up my body. I then have a little rest and do 5 mins on the climbing machine then a rest again and do 5 mins on the step machine then have a little rest again before hitting the rowing machine for 15 mins. by this time I am really sweating and full warmed up I then do 3 mins of skipping rest for one minute ( the gym is a professional boxing gym also) then 3 mins on the bags again a one minute rest and another 3 mins on the bag. sit-ups are next and I do these on various inclined benches and mix them with crunchies and sit ups with a medicine ball. They have a medicine ball down there with two handles and I do lots of torso turns with then 3 mins 1 min rest then another 3 mins..
That is my warm up that I do when before I hit the weights.
On one day I will weight train the legs only. On another arms shoulders and chest and on another the torso and back. With a session being done and rotated every other day. On a leg day I will hit the leg machines there are about 8 of them. Squatting type machine , calf raise machines , leg extensions and one where you lay on your front and your legs act like a bicep curl. I start with a moderate weight to feel what is going on and do 8 reps . Then I really stretch the muscles i am working on and increase the weights and do another 8 reps I stretch again then another 8 reps. By this time the muscles feel a bit funny so I drop the weights right down and do 10 easy motions with good form stretch again then increase the weights to my maximum and blast out 6 reps. Then stretch the muscle groups I have been working on . Then have a little rest and move on to the next machine. I do the same kind of thing on torso and arms days. After I have finished the weights session I do a lot more stretching then do 3 x 3 mins of skipping a bit on the climbing machine and 10 mins on the rowing machine. Then a final stretch rest then a shower and eat some food.All in all it takes about 3 hours
This is one hell of a warm up! I counted more then 60 minutes worth of exercise. I think you should call this a combined warm-up & conditioning segment. Books and personal trainers usually recommend 5 - 15 mins warm-ups. And some of these try to sneak in some aerobic work into gym programs.
Add some push-ups to this and you have a well rounded conditioning program that alone should be enough for any golfing needs bar the long drive game.
Given your 60 min warm-up/conditiong start the 3-way split makes perfect sense. And working your way to max blast is, again, very sensible.
Two things give me pause. The way you constantly stretch the muscles you working on and (if I'm reading this right?) hitting all the different machines.
There is some potential to injury w/ mixing stretching and weights this way. What you are doing is pulling on a fatiqued muscle. Personally, I wouldn't do it, but I can't really quantify the risk.
I missed any figures how long the weights segment is taking, but if you hit all the leg machines it could be more then an hour. Main thing to remember is you only need to do a very few basic exercises/machines. Some machines - like these silly adduction thingies - are usefull only if you need them for physical therapy.
As I get older, am getting the feeling makers of these exercise machines are trying to play some basic human feelings to push out ever increasing numbers of generally useless toys into the market. [xx(]
So - if I were you - I would ditch most of the streching and consentrate of a few basic exercises/machines (like legpress, calf machine and hamstring curl). Mainly to cut down the time this is taking. Remember, this is a big if.
Tuning down after exercise with some light streching and stuff is a good idea - definitely makes waking up easier next morning. [
]All in all, the program you are doing sounds smart enough. I'm sensing some input from a boxing coach, but could be wrong? As you saw from the comments, most of us got worried w/ the time it takes you - 3 hours. I thought, like the rest, you were jogging with weights for three hours around the gym. Glad it's not so.
However, if you like this boxing gym and your work out plan, stick with it! It will give you good conditioning and some muscle mass gains. The biggest drawback is you are risking fatique and over-use injuries w/ a 3 hour training time. Reasonable advice would be to aim for 1½ hour mark from locker room to shower. After that, you could hang-around all you want.
BTW, any really good boxers training there?
Vaako
The best one there at the moment is Eric Teymour . He is the WBU Super Middle weight champ
http://www.secondsout.com/USA/news.cfm?ccs=229&cs=14999
There are a lot of Russian fighters training there . they don't talk much and just get on with it.
Wayne Alexander WBU light middle weight champ trains at the gym with his coach Jimmy Tibbs . He is quite good but if he takes on the likes of Winky Wright or Shane Mosley he will get hammered IMO. Teymour is the better prospect. Lennox Lewis , Naseem Hamed and Ricky Hatton have turned up in the past to train but don't train at the gym. Some very good foreign fighters turn up to train before their fights in the UK . That is always quite interesting.
The Peacock Gym owners were in the news not too long ago for doing a bunch of robberies and have been put away.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/t...gang-in--pound-500k-drink-raid-name_page.html
Hue, 3 hours...way way to long. My lift days, 20-30 min tops!
How many days of the week are you doing this??
Warm up till you get a light sweat, so that you know your really warm, then a stretch no matter the workout of the day.
Split the training, on lift days drop the cardio, get cardio these days by not resting in between exercises, example, do a set, then while resting the muscle you just worked, work a different group. I'll do a set of squats, then a set of abs, then right back to the squats, right back to the abs, and on and on. I personally like to do say a set of chest, a set of legs, a set of abs, then repeat the cycle, no rest. On back day replace the chest w.o. with a back exercise. Also i would cut down on the amount of work per body part, at most 2 exercises per body part. Basically know why your lifting, adding strength, mass, general fitness, lifting for strength is different than body building type lifting.
On days you dont lift, then do your cardio work, except drop the rest between machines, and add sprints of the machine your using, example, say the stair stepping machine, after 5- 10 min of stepping start the sprints 20 sec all out, followed by 10 sec slow, 20 sec all out, 10 sec slow, you do this for a given amount of time your endurance will get better.
Doing this type of breakdown you wont be in the gym near as long as you are now, if your a real diehard 45 min tops,remember, its not about the amount of time, its about the intensity!!
How many days of the week are you doing this??
Warm up till you get a light sweat, so that you know your really warm, then a stretch no matter the workout of the day.
Split the training, on lift days drop the cardio, get cardio these days by not resting in between exercises, example, do a set, then while resting the muscle you just worked, work a different group. I'll do a set of squats, then a set of abs, then right back to the squats, right back to the abs, and on and on. I personally like to do say a set of chest, a set of legs, a set of abs, then repeat the cycle, no rest. On back day replace the chest w.o. with a back exercise. Also i would cut down on the amount of work per body part, at most 2 exercises per body part. Basically know why your lifting, adding strength, mass, general fitness, lifting for strength is different than body building type lifting.
On days you dont lift, then do your cardio work, except drop the rest between machines, and add sprints of the machine your using, example, say the stair stepping machine, after 5- 10 min of stepping start the sprints 20 sec all out, followed by 10 sec slow, 20 sec all out, 10 sec slow, you do this for a given amount of time your endurance will get better.
Doing this type of breakdown you wont be in the gym near as long as you are now, if your a real diehard 45 min tops,remember, its not about the amount of time, its about the intensity!!
jpvegas1
New
You don't necessarily have to belong to a gym to get a good workout. I have found that you can get an excellent workout and develop good functional strength, in minimal time, exercising at home using bodyweight exercises. You'll be able to workout anywhere without equipment. Additionally you'll save drive time to and from the gym.
Some sites that contain excellent information and sample workouts are:
http://www.combatconditioning.com/
http://www.trainforstrength.com/
http://www.crossfit.com/
http://www.warriorforce.com/
Some sites that contain excellent information and sample workouts are:
http://www.combatconditioning.com/
http://www.trainforstrength.com/
http://www.crossfit.com/
http://www.warriorforce.com/
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