Brian Gay's X-Factor Golf Workout
 

As seen in Golf Fitness Magazine.

good article but jazzed up for no apparant reason. resistant bands are fine but why not dumbells? why do overall exercises instead of lower body vs upper body?

we all agree that golf is a series of specific movements harmonised into a complete total movement but it causes imbalances which have to be addressed. the reason for using dumbells rather than a barbell is that a dumbell will address imbalances. rather than doing squats do single legged squats as you will identify imbalances straight away.

** last but not least- plyrometrics!!!! stay a mile away from theses execises for a golfer. these exercises are really advanced and were used heavily by russian in track and field and advanced to other sports. a golfer is looking for trouble doing such as plyrometrics due to the fact that the stresses involved especially on the knee and especially achilles tendons just aint worth it. plyrometrics are all about ground contact and explosiveness which is more applied to downtime sports such as sprinting/powerlifting or any jumping sport ie- basketball etc etc

Today's Workout
 

I wish I had more to offer in this area, but I don't. Frankly, I think I lost three pounds just reading the article. I know I was short of breath.

:hang:

Now, where's the sugar and half-and-half for my PM Starbucks latte?

:3gears:

One More Bell To Answer . . . Or Not
 

Thanks for your post, x-man.

Not recommending any exercise regimen -- least of all my own :laughing9 -- but I gotta admit that this idea appeals to me.

At least as an 'addition to' exercise (as opposed to 'instead of').

:salut:

trust me lynn the plyrometrics are a no no and please advise brian on avoiding them. they are pointless for a golfer and can be disasterious. also free weights are better as you can see you progress better with the amount of weight you can handle compared to bands ! there is a place with bands but i honestly do not think this is the place and i have concrete evidense.

carl lewis never touched weights until he was around 35 but he got his stimulous from plyrometrics. he was a sprinter and a jumper and plyros are specifically designed for such events.

thanks for responses lynn but i really find strenght coaches going way OTT. brian would get better results from yoga compared to bands :)

Golf is explosive
 

I am not a trainer but have worked out since college. The best trainer I ever had incorporated plyometrics into my workout. In fact, many trainers I have spoken with suggest a golfer should work out like a sprinter, not a distance runner, becuase of the explosiveness of the sport.

Yoga is wonderful but it will not develop explosive power.

you must understand 1 thing. sprinters want to minimize downtime but create as much power off the ground hence plyrometrics will train and address this action. olympic lifts would be far more superior and less taxing in corporation to plyros for a golferthe problem i have with introducing plyros into golf is that it aint sports specific. people will always try and intertwine this sport with this sport but at the end of the day there are more safe and productive actions that canbe used and plyros are not the way

lastly as a former sprinter myself with a pb of 10.61 at 18, plyros were used but they have there place in sprinting due to the action i have described. yoga woudl be more range of motion which is crucial in golf and would enhance a players golf-life and is safe just as weight training if done properly.

lastly again- sprinting is based on stride lenght,stride frequency and anorobic endurance BUT sprinters have high amounts of fast twitch fibres. you can convert slow twitch to fast but for the effort involved whats the point? you are better addressing mechanics as this will progress an athlete alot faster than trying to convert fibres.


** also i must point out- do you guys realise the amount of force you must apply to the ground to propell yourself back up! and do not forget the pressures that are going up fom your feet, shins,knees,hips and spine when doing plyros. you fall or make a mistake and your out for weeks if not months so why take a risk! just because sprinters work at it dosent mean you will have an explosive golf swing

look at lynn......elegant flowing swing. would plyros help a lynn blake 20years younger! maybe but he may develope back problems etc etc etc do you guys see what im saying! in the weight room focus on imbalances and work evenly

Hey Xman.

10.61? Man thats fast.

wasnt fast enough but i had fun and got to train with my idol. learnt alot but got out of the sport due to my reasons.

Of course 9,90 is better and 9,70 even better - just like 72 is better than most of us can achieve on a golf course, but 65, 60 (59) is even better....:confused1
Your 10,61 is like a 18 year old shooting 70/69 or something like that? Very good, but there's always somebody better...

10.6 is impressive!

I wonder what Usain B could have done with a big stick and a decent golf stroke....

sorry to say this guys but usian is filthy and so is track and feild overall. where you have a sport which involves large amounys of $$ you will always get cheating. its natural! usian bolt was running 10flat 3-4 years ago and a year later he went from 10flat to 9.7 then to 9.5 hhmmmmm nearly a half a secong improvement! carl lewis went from 9.9 in 84 to 9.86 in 91 tokyo- nearly 15years for a .15 improvement. also im not saying carl was clean but his improvements justified themselves. these guys are pushing 12/13 metres per second at top speed which is crazy but i know of alot of stories which would really make you open your eyes and at the end of the day it just aint worth it! money is one thing but your health is #1

in golf im sure you will get guys pushing the boundaries in terms of enhancers and i have no doubt that its happening.

Hey x-man, a friend over the summer showed me one legged squats, they are very difficult but I have been doing them all the way to the ground as well as some boxing exercises that I noticed really seem to give stability to everything, just doing several jabs, straight rights and a few uppercuts will wake up muscles all over your back you had no idea were there. And the one legged squats seriously improve balance and work your legs to the max. Plus one for the one legged squats. Boxing is very similar to golf because with the straight right you use serious pivot around a stationary post and a balanced body to deliver the extending right arm (#1 accumulator) you will guaranteed increase turning speed by doing hundreds of correctly performed straight rights, amp them up by putting small weights in your fists. I also agree bands and resistance training are actually very risky for golf it seems to put tons of strain on the muscles and golfers especially must be very careful not to strain the rotator cuff muscles and the knee and back muscles.

Whip, i speak from experience and its amazing when you try anything like a 1 legged squat- you realise very quick what imbalances you have. dont use a barbell unless your doing lunges or step ups into a bench etc. for upper body exercises use dumbells and just like the lower body you can address imbalances immediatley.

strenght trainers nowdays use the lastest fads when they are useless.....strenght training hasnt progressed in terms of structure but has so due to guys trying to hype it up

Hi Lynn,

In response to golf specific exercises, what do you think of Mr Bertholy's deltoid lifts? He said that he knew of practitioners gaining up to 30 yards...

Size Matters
 

The left hand and its fingers need to be strong enough to control the club, especially during the Loading from the Top and at Impact. However, in Pivot Strokes, the left arm is essentially inert and is transported to Release by the Pivot. It is being pulled -- transported -- by the Pivot (Hogan's "Free ride" in Five Lessons). It is not pulling itself.

Hence, in my opinion, Mr. Bertholy's emphasis on the bent-over left arm deltoid raises are 'overkill'. (As I recall, he claimed to have the Guinness World record on reps with his iron bar.) No matter how many you do, the left arm will always remain considerably smaller than either of the legs.

:salut:

Simply Practicing your golf swing at various stages and monitoring all the components, will build stabilizing muscles in your back. It seems to me that the back of this machine should be strong enough to handle the outward force instead of being thrown around by it. So the machine should be stabilized, feet bolted to the ground, stationary post and strong stabilizing leg and back muscles on the back of the machine. When practicing always practice 'proud posture' and your back muscles will build swing after swing. Soon proud posture will be automatic as the muscles have built up enough in the upper and lower back that the spine is pulled back straight enough without consciously doing it.

+1 to lynn's comments, the true swing does not use muscular effort, getting stronger can help to control the motion better but the speed and thrust are not created by muscular effort and so one should not concern himself with building arm muscle for power in a true swing. In fact be very careful of any amount of stress being put on the deltoids and rotator cuffs, the tour is filled with guys who've gone through career stalling shoulder surgeries.

My friend who is a true hitter and has tremendous distance, attributes all his power to this one exercise he has done thousands of times. It's a straight right arm extension with a cable pulley machine, with a turning body like the straight right in boxing only with both feet shoulder width apart and facing forward this builds his tricep muscles and stabilizing right shoulder muscles while stabilizing the core as well.