Golfers and Strength Training — 3 of the Biggest Myths
You’ve only got to watch a few hours of PGA Tour golf to hear the analysts commenting on the gym regime of a few of the players at the top of the leaderboard.
Often-times, it’s not particularly positive comments.
- They’ll blame strength training on some injury a player has suffered…
- They’ll talk about a player possibly getting ‘too muscular’ and losing flexibility…
- And they may even hold up some of the past generations as being the epitome of how a golfer should train, 1000’s of crunches and lots of stretching.
As with most things, the people commentating are ‘experts’ in their field (golf), but completely ill-informed when it comes to resistance training for sport.
So with that being the case, here are my 3 ‘favourite’ myths around golf and strength training…
MYTH 1- HEAVY STRENGTH TRAINING WILL LEAD TO INJURIES
The golfer commonly held up as being an example of this is, of course, the GOAT….T-dubs.
However, what many neglect to talk about, is the fact that when it came to Tiger Woods, the danger was in the dosage of everything he did!
Even in his own words, he states that in his early 20’s “his daily routine consisted of waking up for a four-mile jog, before going to the gym to lift weights, followed by two to three hours of range practice, play some holes, return to work on his short game, run another four miles and then play basketball or tennis if the option was there.”
Alongside that, he was obsessed with the Navy Seals and used to try and carry out training tests that they were subjected to, ALONGSIDE being the number 1 golfer in the world.
His problem wasn’t too much gym work, it was too much ALL work.
If you’re new to strength training, don’t be put off by the idea that starting to lift some weights will increase your chance of injury.
There is a sweet spot for everyone, and when you’re new to training it’s pretty low, with 2–3 sessions a week you’ll see a huge return on your investment, and you’ll be MORE resilient and LESS susceptible to injury.
MYTH 3 - GAINING MUSCLE WILL DECREASE YOUR FLEXIBILITY
Usually, when a golfer adds a little muscle to their frame, it’s bracketed by the notion that they must be doing a lot of stretching and mobility work to offset this.
And the most uneducated opinion is typically formed from the idea that a golfer will get SOOOO bulky that this will get in the way of their swing.
Ever seen a golfer that big?
Shiiiiit, even most professional bodybuilders aren’t big enough to have actual body tissue get in the way of them swinging a golf club.
Want an example?
Check out Jason Zuback, the former longest driver in the world.
The reality is that lifting weights and getting stronger through whatever your full range of motion is, is the most likely thing to increase your mobility.
Want proof?
How often have you spent stretching the same muscle groups over and over again because they always feel ‘tight?’.
If that sounds familiar, it’s possible your ability to ‘extend’ a muscle (the term ‘flexibility’ is actually a misnomer) is limited by a lack of strength or some other protective tension from your brain.
Weight training is amazing, it’s literally loaded stretching, and has the double whammy effect of finding new ranges and getting stronger in them at the same time!
MYTH 3 - LOTS OF ‘GOLF-SPECIFIC’ BALANCE AND STABILITY TRAINING IS NEEDED FOR GOLFERS
Want to know where this idea came from?
It came from the fact that tour professionals from the past only went to the gym when they were rehabbing an injury.
This meant that their only exposure to resistance training was in the form of extremely low-level work that was given to them by physiotherapists rather than strength and conditioning coaches.
Whilst this may have been necessary to get them back functioning in their injured joints normally on a day-to-day basis, it was limited and non-progressive.
Thus golfers never got to see the benefits that heavy strength work, and explosive lifting, could have to increase their club-head speeds in the same way that athletes in other sports use it to their benefit.
So instead ‘golf-specific training’ simply became lots of stretching, lots of balancing on bosu/swiss balls, and plenty of exercises that just look like a golf swing.
Check out DJ below being told to do this very thing…
Do you know what this exercise is good for?
Getting better at swinging a medicine ball standing on one leg on an unstable surface.
Do you know what it’s not good for?
Basically, anything else, that INCLUDES swinging a golf club, which takes place on 2 feet, on a stable surface, moving a club that weighs a different amount and moves at a different speed.
He’s obviously an incredible golfer, but that’s in spite of stuff like this, not because of it.
I hope knowing this information will help you:
- Work through any reservations you have about starting in the gym
- Not scared of putting some extra muscle on for fear it will affect your game
- Help you take part in some progressive lifting in the gym and not spend your time doing ineffective stuff
If you’re looking for someone to help you get started please head to ironstrength.academy to discuss either my custom-fit training programs or the Iron Strength Academy App.
