P90X paying off!

Been hitting the P90X over the winter. Had a launch monitor session today and swing speed was around 119 on avg and ball speed around 180.... The sweat has been paying off. The end of last year after not being able to play for a year after rotator surgery was swing speed around 108 and ball speed around 160. Im sure its a combination of P90X and my shoulder feeling normal again. In the words of Jack Hamm....... " POW "

Congrats man, it is always nice when hard work pays off!

That's awesome, man. Great job. I'm currently doing my 2nd round of the X right now. I figured why stop when round 1 ended? My first trip to the range this season should be interesting to say the least. I'd be thrilled if I got just half of the results you have gotten from this.

With all the yoga, core work, improved balance, and fast twitch muscle fiber development, P90X should work well with golf- in theory. It remains to be seen what kind of a positive effect it will have on me this year though. If nothing else, it has for sure helped confidence. If I hit a bad shot, I will know its because of bad technique- not because of any kind of flexibility or fitness limitation.

Yeah. I almost fell out when I saw the numbers. Like I said last year I was kind of tenative with my swing because of my shoulder. So I am not convinced that the X is the only reason. My shoulder feels like a million bucks compared to this time last year. I couldn't even swing a club until August. Man was that a long, frustrating summer. Spent a lot of time on the practice greens and playing online golf. (Mouse clicks have a zero chance of reinjury). I feel way better just in general. The X was slow going at first but now I'm feeling pretty well. After that inactive summer I went from 155 lean to 180 chubby. I'm only 5'9". I'm back down to 166 and fairly lean. My body fat is in the mid teens. If the shoulder holds up and the launch monitor numbers are correct... Ill be bombing balls this year.

Yea that's true. You are a 9 handicap after all.

Good luck this season! I'm thinking it might be a good idea to do the standard P90X warmup before rounds of golf or range sessions. Takes five minutes and gets the blood flowing pretty good.

I did the P90X in 2008 and it didn't do my game any good at all, I lost 23 ibs and put on a lot of musce, not sure about numbers etc but basically my golf coach told me that my new muscle was tight and I lost a fair bit of flexibility, although I did the yoga.

I blew my knee out last Feb and I ended up with a torn meniscus and had to have surgery, I tried to get back into it a little at the start of the fall but my knee wasn't having any of it, but I have kept the weight off though.

That's interesting that you lost flexibility despite the Yoga. You must've packed on some serious muscle. When I started, I could probably do about 25% of the Yoga workout. Now I can do about 90% of it, so the progress has been there for me. I guess each person's body reacts different to this program and this thread is a small example of that.

I would like to post my progress for this season maybe a month or two from now on this thread. Still, whatever steps forward or steps back that I end up taking I won't necessarily attribute to P90X. In a lot of ways, my body/muscle memory will have to relearn the swing because I've gone from 27% body fat to 12% and went from 197 lbs. to 175 lbs in the last four months. On a positive note, I know a heck of a lot more about the mechanics of the swing now than I did in May 2008 when I first started beating balls at the range. Starting from scratch could be a good thing for me personally.

A really bummed out 9. I was in the 5's and dropping until the rotator gave out. That 9 was a HARD fought battle. Shot some ugly rounds when I was first swinging again, mid 90's... Etc. But towards the end it all started clicking again and I saved it.... Sort of.

Been doing p90x all winter. I feel so much better and more confident with the club now. We went to myrtle and I could just feel the difference in every club. I was concerned bout the flexibility aspect of it and gaining muscle mass, so I do the X every other day and do the stretching once a week. I hit in a dome everyday so when I feel like I might have gone too far, I take a week off. Its a great thing for younger people to use to stay in shape and easily fits into any schedule. But like you guys said, it goes away come golfing day #1. I'll just do simple exercises then to stay in shape.

and jpalermo- maybe your handicap would drop a bit if you throw a couple of 6000 yard courses in your repertoire. lol Those look like awesome courses man, im jealous.

Absolutely it would, I used to play a few that were in the 5500-6000 yard range but grew tired of playing driver-wedge on 90% of the holes. Playing par 5's that I can reach in 2 with driver-6 iron just didn't seem right. If a par 5 isn't over 525 it seems like cheating to me. I like the challenge of the tougher courses. Courses that don't let me hit driver on every hole and bunkers that are full of soft deep sand. Target courses where you have to be in good spots to score well.

That's golf. Not drive, pitch and putt. Save those courses for the newer guys out playing. I'm trying to challenge myself.

This is a falicy. Muscle mass in no way impedes your flexability nor range of motion. Mark McGuire was hitting his best when he was at his biggest. Look at Tiger. He's jacked, the biggest he's ever been, and he's just as flexible and able to play great golf. Worrying about getting too big is what guys say to justify not hitting the gym. I've personally never seen anyone, man or woman, get too big. Are there giant body builders who you might consider too big? Sure, but chances are those folks are gym rats who are taking massive doses of steriods. Not exactly something the average person needs to worry about. I do concur though about a good weight lifting regimen helping your game. I always play my best when I'm in top shape.

It not a fallacy* (not falicy) at all. I've been a pitcher my entire life and seen some very good baseball players get ruined by football and working out. One of my best buddies growing up was an exceptional player and could throw really hard, worked out for football all year long always because he was All-state, and I was throwing harder than him senior year because he had lost a lot of flexibility and the fast twitch muscles.

Pro's can work out everyday and not get hurt by it cause they hit 2000 plus balls a day. Also, they do low weight and high reps which is what your supposed to do. P90x doesn't exactly help you out in that area. You can do low weight, but the workout is still intense. You're wrong that it doesn't affect your body. Every change in flexibility in your golf swing can lead to having to compensate for that change of range in motion.

I used to work at a personal training facility and the guy that owned the place had 20 years in the biz and golf biomechanics. What he told me was, that if you have the flexibility before you start working out that you will lose some but a supplemental flexibility routine will off set it. I have one buddy who is an all natural body builder and his golf swing is horrible, his range of motion is absolutely impeded by his muscle mass.

He has been working out since he was young. I have a cpl buddies who were all american college football players and their golf swing was horrific. BUT, my really good bud who is a head pro, works out like a mad man and it doesn't affect his swing because he had the flexibilty and range of motion BEFORE he started getting bigger.

So I guess in a sense you are both correct.

My local golf pro told me that Johnny Miller had a problem with building muscle towards the end of his career, he spent most of the off season one year chopping down trees on his estate, swinging an axe for a couple of months, when he got back into training etc for the start of the new season he was in a right mess and it took i\him a while to get his swing back.

That makes 100% sense. I don't see how it has to do with building muscle tho.... The repeated act of swinging an axe to chop down trees will change your muscle memory. Swinging an axe is like swinging a baseball bat. There are a lot of people who can rock a baseball but can swing a golf club. I played both but I played way more golf than baseball. I couldn't hit a g darn thing in baseball other than the low heaters, reason being that my muscle memory was geared to my golf swing.

So J Millers swing didn't get thrown off because of the fact that he added a little bit more strength, his muscles memorized a new "swing"

Having a lot of muscle can certainly make it harder to be flexible, but it doesnt straight out prevent it in anyway. There are, of course, extremes. If you are big like a body building competitor, you probably wont ever be as flexible as a "normal" sized person no matter how hard you work at it.....but muscle mass doesnt inherantly impede flexability. Just look at Tony Horton in the P90X workouts. That dud is JACKED.....but watch him during the yoga workouts, he is extremely flexible as well, because he works at it. Because of the mechanics of the golf swing, it is an undeniable fact that big muscles can definitely get in the way of a proper swing.....not because of lack of flexibility, but because of sheer size alone.

Well, I had my first range session of the year yesterday. It was really the first time I got to hit balls pain free in almost a year, so that was obviously an amazing feeling.

Golf wise though, I was all over the map and did not hit it well. With a year layoff under my belt, I just had so many things going on my head that I wanted to work on, and that obviously is a recipe for disaster. Nothing felt natural yesterday- my muscles literally felt like they were learning golf for the first time. In a lot of ways, that's a good thing. And it's not very surprising. My body is completely different than it was last year, and frankly I've never been in this good of a shape before.

Still, it's pretty clear that I'm going to have to start working on "golf" to get better at golf. There's no question that I am stronger and more flexible than I have ever been- but my mechanics and fundamentals are a mess and I'm just going to have to go back to basics.

I'm going to be implementing many aspects of Stack and Tilt this year- and I will be self-taught (gasp). I'm looking into lessons in my area so I'll let everyone know how that goes. Over the next month though, I'm going to work on the basics on my own. I'm going to do my best to make sure the things I practice are the correct things. I know this will be difficult, but I'm willing to get worse before I get better. I frankly don't give a crap if I'm the guy two stalls down from you who is shanking every ball trying to get something right. I'm not afraid to look bad out on the range.

Now going to the course? That's a long ways away at this juncture!

PS- I did notice that on the shots I made good contact with flew farther than they had in the past. A good sign.

I used to think that when I wasnt working out, I golfed better and felt more "loose"
last summer i was in the best shape of my life and had the best year of golf since high school
had a couple under par rounds and got to a decent index

i have recenlty injured my lower back and and training differently now
i do 4 sets, 10-12 reps (low weight) and 4 workouts per muscle group and train 2 muscle groups per day - 4 days a week
start w 5 mins on the tready., weight training (as above), then 15 mins. on the tready, then 10-15 on the spin bike to cool down
i fought fatigue on the last 3 hole stretch last year.....trying to correct that this year AND FLEXIBILITY

is it gay if i go to a yoga class w/out my wife?? and the majority of ppl in the class are women??
hmmm....

i need to work on my flexibility A LOT...i can barely tough my toes...its sick and im 6'1" and 195lbs