Fitness & Strength Training

Allumni

Hi,

Just wondering if any of you do fitness & strength training as part of your golf training? I've been looking at Greg Norman's site http://www.shark.com/sharkwatch/fitness/fitness17.php where he says that

"After eight weeks of strength training, the golfers in these studies made significant improvements in their driving power, as indicated by faster club head speeds."
The table in question shows for both strength & fitness training that there was, on average, a gain of 5.2mph...I think this translates into an extra 13 yards for a driver (at 1mph - 2.5 yds).

Allumni

mike12

Not sure strength is that relevant you see a lot of small guys booming it out there. Pilates I suppose is core strength and flexibility and it all I think any golfer needs well worth doing. Technique will gain way more yards than strength any day. 100 MPH with a smash of 1.5 goes further than 110MPH with a smash factor of 1.35 but way easier to improve the 1.35 than get from 100 to 110.
Mike

alxmorgan

mike12 wrote: »

Not sure strength is that relevant you see a lot of small guys booming it out there. Pilates I suppose is core strength and flexibility and it all I think any golfer needs well worth doing. Technique will gain way more yards than strength any day. 100 MPH with a smash of 1.5 goes further than 110MPH with a smash factor of 1.35 but way easier to improve the 1.35 than get from 100 to 110.
Mike

Out of interest Mike what is the approach to get from 1.35 to 1.5 ?
Cut down driver for example ?

Allumni

mike12 wrote: »

Not sure strength is that relevant you see a lot of small guys booming it out there. Pilates I suppose is core strength and flexibility and it all I think any golfer needs well worth doing. Technique will gain way more yards than strength any day. 100 MPH with a smash of 1.5 goes further than 110MPH with a smash factor of 1.35 but way easier to improve the 1.35 than get from 100 to 110.
Mike

Hi Mike,
I understand what you're saying and it makes sense. I think though, the "study" found that clubhead speed increased for all the golfers...those with and without proper technique, so it's not an either/or scenario...those with good technique would benefit too (perhaps benefit by more)?

mike12

alxmorgan wrote: »

Out of interest Mike what is the approach to get from 1.35 to 1.5 ?
Cut down driver for example ?

Lessons.
To get the max out of the driver you have to hit it out of the sweet spot. Even at the range clean the club face after every shot a range ball will often leave a mark on the face it will surprise you how many miss the sweet spot.

Allumni,
Not many of us have the time to spend 8 weeks in the Gym for maybe a small gain; I played Rugby so I would be strong enough anyhow. I just think Flexibility would be a better use of your time. Rory had put on a lot of muscle but is not hitting it any further but it will help him prevent injury in the future.

Mike

GreeBo

mike12 wrote: »

Lessons.
To get the max out of the driver you have to hit it out of the sweet spot. Even at the range clean the club face after every shot a range ball will often leave a mark on the face it will surprise you how many miss the sweet spot.

All my practice balls have a permanent marker tag on them for this exact reason. Excellent feedback.

mike12 wrote: »

Allumni,
Not many of us have the time to spend 8 weeks in the Gym for maybe a small gain; I played Rugby so I would be strong enough anyhow. I just think Flexibility would be a better use of your time. Rory had put on a lot of muscle but is not hitting it any further but it will help him prevent injury in the future.

Mike

"Rugby strength" probably doesnt equate to golf strength though, there are specific requirements to swing faster.
WHIP_IT has a fitness blog on here detailing what he does which is worth a read.


P.s. your colours are illegible on anyone with the latest boards style!

TheDoc

Last year was the first time I joined a gym with a high level focus on loosing weight, but a goal to also build upper body strength attested to golf. Definitely had some results in terms of increased power, and I'm able to slow down my tempo but still have the same distance.

However I dumped the gym as I didnt enjoy it and found it too expensive. You can do golf specific strength building with some relatively cheap equipment you can get in Argos. In fact, you can simply do it with dumbells.

Swimming is a good method as well, as that builds good power in the shoulders and is obviously more enjoyable then pumping bars

I guess doing it properly takes dedication and commitment, to not just a workout but also dieting properly. I simply didn't value the change in lifestyle considering I'm an amateur golfer. So I keep up the strength building, but it's probably doing me no use since I eat like an arsehole

mike12

GreeBo wrote: »

All my practice balls have a permanent marker tag on them for this exact reason. Excellent feedback.



"Rugby strength" probably doesnt equate to golf strength though, there are specific requirements to swing faster.
WHIP_IT has a fitness blog on here detailing what he does which is worth a read.


P.s. your colours are illegible on anyone with the latest boards style!

Rugby training has a huge amount of core and flexibility built in so it does help. Not sure what is happening with the colours.

Mike

Allumni

mike12 wrote: »

Not sure strength is that relevant you see a lot of small guys booming it out there. Pilates I suppose is core strength and flexibility and it all I think any golfer needs well worth doing. Technique will gain way more yards than strength any day. 100 MPH with a smash of 1.5 goes further than 110MPH with a smash factor of 1.35 but way easier to improve the 1.35 than get from 100 to 110.
Mike

I agree with this, but technique wasn't addressed in the Sharks article....I would take from this that in the group tested there were golfers with good and bad techniques and the average was still a gain. Those with good technique probably gained even more distance.

ShivasIrons

Power is strength and speed combined. So increasing strength will increase power as well leading to longer drives. Strength training is good for golf.

What are the elements of golf fitness; mobility, stability, balance, power - strength+speed, cardio vascular endurance and muscular endurance are important elements.

A golfer needs the correct mobility/stability pattern in the body first, then strength is added followed by speed. Cardio can be worked on at any stage, balance is normally an element of stability training and muscular endurance is an element of strength training.

What should a golfer be working on? Don't work on strength without having good functional movement i.e. flexible in the right places and stable in the right places (hips should be mobile, low back should be stable), if you start adding strength to a dysfunctional movement there is a very strong chance of injury.

Where does a golfer start? Nobody here can give anybody any advice without seeing that golfer, any advice given is just guesswork. So find a golf fitness expert, go through a screening with them, they can find physical issues, if any, link them to the golf swing and suggest where improvements can be made.

A good place to find an expert is the mytpi.com website.

http://www.mytpi.com/experts

5 minutes a day working on the right things is of far more benefit than spending an hour working on the wrong things.

Allumni

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Power is strength and speed combined. So increasing strength will increase power as well leading to longer drives. Strength training is good for golf.

What are the elements of golf fitness; mobility, stability, balance, power - strength+speed, cardio vascular endurance and muscular endurance are important elements.

A golfer needs the correct mobility/stability pattern in the body first, then strength is added followed by speed. Cardio can be worked on at any stage, balance is normally an element of stability training and muscular endurance is an element of strength training.

What should a golfer be working on? Don't work on strength without having good functional movement i.e. flexible in the right places and stable in the right places (hips should be mobile, low back should be stable), if you start adding strength to a dysfunctional movement there is a very strong chance of injury.

Where does a golfer start? Nobody here can give anybody any advice without seeing that golfer, any advice given is just guesswork. So find a golf fitness expert, go through a screening with them, they can find physical issues, if any, link them to the golf swing and suggest where improvements can be made.

A good place to find an expert is the mytpi.com website.

http://www.mytpi.com/experts

5 minutes a day working on the right things is of far more benefit than spending an hour working on the wrong things.

Great post.