Brian, I have been going to the gym with my training partner 2 to 3 times a week for a year or so and my overall conditioning is good. I would like to reorganise my training to be more golf specific. I have been doing a lot of torso twists with a heavy medicine ball, pulley pulldowns like in a golf swing , making swings with a barbell with both hands and left hand only. What exercises do you recommend and do you know anything about long drive competitors training regimes ? I am also interested in the views of others.
Gym workouts for golf? ...and Manzella's quest!
- Thread starter hue
- Start date
- Status
Damon Lucas
Super Moderator
John,
Check out www.z2golf.com.
Some great ideas, logical. The chains are a great workout, very intense.
Check out www.z2golf.com.
Some great ideas, logical. The chains are a great workout, very intense.
mrodock
New
www.coreperformance.com would be a good way to go.
jpvegas1
New
Hue:
A guy that has some really good information on conditioning is Ross Enamait and he can be found at http://www.warriorforce.com/. He does most of his work with boxers and full contact fighters but his concepts of core conditioning are valid. He answers his e-mails personally and promptly, his website has good information and his materials are reasonably priced.
BTW: How did you play at Bethpage last fall?
A guy that has some really good information on conditioning is Ross Enamait and he can be found at http://www.warriorforce.com/. He does most of his work with boxers and full contact fighters but his concepts of core conditioning are valid. He answers his e-mails personally and promptly, his website has good information and his materials are reasonably priced.
BTW: How did you play at Bethpage last fall?
I got up early to play there with my friend John Biangazzo who Brian is now helping. On the way there he had a tyre blow out when we got there ( Monday) we were told that the course is closed on Mondays. It looked like a tough course with lots of long holes where your tee shot ends up in a valley leaving a long second shot up-hill to an elevated green . I look forward to playing it next time I am in the States. Thanks for the link.
Brian Manzella
Administrator
When I was in High School I was the starting free saftey on a 5-A football powerhouse outside of New Olreans. I weighed 157 lbs. I ran a 4.9 forty, a 4:57 mile, threw a football 55 yards easily and shot 77 in the state High school Tourney with probably the worst golf swing of all-time (of anyone who could break 80 and couldn't putt a lick).
Even though I was only 16 years old as a senior, I had several chances to play college football, but at 5'9" I knew better. I worked on my golf game and got a scholarship and wound up playing #1 & #2 and was the captain my senior year. I was still in good enough shape to run a 4.87 40-yard dash—ON A CURVE—In tennis shoes—running for fun against the track guys. I weighed about 165.
By the time I was working for Stan Stopa in the mid 80's I had slowly gained weight from college and was about 185, and it was mostly fat. But a couple of big changes were coming. My dad passed away at 59 from a heart attack, and I got divorced. So I went to work (out). And a started a diet called "Eat To Win." I was 90% on that diet for about 5 years.
I lost 35 lbs of fat and played basketball 5 days a week, football 2 days a week, walked at least 100 golf holes a week, and did a little dancing three or four nights a week. Boy was I in shape. Weighed 150 soak and wet.
By 1995 (I think that was the year), I had gained some weight back, but was still in A+ condition. This was the year I ran up and down a mountain outside of Salinas, California to win a bet with Mike Finney and Tom Bartlett (They videoed it, and the viewing of which WAS the entertainment at Tom Bartlett's wedding a few years back. The running wasn't anywhere near as funny as the commentary. Trust me). I weighed about 175
45 days before my wedding in 2003, I weighed 205, no shape to take 700 pictures. A great freind of mine, Terry Meiners, ran me everyday and I dieted and walked down the aisle at 179.
At the first Golfing Machine Summit last year in Alabama, I weighed in at about 225! Yikes!
Somehow, I lost a couple of lbs before I started this new program, two weeks ago today. I weighed 220.
I am back on "Eat to Win" albiet the "Eat to Win 1st Century edition," and in two weeks I now weigh right at 210.
This is with ZERO excercise. I torm my achilles tendon in June and really it just got to where I can play some ball again.
So, my Louisville season starts in two weeks and I will have access to a great gym and basketball everywhere. I hope to be under 200 by May 1.
If I work hard on it all summer, I think sub-175 is attainable.
I'd like to wear some 34 inch pants to the Two Summits (TGM & PGA) IN December, and weigh in on my 45th birthday on December 11th at 165!
Can I do it?
I will keep you all up to date.
Even though I was only 16 years old as a senior, I had several chances to play college football, but at 5'9" I knew better. I worked on my golf game and got a scholarship and wound up playing #1 & #2 and was the captain my senior year. I was still in good enough shape to run a 4.87 40-yard dash—ON A CURVE—In tennis shoes—running for fun against the track guys. I weighed about 165.
By the time I was working for Stan Stopa in the mid 80's I had slowly gained weight from college and was about 185, and it was mostly fat. But a couple of big changes were coming. My dad passed away at 59 from a heart attack, and I got divorced. So I went to work (out). And a started a diet called "Eat To Win." I was 90% on that diet for about 5 years.
I lost 35 lbs of fat and played basketball 5 days a week, football 2 days a week, walked at least 100 golf holes a week, and did a little dancing three or four nights a week. Boy was I in shape. Weighed 150 soak and wet.
By 1995 (I think that was the year), I had gained some weight back, but was still in A+ condition. This was the year I ran up and down a mountain outside of Salinas, California to win a bet with Mike Finney and Tom Bartlett (They videoed it, and the viewing of which WAS the entertainment at Tom Bartlett's wedding a few years back. The running wasn't anywhere near as funny as the commentary. Trust me). I weighed about 175
45 days before my wedding in 2003, I weighed 205, no shape to take 700 pictures. A great freind of mine, Terry Meiners, ran me everyday and I dieted and walked down the aisle at 179.
At the first Golfing Machine Summit last year in Alabama, I weighed in at about 225! Yikes!
Somehow, I lost a couple of lbs before I started this new program, two weeks ago today. I weighed 220.
I am back on "Eat to Win" albiet the "Eat to Win 1st Century edition," and in two weeks I now weigh right at 210.
This is with ZERO excercise. I torm my achilles tendon in June and really it just got to where I can play some ball again.
So, my Louisville season starts in two weeks and I will have access to a great gym and basketball everywhere. I hope to be under 200 by May 1.
If I work hard on it all summer, I think sub-175 is attainable.
I'd like to wear some 34 inch pants to the Two Summits (TGM & PGA) IN December, and weigh in on my 45th birthday on December 11th at 165!
Can I do it?
I will keep you all up to date.
Brian Manzella
Administrator
As far as sahpe FOR Golf?
I don't think ANY PGA Tour player runs stadiums. They need to.
I don't think any of them hit baseballs 'thrown' from a pitching machine. It would help.
I doubt seriously any throw a hammer or discus. It would help a bunch.
The rest is get a REALLY good trainer and go to work.
I don't think ANY PGA Tour player runs stadiums. They need to.
I don't think any of them hit baseballs 'thrown' from a pitching machine. It would help.
I doubt seriously any throw a hammer or discus. It would help a bunch.
The rest is get a REALLY good trainer and go to work.
Erik_K
New
Hue,
Here's a sample of my workout and eating habits:
Strength training...
Keep it simple with compound excercises. I rarely use machines. Free weights allow the best range of motion and since we are doing simple, compound excercises, you are engaging mutliple muscle groups at once.
You can divide all strength training workout into 2 sub categories: aerobic and anaerobic. As you might have guess aeobic weight activity will increase your stamina. Here you are shooting for low weight and high reps (12-20 range). I like to superset when doing aerobic weight lifting, i.e. I alternate between a lower body and upper body excercise. For example, I might start out with deadlifts followed by set of pushups. Repeat this 3x over. Rest for 2 mins, then do squats and a shoulder press. Do this 3x over, etc. The idea is little or no rest between the pushups and deadlifts. This keeps the heart rate up and such a routine is very challenging, but it whip you into shape fast.
Anaerobic training is the opposite. You want muscle, this is how you do it. Low reps, high weight. Here you want to excercise until positive failure (not fatigue). A typical routine here might be bench press (3-5 sets), shoulder press (3-5 sets), inclined dumbbell curls (3-5 sets). Keep the rep pattern between 4-8.
**************************
Cardio: the best method is HIIT (high intensity interval training). The idea is this: Say a moderate jog pace, on scale of 1-10, is like a 4 for you. An all-out, run-from-your-wife-because-you-were-out-at-the-driving-range-working-on-hinge-action-instead-of-getting groceries pace is a 10. So for 30 seconds you run at a 4 and the next 30 seconds your run at a 10. This is one interval. Try and do 10-12 intervals and see how hard that is.
**************************
Eating is very important and I would say that's 70% of any overall excercise and eating plan. In a nutshell, if you want to lose weight the best way without eating a bunch of stuff you hate is to do this:
Eat 4-6 meals a day that are mostly protein, e.g. 4-5 oz. chicken breast and some frozen veggies (say 1 cup worth). Do that on friday, saturday, sunday, tuesday, and wednesday. On Mon and thursday, you are now 'carbing' up. Here you can eat 4-6 meals a day that consists of things like pasta, some ice cream, a nice sandwich, oatmeal, etc. Don't overdo it. The idea is to resupply your body with the fuel it needs. You just spent several days in a row depleting the energy (sometimes called glycogen). I am not advocating a run to the ice cream shop and saying you can eat 2 gallons of ice cream on your free day. Be sensible about it.
Oh and water is the life-blood of this whole process. Drink a gallon a day; skip the soda (drink diet) and beer. Watch the pounds drop off like never before.
*************************
Golf specific excercises I like:
Simply stated, the squat is the best overall excercise you can do and there is no motion better for all sports activities (not just golf). You are engaging numerous muscles and this makes your foundation strong and stable. I also like deadlifts to strengthen the hamstrings. Stretching is very important and that's why I use free weights. You want to feel the contraction and stretch those muscles.
Working the core is important as well and doing crunches on the floor is mindless and is a total myth to adding strength to the ab muscles. This group, by and large, is made of the same fibers as your biceps. So to make your biceps stronger, do you just move it up and down a million times? No. You do this by adding resistance. So get on your knees at the cable machine and do crunches that way. Then get over to the decline bench and so crunches (try and flex the hammys to take the hip flexors out of it). This will make your core stronger without question. Leg lifts with your feet 'holding' a dumbbell will do wonders too.
That's my 0.02 cents. Using these principles I went from 225 (junior year of college) down to 175 my senior year. Since then I've put on about 15-20 lbs more muscle. Nowadays when I am not too busy working on the Phd thesis, I like to run stadiums and play flag football; also I hit the weights at least 3x a week. I don't buy any crazy pills, or succumb to late-nite informercials selling God-knows what that will eventually collect dust in the garage.
EK
Here's a sample of my workout and eating habits:
Strength training...
Keep it simple with compound excercises. I rarely use machines. Free weights allow the best range of motion and since we are doing simple, compound excercises, you are engaging mutliple muscle groups at once.
You can divide all strength training workout into 2 sub categories: aerobic and anaerobic. As you might have guess aeobic weight activity will increase your stamina. Here you are shooting for low weight and high reps (12-20 range). I like to superset when doing aerobic weight lifting, i.e. I alternate between a lower body and upper body excercise. For example, I might start out with deadlifts followed by set of pushups. Repeat this 3x over. Rest for 2 mins, then do squats and a shoulder press. Do this 3x over, etc. The idea is little or no rest between the pushups and deadlifts. This keeps the heart rate up and such a routine is very challenging, but it whip you into shape fast.
Anaerobic training is the opposite. You want muscle, this is how you do it. Low reps, high weight. Here you want to excercise until positive failure (not fatigue). A typical routine here might be bench press (3-5 sets), shoulder press (3-5 sets), inclined dumbbell curls (3-5 sets). Keep the rep pattern between 4-8.
**************************
Cardio: the best method is HIIT (high intensity interval training). The idea is this: Say a moderate jog pace, on scale of 1-10, is like a 4 for you. An all-out, run-from-your-wife-because-you-were-out-at-the-driving-range-working-on-hinge-action-instead-of-getting groceries pace is a 10. So for 30 seconds you run at a 4 and the next 30 seconds your run at a 10. This is one interval. Try and do 10-12 intervals and see how hard that is.
**************************
Eating is very important and I would say that's 70% of any overall excercise and eating plan. In a nutshell, if you want to lose weight the best way without eating a bunch of stuff you hate is to do this:
Eat 4-6 meals a day that are mostly protein, e.g. 4-5 oz. chicken breast and some frozen veggies (say 1 cup worth). Do that on friday, saturday, sunday, tuesday, and wednesday. On Mon and thursday, you are now 'carbing' up. Here you can eat 4-6 meals a day that consists of things like pasta, some ice cream, a nice sandwich, oatmeal, etc. Don't overdo it. The idea is to resupply your body with the fuel it needs. You just spent several days in a row depleting the energy (sometimes called glycogen). I am not advocating a run to the ice cream shop and saying you can eat 2 gallons of ice cream on your free day. Be sensible about it.
Oh and water is the life-blood of this whole process. Drink a gallon a day; skip the soda (drink diet) and beer. Watch the pounds drop off like never before.
*************************
Golf specific excercises I like:
Simply stated, the squat is the best overall excercise you can do and there is no motion better for all sports activities (not just golf). You are engaging numerous muscles and this makes your foundation strong and stable. I also like deadlifts to strengthen the hamstrings. Stretching is very important and that's why I use free weights. You want to feel the contraction and stretch those muscles.
Working the core is important as well and doing crunches on the floor is mindless and is a total myth to adding strength to the ab muscles. This group, by and large, is made of the same fibers as your biceps. So to make your biceps stronger, do you just move it up and down a million times? No. You do this by adding resistance. So get on your knees at the cable machine and do crunches that way. Then get over to the decline bench and so crunches (try and flex the hammys to take the hip flexors out of it). This will make your core stronger without question. Leg lifts with your feet 'holding' a dumbbell will do wonders too.
That's my 0.02 cents. Using these principles I went from 225 (junior year of college) down to 175 my senior year. Since then I've put on about 15-20 lbs more muscle. Nowadays when I am not too busy working on the Phd thesis, I like to run stadiums and play flag football; also I hit the weights at least 3x a week. I don't buy any crazy pills, or succumb to late-nite informercials selling God-knows what that will eventually collect dust in the garage.
EK
Jim Kobylinski
Super Moderator
LOL...i didn't even read Erik's post and i know it has to work. The guy is huge. lol
vandal
New
Here's the best way to lose weight: Eat fewer calories than you burn. Fad diets don't work in the long run. The goal is to become a long-term weight controller, which means you become aware of what you are eating. Get yourself a journal and a copy of a Calorie King and start keeping track of what you eat during every meal. Write it down. Go a step further and write down how you were feeling when you ate. If you "binge" on a certain food try and think about how you were feeling when it happened.
Try and find a good calorie/fat balance per day that works for you. Try 1,500 calories and less than 20 grams of fat.
Exercise is the other component. You have to get your body moving and keep it moving. Find out what works for you and put together a program and do it. Buy a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you put in each day at work and then try and figure out how you can get more steps.
Try and find a good calorie/fat balance per day that works for you. Try 1,500 calories and less than 20 grams of fat.
Exercise is the other component. You have to get your body moving and keep it moving. Find out what works for you and put together a program and do it. Buy a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you put in each day at work and then try and figure out how you can get more steps.
Brian Manzella
Administrator
I know "Eat To Win" works. I did before and it has made a good improvement already.
My goal is to get healthier, not just lighter. And I will.
My goal is to get healthier, not just lighter. And I will.
tongzilla
New
It doesn’t matter how amazing your diet is, it won’t work forever because your body is an adaptive mechanism that simply decreases metabolism and energy expenditure as a response to eating less, and that it's more physiologically and hormonally correct to eat more and BURN THE FAT than it is to eat less and starve the fat.
There's only ONE WAY to lose fat - and that is to create a calorie deficit. However, there are two ways to create a calorie deficit - one is to decrease your food intake so you are eating less than you burn, the other is to increase your exercise and activity so you are burning more than you eat.
Of the two ways to create a calorie deficit, burning the fat is far superior to starving it. You see, cutting calories too much causes weight loss at first, but it also causes muscle loss and it eventually leads to a decrease in metabolism, so the fat loss stops.
This is very common on conventional diets. You take off pounds in the beginning, but then you hit a plateau that you just can't break through. Even diets that have been proven effective over 6 months or 12 months, have dismal track records after one year.
Eating more of the right foods (up to a certain point) actually increases your metabolic "heat" like putting wood on a fire. Food is energy; food is fuel, and it produces (metabolic) heat.
Exercise burns calories and creates a calorie deficit, but the real advantage of exercise over diet is that exercise increases your metabolism, dieting slows it down.
So if you eat more (healthy foods) and exercise more, you get a double increase in metabolism. If you eat less and exercise less you get a double decrease in metabolism.
There is some research and some PhD nerds starting to talk about this concept called, "energy flux." Energy flux is simply consuming more energy and burning more energy in order to stoke metabolism, increase rate of tissue turnover and improve body composition. Different name, same concept: eat more, exercise more.
So, if you hate exercise, you have a conundrum. You can certainly lose body fat with diet alone, as long as you have a calorie deficit, but you're stacking the odds against you because ultimately, restrictive low calorie diets always cause metabolic slowdown. No matter how hard you try, you'll almost always hit a plateau before you reach your long term goal and you're likely to gain it all back!
There's only ONE WAY to lose fat - and that is to create a calorie deficit. However, there are two ways to create a calorie deficit - one is to decrease your food intake so you are eating less than you burn, the other is to increase your exercise and activity so you are burning more than you eat.
Of the two ways to create a calorie deficit, burning the fat is far superior to starving it. You see, cutting calories too much causes weight loss at first, but it also causes muscle loss and it eventually leads to a decrease in metabolism, so the fat loss stops.
This is very common on conventional diets. You take off pounds in the beginning, but then you hit a plateau that you just can't break through. Even diets that have been proven effective over 6 months or 12 months, have dismal track records after one year.
Eating more of the right foods (up to a certain point) actually increases your metabolic "heat" like putting wood on a fire. Food is energy; food is fuel, and it produces (metabolic) heat.
Exercise burns calories and creates a calorie deficit, but the real advantage of exercise over diet is that exercise increases your metabolism, dieting slows it down.
So if you eat more (healthy foods) and exercise more, you get a double increase in metabolism. If you eat less and exercise less you get a double decrease in metabolism.
There is some research and some PhD nerds starting to talk about this concept called, "energy flux." Energy flux is simply consuming more energy and burning more energy in order to stoke metabolism, increase rate of tissue turnover and improve body composition. Different name, same concept: eat more, exercise more.
So, if you hate exercise, you have a conundrum. You can certainly lose body fat with diet alone, as long as you have a calorie deficit, but you're stacking the odds against you because ultimately, restrictive low calorie diets always cause metabolic slowdown. No matter how hard you try, you'll almost always hit a plateau before you reach your long term goal and you're likely to gain it all back!
vandal
New
Good points Tongzilla. That's why I wrote that long term weight controlling takes two components. Starving fat cells is a good kicker, but eventually the whole way you approach food needs to change. Diet and exercise must work together. Fad diets don't work. South Beach, Atkins, all those things are complete junk if your long-term goal is to be healthy. Yes, they all work to some degree in the short term, but in the long run they are complete junk.
Erik_K
New
Will,
I'd imagine gaining/losing weight will change things in your swing. In my case, it only helped. I gained way more flexibility and stability in the lower body.
Regardless of how big you are, you still need to swing in balance. Don't 'add' muscular force to the swing; let the physics do the work. I think training your core and legs will do wonders for just about every golfer out there.
I'd imagine gaining/losing weight will change things in your swing. In my case, it only helped. I gained way more flexibility and stability in the lower body.
Regardless of how big you are, you still need to swing in balance. Don't 'add' muscular force to the swing; let the physics do the work. I think training your core and legs will do wonders for just about every golfer out there.
Brian Manzella
Administrator
quote:Originally posted by brianman
When I was in High School I was the starting free saftey on a 5-A football powerhouse outside of New Olreans. I weighed 157 lbs. I ran a 4.9 forty, a 4:57 mile, threw a football 55 yards easily and shot 77 in the state High school Tourney with probably the worst golf swing of all-time (of anyone who could break 80 and couldn't putt a lick).
Even though I was only 16 years old as a senior, I had several chances to play college football, but at 5'9" I knew better. I worked on my golf game and got a scholarship and wound up playing #1 & #2 and was the captain my senior year. I was still in good enough shape to run a 4.87 40-yard dash—ON A CURVE—In tennis shoes—running for fun against the track guys. I weighed about 165.
By the time I was working for Stan Stopa in the mid 80's I had slowly gained weight from college and was about 185, and it was mostly fat. But a couple of big changes were coming. My dad passed away at 59 from a heart attack, and I got divorced. So I went to work (out). And a started a diet called "Eat To Win." I was 90% on that diet for about 5 years.
I lost 35 lbs of fat and played basketball 5 days a week, football 2 days a week, walked at least 100 golf holes a week, and did a little dancing three or four nights a week. Boy was I in shape. Weighed 150 soak and wet.
By 1995 (I think that was the year), I had gained some weight back, but was still in A+ condition. This was the year I ran up and down a mountain outside of Salinas, California to win a bet with Mike Finney and Tom Bartlett (They videoed it, and the viewing of which WAS the entertainment at Tom Bartlett's wedding a few years back. The running wasn't anywhere near as funny as the commentary. Trust me). I weighed about 175
45 days before my wedding in 2003, I weighed 205, no shape to take 700 pictures. A great freind of mine, Terry Meiners, ran me everyday and I dieted and walked down the aisle at 179.
At the first Golfing Machine Summit last year in Alabama, I weighed in at about 225! Yikes!
Somehow, I lost a couple of lbs before I started this new program, two weeks ago today. I weighed 220.
I am back on "Eat to Win" albiet the "Eat to Win 1st Century edition," and in two weeks I now weigh right at 210.
This is with ZERO excercise. I torm my achilles tendon in June and really it just got to where I can play some ball again.
So, my Louisville season starts in two weeks and I will have access to a great gym and basketball everywhere. I hope to be under 200 by May 1.
If I work hard on it all summer, I think sub-175 is attainable.
I'd like to wear some 34 inch pants to the Two Summits (TGM & PGA) IN December, and weigh in on my 45th birthday on December 11th at 165!
Can I do it?
I will keep you all up to date.
On March 10th, I weighed 221.
March 24th 210
Today, Friday, April 21st, 2006, Brian Manzella weighs in at....198 lbs.
(one goal was to be 199 by May 6th, KY DERBY day).
Done.
Next up....189 by Family Vacation in late July—then 185 by Sept. 1—then....
175 by November 1.
169! by TGM Summit in early December.
164.5 by December 11th (My Birthday).
Can I do it???
[8D]- Status