bones75

I like the idea, thanks! Im often oblivious to the obvious. There are some Saturdays i know i dont have time to even finish 18. Hitting the range sounds like a good option considering. And will leave me time for other golf practice/exercise too.

My statement was addressing the question of whether I should stop carrying. This was not my topic or OP, but it was challenged (understandably*) and consequently took over most of the contents of this thread. This Feb I got to a place where I could walk/carry 18 holes and feel great. And I loved it (and I even posted on TST about it). I got there after about 14 months of carrying once a week and other fitness stuff. Since then, I took a few months off golf and regressed. I was seeking advice on how to get back to that physical state faster than it took me the first time (14 months), knowing I only have time to golf once a week, etc.. My OP was poorly written, and regardless, to your point, I'm now thinking about seeing a TPI type guy to make adjustments in my fitness routine w/ more of a focus on golf. *I do appreciate in particular @Vinsk, who as a physician, with the best of his understanding, simply tried to give me good health guidance. It's wonderful. The fact that his advice is contrary to my doctor is noteworthy, but I don't think differing 2nd opinions from doctors is anything new. In this instance, I trust my doctors more, as I'm sure his patients do likewise with him. (however, if he feels I'm being given unsound or incorrect medical advice to a level approaching malpractice.. then I'm still all ears!) edit: @klineka: i just realized now I misread your question! which is why the above may seem misdirected. although I eventually did answer your question.

I think I heard that you were a physician before, but forgot. I now better understand your concern and well intentions. Appreciate it. I have a heart issue and my doctors have given me a (lofty) goal of 300 minutes of 70%+ max HR (high-moderate) exercise per week. I pretty much never hit that because of my work, family etc.. So i'm trying to squeeze in as much as I can. I could give up my golf rounds to do spinning or something and help get there. Instead, I prefer to play golf and just try to max my heart rate while playing. Independently of the above, when carrying a golf bag as the doctors prescribed (for me: 18lbs, both straps, keep good posture, once a week), I was told it is better for my back health and for my general long term health (and likely help my posture), not vice versa as seems to be your concern. I don't know what medical literature and studies there are on backpacks and backhealth, but I feel confident that my doctor's recommendations are consistent with it (walking with a golf bag was discussed specifically). If you wish to share any research that is contrary to this, I'd welcome it. Thanks again for any of your concern.

Sorry to disappoint! I'm just gonna do what my medical professionals encourage me to do. It's wild. It's crazy. But I'm a wild and crazy guy...

I did go over this w/ my sports therapist (pt). I just didn't want to get into it in this thread. Here's all the details: - If I golf once a week (4hrs) and keep my golfbag under 10% bodyweight, it will ONLY be a healthy exercise for my back. Additional weight on the back for not too long or too often is actually healthy for it. It adds compression as is good for the bones. - backpacks are bad for daily use or being overweight - He agrees that anyone who golfs a lot, like an athlete, should not carry as default. - He agrees it will fatigue my back for worse performance in golf. - He treats Stanford's athletes - He's 100% in favor of increasing my bpm by 10+ for 4 hours at a time, so long as I don't mind the drawbacks (having to watch my posture all the time.. which I admit is tiring)

I agree that can be the case. My doctor, cardiologist, and phsyical therapists have all given me the thumbs up for it. It increases my heart rate, lowers my cardio vascular age. Stanford Sports Medicine. Their notes are simple: - never use 1 strap - always watch your posture - you will perform worse in golf because you are exercising your back (which I'm okay with) I've walked tons of rounds w/ a heart monitor. I average 11bpm higher carrying than pushing a cart on hilly courses. W/ that data and my health care dude's happiness w/ it, I'm gonna stick with it.

.. and I'm just dumb, I probably won't change a thing and get there like how I did early this year. Just keep playing once a week until it happens naturally. I do think range time would be the best exercise for me, but can't see it in the foreseeable future. I've also never carried a bag religiously before, so the last two years was a new challenge. Despite it looking stupid to do so, I'm satisfied w/ my reasons that I do carry. I played volleyball last winter for the first time in years. You'd be shocked to hear I was sore after that too!

My bodycomp has also completely changed (in a good way) over the last year or so. I consider myself super fit right now, but that wasn't always the case. ~2 years ago my doc said my heart thing was on the radar again. So I dropped a ton of fat, started lifting for the first time again in years (I couldn't even squat my bodyweight 18 mos ago) and started eating right. Can there be some impact of that on my swing? I only have about 40 min in the mornings to exercise/run. Is HIIT hiking a thing?

@saevel25 Feels like you hit on something there. I call it my "legs" but that may be generally. For example, there's an area about 3 inches left of my belt buckle that gets slightly tight after a round now. Like where my leg meets my hip. It's not painful, or even uncomfortable, but I just noticed it because I've never had that after a run. I really liken it to a "jumping motion", the part of my swing that I feel I lose power on, but it may be my hips. (I don't know the names and details of all the hip & leg muscles) Does any of this change your thoughts?

I said I didn't want to go there! I have a heart condition. One of the lifestyle changes I need to make is strengthening it via longer periods of higher intensity exercise (higher bpm). I'd say that's exclusive to me, but in general the health benefits of including more high intensity exercises is ridiculously rewarding to anyone. My bpm is higher carrying than pushing. Some people care more about health than score! (some oldies I play w/ I swear don't even like golf that much. They just hate the treadmill) Sounds like a good idea. I'm going to incorporate some hiit stuff. I just hope it doesn't take a year again to get there. Idk what else to tell you. I'm shorter and less straight on 18 than I am on 1. And I'm certain my vert measurements would confirm that. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I can't swing a club. I just swing noticeably slower. But I did get to that point (of not feeling tired) early this year. But it took over a year of basically just golfing once a week. I'm just trying to find the quickest way back. There appears to be consensus (by absence of support) that medball/kettleball stuff wouldn't help?

@klineka @ncates00 My sleep/nutrition recently is about the same as it was previously. Perhaps a little more stress and tiredness in life because of covid and young kids (but not that much). I am referring to "golf conditioning" only. Meaning simply feeling strong swinging for a whole round. I believe I was understating it when I said I was fit. - Strength training 3x a week full body. F/B squats, dls, bench, cleans, isolations. As ref, my 1RM squat is about 1.75x my bodyweight. - Run ~7 miles 3-4x a week @ ~5.15 min/mile pace (I used to be a competitive long distance runner) - My nutrition is pretty tight. I count my calories, meet my macros, no junk foods in general. To me golf uses my muscles diff and maybe even diff muscles than in my current fitness routine. I feel I don't have a lot of fast twitch muscle in general (my legs are great at running a long time, not great at swinging for a long time). Was thinking about swapping a run session for a medball/kettlebell type of session just for golf reasons. (I actually like running, it "destresses" me a lot more than lifting or other exercises). To provide color: I can easily go for a 5 mile run after a round of golf. But I can't just can't swing anymore. My legs feel like jelly swinging a club, but I easily have enough energy for a run. It's true.

I'm 45 and pretty darn fit, imo. I got my golf conditioning in a great place in the beginning of the year after 12 mos of diligent strength training and cardio, and playing once a week. I recently took 3 mos off of golf, but continued my other fitness stuff. But now my golf conditioning is noticeably worse (tired at end of the round). Last year I never did golf specific exercises, and although I achieved my golf conditioning goals (feeling light footed on 18), it took over a year to get there. Is there some golf specific conditioning exercises out there that can speed up the process (more box jumps, for example)? Or do I just have to keep playing and let my body slowly get conditioned. I do walk and carry, let's not get into why in this thread. Just take it as a given. For life reasons, I don't have time to go to the range at all. Just get to play once a week, and I'm grateful for it! At the end of a round, my legs in particular have a lot less power in my swing. That "jumping" kind of feeling teeing off on 1 becomes a "slowly getting up from a seated position" feeling on 18. I also find I can't rotate my upper body as easily or fully at the end of a round. I also stand closer and closer to the ball as the round progresses (no idea why, but I do fix it when I notice it). Appreciate any tips.

There are places where there's no such thing as a stupid question. TST just isn't one of them. 😋 I just watched a clip Bryson at the Schwab event. Definitely looked like I saw a gut through his shirt, and looks like a different guy than in the 2nd photo.

I know pictures can be misleading, but when were these two taken? If the latter is very recently, his body fat percentage looks to me more than 15% on the right (can still see abs), and no less than 10% on the left. Doesn't look to me it's total beer gut at least.

I didn't find this yesterday (I was actually looking for academic journals on another statistics topic when I ran across the previous papers). But found this now: The Impact of Pressure on Performance: Evidence from the PGA Tour https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2017.1408134# "our study suggests that an attenuating force, known as choking, does exist in which large rewards lead to a drop in performance due to psychological pressure" "The findings from our primary model indicate that increasing the value of a putt by around $50,000 will decrease the likelihood of a player making the putt by 1 percentage point. However, for certain shots, such as those taken from 6 to 10 away, the magnitude of the effect is substantially greater. We also show that pressure affects less experienced players more than those that have earned more money throughout their careers, and that the impact of pressure on performance varies based on how well the player has been putting in the tournament up to that point." ''''''''''''''''''''''' Although off topic, found this reference to golf too: Choking interventions in sports: A systematic review https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2017.1408134# "Implicit learning represents a distal choking intervention to minimise the accumulation of explicit knowledge during skill acquisition to reduce the likelihood of reinvestment (Masters, 1992). Masters found that golfers who had acquired golf putting skills without any explicit instructions on how to putt a golf ball (i.e. implicit learning) improved their performance under pressure, whereas those who had received specific instructions during the skill acquisition phase (i.e. explicit learning) worsened their performance. Participants, however, in the implicit learning group learned the golf putting skill rather slow in comparison to the explicit learning group." "In their initial study, Vine and Wilson (2010) trained novice golfers to putt a golf ball using either QE* instructions or technical instructions (the control group). Vine and Wilson found no differences in the learning rate between the groups, but the QE group outperformed the control group when putting under pressure. These findings have been replicated and extended with both novice athletes (Moore, Vine, Cooke, Ring, & Wilson, 2012; Vine et al., 2013; Vine & Wilson, 2011) and experts (Vine, Moore, & Wilson, 2011; Wood & Wilson, 2012) indicating robustness of this intervention." *QE = Quiet Eye training. Basically the act of visualizing your task before you perform it