Best Body Build For Great Golf?

[kevin.chan]

Originally Posted by Shorty

Craig Stadler has a shit body for golf but was a great player.

Villegas has a perfect body for golf but has a horrible move that meant he would never be consistent.

Steven Allen is smallish but hits it a mile.

Adam Scott, Tiger and Rory have great physiques and are fair players on occasion.

There are several morbidly obese players like Colt Knost on tour who are pretty good.

It's more about the swing than the physique.

Or...making do with what you have. Or making do with what you have created (like an obese frame) but refuse to change.

Tom Weiskopf would probably be the idel physique, all things being considered.

Rory does hit the gym..look at his shoulder , tricep & bicep size ..that is a result of weight training .

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by kevin.chan

Rory does hit the gym..look at his shoulder , tricep & bicep size ..that is a result of weight training .

He's got a great ass, too.

Seriously, he's 5'9" and 160lb. He doesn't have big muscles. He got in better shape after the Masters, sure, because he wasn't really that fit in the early years. He looks muscular because he's a bit older; you naturally bulk up in your 20s, and lost the puppy fat. Any lifting he did to work on his arms was the result of his girlfriend. Not to say he didn't tone up the upper body, but he didn't set out to get big. He did neither powerlifting nor bodybuilding, which people in this thread have claimed to benefit golfers.

If Graeme Mcdowell lost 10 pounds, they'd be about the same build. Woods, on the other hand, who we consider a fairly muscular guy, is only 3 inches taller but almost 30 pounds heavier.

[x129]

Care to give any evidence that he is doing arm work for his girlfriend? I have heard Rory talk about it work. It sounds like the standard weight lifiting, flexibility, and plyo workouts. He lost about 10lbs of fat and replaced it with muscle.  Obviously a golfer shouldn't set out to get big. They set out to get more powerful which isn't the same thing. Rory could be doing a lot of powerlifting or weight lifting. I doubt he does bodybuilding since that is all about building mass not strength or power.

Comparing peoples weights is useless as we all have different builds.  At the same height, guys can have legs that are 2" different in length and shoulder width (the bone) of a couple inches also. All that stuff adds up to quite a bit of weight. Not to mention body fat percentages

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

He's got a great ass, too.

Seriously, he's 5'9" and 160lb. He doesn't have big muscles. He got in better shape after the Masters, sure, because he wasn't really that fit in the early years. He looks muscular because he's a bit older; you naturally bulk up in your 20s, and lost the puppy fat. Any lifting he did to work on his arms was the result of his girlfriend. Not to say he didn't tone up the upper body, but he didn't set out to get big. He did neither powerlifting nor bodybuilding, which people in this thread have claimed to benefit golfers.

If Graeme Mcdowell lost 10 pounds, they'd be about the same build. Woods, on the other hand, who we consider a fairly muscular guy, is only 3 inches taller but almost 30 pounds heavier.

[kevin.chan]

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

He's got a great ass, too.

Seriously, he's 5'9" and 160lb. He doesn't have big muscles. He got in better shape after the Masters, sure, because he wasn't really that fit in the early years. He looks muscular because he's a bit older; you naturally bulk up in your 20s, and lost the puppy fat. Any lifting he did to work on his arms was the result of his girlfriend. Not to say he didn't tone up the upper body, but he didn't set out to get big. He did neither powerlifting nor bodybuilding, which people in this thread have claimed to benefit golfers.

If Graeme Mcdowell lost 10 pounds, they'd be about the same build. Woods, on the other hand, who we consider a fairly muscular guy, is only 3 inches taller but almost 30 pounds heavier.

checkout rory's site

rorymcilroy.com

Most athlete today ( golfers included ) hit the gym to improve their fitness ( not body building ).

I myself benefited from workout in gym ( cardio & weight to improve fitness  ) , and i gained like 20 yards more on my drive and play more consistant through out the 18 holes or 36 holes.

I lost 12 pounds of body fat and gain 2 pounds of muscle .  I  look smaller because the body fat will take our 6x the space of muscle given the same weight. My body fat was 20% and now 11% .

If the gym workout does not work out , then the TPI folks ( Titleist Performance Centre ) will be out of business long time ago.

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by kevin.chan

checkout rory's site

rorymcilroy.com

Most athlete today ( golfers included ) hit the gym to improve their fitness ( not body building ).

I myself benefited from workout in gym ( cardio & weight to improve fitness  ) , and i gained like 20 yards more on my drive and play more consistant through out the 18 holes or 36 holes.

I lost 12 pounds of body fat and gain 2 pounds of muscle .  I  look smaller because the body fat will take our 6x the space of muscle given the same weight. My body fat was 20% and now 11% .

If the gym workout does not work out , then the TPI folks ( Titleist Performance Centre ) will be out of business long time ago.

You went from couch potato to athlete in terms of body fat. 2 pounds of muscle is nothing on its own, I've eaten sandwiches with that much meat. Losing the dead weight was likely the contributing factor in your improvement, as well as possibly swing changes and better endurance and mindset. I absolutely agree that golfers should strive for fitness, and even that weight lifting can be a good part of a fitness routine. But lifting is pretty low on the list, behind flexibility and cardio training, and it's not necessary for great golf. Strictly speaking, being fat doesn't stop you from playing well, but it makes the round and the weekend harder to get through.

[kevin.chan]

I agreed that being fat will not stop us from playing well as long as we have the flexibility and strength.

As age is catching up, it will affect you some way .

[mdl]

Agreed that as a professional athlete, lifting weights with the right approach for your sport is definitely a win.  You'll notice that as fitness and nutrition (well, plus PEDs) have developed, modern athletes across sports are incredibly stronger, faster, more powerful, and more massive than they were historically, but that's much less true in golf.  There's only a handful or two of top guys who you would describe as cut like dedicated weight lifters with low body fat, and none of them have gotten all massive like so many athletes in the all other major sports (not counting soccer as a major sport in the U.S.).

That's why I advocate sticking to body weight exercise these days.  Really my only sport now is golf, where you want lean strength with flexibility, and I'd argue that's easier to achieve as an amateur athlete with a job and family outside the weight room.  The sort of standard American ex-high school/college athlete exercise routine consisting of weight lifting, cardio, and some pro forma warm up or cool down stretching (a 10-20 minute cool down stretch is just pro forma ), as practiced by a lot of my friends from my college baseball team for example, doesn't actually produce great results in all around useable strength, body control, stabilization, or flexibility.

An example of what I mean.  My wife and I do some recreational partner acrobatics.  One session at our school this new guy joined the partner class.  We were training for hand-to-foot, which is when the flyer (my wife) stands on the base's (my) hands as I'm standing with my arms straight above my head.  A practice and conditioning exercise is to have the flyer stand on the base's hands while he lies on his back and essentially bench presses the flyer x times.  The new guy was ripped, clearly a very dedicated lifter.  I would do sets of 5 presses with my wife standing on my hands.  The new guy couldn't do it once on his own, and even with a spot keeping my wife in balance he could only do it once, wobbling all over the place.  I know from all the time I spent in the weight room in college and from looking at him and seeing some of the other stuff he could do that his max bench was, minimum, double my wife's weight, probably closer to 2.5x.  But he'd only built strength in his big muscles.  Even lifting with dumbbells doesn't build core and stabilization muscles anything like body weight work.  And he was super stiff everywhere to boot.  From what I've seen those are pretty typical results for adults whose exercise consists entirely of weight lifting, cardio, and some reluctant stretching.

This is not to say that all amateur adults who lift weights fall into that trap!  I just think it's easier (and more fun IMO) to achieve the kind of fitness goals needed for an amateur golfer and just general health if you avoid the weight room.  If you're not at risk for injury and not too proud to do much less with proper form, of course something like CrossFit can achieve those goals, though for golf I'd advocate stretching more than most CrossFitters seem to.

[x129]

Your example is an example of the law of specificality of training.  When you try to do things that you haven't trained for, you tend to suck no matter what type of shape your in.  If they guy sticks around for a couple of weeks, he should improve faster than the guy with strength limitations (well assuming his flexibility doesn't become the limiting factor. That has nothing to do with weight lifting. You can lift weights and be flexible and you can not lift weights and be tight). The previous  strength gives him a base but he needs to develop the neruological patterns to be able to use it.

There really is no such thing as a weight lifter as the range of people that life is too big. A body builder looking to pack on 60lbs of muscle is a weight lifter. So is a long distance runner looking to gain 0lbs of muscle but who is hitting the gym to help generate power in the legs. Personally I am a big fan of anything you can do at home. I don't have any theorical problems with going to the gym but as a practical matter it costs me 30 mins (drive there and back) of time. I would rather spend that time working out. It limits my exercises (I am not going to try heavy squats at home for example) but there is enough you can do with bodyweight and moderate weigths to stay in decent golf shape.

The other trap that people fall into is the one of "a little is good, so more must be better". Just because adding 10lbs of muscle helps your game doesn't mean that adding 30 will. Working out for an hour at the gym 2x week is enough for most amateur golfers to get good results.  When you crank it up to the point your hitting the gym for an hour a day, that is because you enjoy the gym or have a heck of a lot more free time than most adult golfers....

Originally Posted by mdl

Agreed that as a professional athlete, lifting weights with the right approach for your sport is definitely a win.  You'll notice that as fitness and nutrition (well, plus PEDs) have developed, modern athletes across sports are incredibly stronger, faster, more powerful, and more massive than they were historically, but that's much less true in golf.  There's only a handful or two of top guys who you would describe as cut like dedicated weight lifters with low body fat, and none of them have gotten all massive like so many athletes in the all other major sports (not counting soccer as a major sport in the U.S.).

That's why I advocate sticking to body weight exercise these days.  Really my only sport now is golf, where you want lean strength with flexibility, and I'd argue that's easier to achieve as an amateur athlete with a job and family outside the weight room.  The sort of standard American ex-high school/college athlete exercise routine consisting of weight lifting, cardio, and some pro forma warm up or cool down stretching (a 10-20 minute cool down stretch is just pro forma), as practiced by a lot of my friends from my college baseball team for example, doesn't actually produce great results in all around useable strength, body control, stabilization, or flexibility.

An example of what I mean.  My wife and I do some recreational partner acrobatics.  One session at our school this new guy joined the partner class.  We were training for hand-to-foot, which is when the flyer (my wife) stands on the base's (my) hands as I'm standing with my arms straight above my head.  A practice and conditioning exercise is to have the flyer stand on the base's hands while he lies on his back and essentially bench presses the flyer x times.  The new guy was ripped, clearly a very dedicated lifter.  I would do sets of 5 presses with my wife standing on my hands.  The new guy couldn't do it once on his own, and even with a spot keeping my wife in balance he could only do it once, wobbling all over the place.  I know from all the time I spent in the weight room in college and from looking at him and seeing some of the other stuff he could do that his max bench was, minimum, double my wife's weight, probably closer to 2.5x.  But he'd only built strength in his big muscles.  Even lifting with dumbbells doesn't build core and stabilization muscles anything like body weight work.  And he was super stiff everywhere to boot.  From what I've seen those are pretty typical results for adults whose exercise consists entirely of weight lifting, cardio, and some reluctant stretching.

This is not to say that all amateur adults who lift weights fall into that trap!  I just think it's easier (and more fun IMO) to achieve the kind of fitness goals needed for an amateur golfer and just general health if you avoid the weight room.  If you're not at risk for injury and not too proud to do much less with proper form, of course something like CrossFit can achieve those goals, though for golf I'd advocate stretching more than most CrossFitters seem to.

[ranchopedro]

For sure the DickieDo dominates

[tmf9]

I've personally been told I have a great build for golf I'm 6'4 205 pounds.  I bench 295 max and can can squat 315 (deep squats where my butt is almost touching the ground not that half rep crap) I'd say the best way to hit the golf ball further is to be a lean type of strong.  You obviously want to be strong but you want to be flexible as well.  Core strength and leg strength are huge, I really think leg strength is important because it allows you to swing harder and still remain balanced, I really think squats are the single best excercise for golf because it promotes leg strength, lower back strength, and hip flexability, all are important for golf.

[saevel25]

Squats are awesome, i would suggest learning how to do a full squat, its less stress on the knees.

Split squats are great for working out the hip adductors and abductors.

Lats are huge in the golf swing as well, i like mimicing the pull up with the cable machine. I will pull the weight, and really get my lat extended through a full range of motion.

I agree on not wanting to be to bulky, but really Mark McGuire played very good golf while he was juiced on steroids, so really bulking up doesn't inhibit flexibility that much. What matters is being flexible in areas that matter. I guess he was lucky because he's a baseball player, so he has that rotation flexibility. Really the key is to stay mobile in golf related motions. If you squat more, your going to gain flexibility in the muscles your working out. So just being active is important.

What i do is, swing the golf club a few times every day, indoors. Just keeping my muscles remembering what they need to do. Usually if i don't i end up loosing 75% of my mobility, it takes me about a round of golf to get it back, its annoying.

[tmf9]

Originally Posted by saevel25

Squats are awesome, i would suggest learning how to do a full squat, its less stress on the knees.

Split squats are great for working out the hip adductors and abductors.

Lats are huge in the golf swing as well, i like mimicing the pull up with the cable machine. I will pull the weight, and really get my lat extended through a full range of motion.

I agree on not wanting to be to bulky, but really Mark McGuire played very good golf while he was juiced on steroids, so really bulking up doesn't inhibit flexibility that much. What matters is being flexible in areas that matter. I guess he was lucky because he's a baseball player, so he has that rotation flexibility. Really the key is to stay mobile in golf related motions. If you squat more, your going to gain flexibility in the muscles your working out. So just being active is important.

What i do is, swing the golf club a few times every day, indoors. Just keeping my muscles remembering what they need to do. Usually if i don't i end up loosing 75% of my mobility, it takes me about a round of golf to get it back, its annoying.

It's funny how many people do half squats because they think it's less stressful on the knee.

[DKeester19]

Everyone says tone is the best build. I'm 15 going on 16 in a few weeks, and I'm a very skilled golfer. I've been playing since i could swing a club. I played top varsity as a freshman and now i will be playing top again. I picked up lifting about 5 months ago and i have gained 12 pounds of muscle. I lowered my score like crazy. I shoot around 36 to 42 on average. I drive the golf ball off the tee around 260-300 every time. My farthest drive i have gotten is now 345 (this year with lifting). I am not the most tone kid out there, i'm not that toned at all, and i play fantastic. I was told by PGA pro Joe Butler that i have a chance at my dream of being professional. If you want to bulk go for it just make sure you have a good swing, and keep up with flexibility. And if your like me and swing really hard, get heavy clubs they help significantly. And if PGA is your dream, keep chasing maybe it will come true.

[Tepi]

Been lurking this guys site for ~7 years, bought one of his books ''Infinity Intensity'' which I higly suggest to anyone in any sport. He is training boxers for living and there's alot of good stuff both in his books and website. It helped me tremendously in past and bet it will help at golf.

[MS256]

I have a theory on a golfing body build, with nothing to back it up except personal observation.

Seems like people with a longer torso and longer arms in relation to the length of their legs, or at least in the "normal" range, do better in golf (with some exceptions).

Same with swimmers and the opposite for runners.

[muller7]

as a general rule if you want gain muscle, you have to do 6-14 repetitions, however if your goal is improve in golf you should focus on muscle speed meaning you should do 20 repetitions

consider also switching
3 months you do 6-14 repetitions, next 3 months you do 20 repetitions

[saevel25]

There is a high level of debate on the required number of reps, the intensity of the reps, the speed of the reps. Also there is the human factor to take in. Someone might be more capable of putting on one muscle fiber than the other.

I use to know the information, back when I was developing my work out routines. I just remember now that there was a ton of different opinions on the subject.

[Tepi]

as a general rule if you want gain muscle, you have to do 6-14 repetitions, however if your goal is improve in golf you should focus on muscle speed meaning you should do 20 repetitions

consider also switching

3 months you do 6-14 repetitions, next 3 months you do 20 repetitions

20 reps for muscle speed? You probably can gain something out of it, if you do those reps with low weight and very explosively, I just don't see the point. In my opinion 20 reps with weight that challenge you is just gonna fatigue your muscles and increase your endurance. Surely there is some use for endurance, but it's not like you are gonna hit 20 tee shots in row, even if you are as bad as me. Why wouldn't you work on 1-5 reps area?

Ever seen olympic lifters train? During army time there was one olympic lifter in same room, he was fast and explosive as hell and surely didn't work over 5 rep range.

There is a high level of debate on the required number of reps, the intensity of the reps, the speed of the reps. Also there is the human factor to take in. Someone might be more capable of putting on one muscle fiber than the other.

I use to know the information, back when I was developing my work out routines. I just remember now that there was a ton of different opinions on the subject.

Hits the nail in the head imo. Especially that genetic part, but no point in complaining about bad genes, just have to make most out of cards life dealt us.

Bit offtopic, but just couple hours ago had funny incident. Was drinking protein shake after hitting golf balls for an hour and one older guy came over to ask ''You need a shake after hitting couple balls huh? You don't need muscle to hit golf balls.'' first I thought about thanking him for providing me such a valuable information but I just decided to say ''Some muscle won't hurt''

Our area is full of people like this, if I tell them I'm hitting gym 4 times a week to get more distance, first they look at me like I'm insane and then they are gonna tell the excact same thing as that older guy. I don't know why that is, are they just too lazy to workout and want to push you down or is there some part in their brain that shows a picture of Ronnie Coleman as soon as word gym is mentioned.

And before someone starts to whine about that shake. Yes I drink them to make sure I put enough protein and calories in my system to gain something out of training, eating evenly throughout day is important.