Your Workout Today

[mdl]

29 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I think avoidance probably leads to more injuries in the future. 

So do I, but I am doing more squats, deadlifts, and back rows to strengthen it. I am not pushing it to crazy weights. Lost of body weight stuff, light dumbbells or cable. The more you can train your body to do full range of motion under higher loads, and athletic motions, the more it will be strengthened and better off. 

Re-injury probably comes from going back to near 100% too soon. 

Note, if you gained muscles in the past, it takes like a couple of weeks to regain it. Your body remembers where it was at. You can be off training for months and get back into shape (not losing fat), but muscle composition much quicker. 

Another reason why lifting weights early is really important in life. 

I didn't have time to reply yesterday so again I'll just say +++ to this! I used to have lower back troubles. Using and strengthening your back with the right exercises and effort are 100% part of the way to fixing it. The other is that for a very large portion of people with chronic low back pain, it's actually neurological, not physical.

I injured my lower back years ago ego-lifting, trying to get that last rep I'd programmed for myself on a heavy deadlift even though I should have stopped 2-3 reps earlier. I'd never had problems before so mostly just kept working through what felt like minor pain or tightness. Eventually I partially paralyzed my left leg from such bad sciatica! I did tons of PT and the kind of slow and steady ramp up in strength training saevel talked about and was able to get back to regular exercise and strength training. But it never totally went away and I thought I'd screwed myself and was just someone who had a bad back now. I did dumbbell single leg deadlifts but never regular or Romanian deadlifts with a barbell.Turns out I didn't have a permanent physical issue, just ingrained neurological pathways. Following this book

Amazon.com

and using this app 

Curable - The App for Chronic Pain

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A guided program that helps you understand why you have pain, why it persists, and what you can do about it.

 I fully cured my lower back! I never have back pain anymore and I've even brought back good mornings (the name of an exercise) into my strength training!

[saevel25]

Unless you have a severe disc herniation, working out, without consideration to working out your lower back through a full range of motion in some way is just asking for disaster. You do not go through your entire day without bending over, rounding the back, reaching over at an angle, adding a bit of twist here and there. If you train your body in a way that doesn't add these movements in somehow, then it is not accustomed for this or strengthen the muscles for these movements, a person is just asking for an injury. 

There are fricken 70 or 80 year old women who can deadlift more than my body weight. Its absurd. I 100% can assure you they have a degenerative disc somewhere in their back. It is unavoidable. I can 100% say that their backs are rock solid because they deadlift. 

 

[saevel25]

saevel | Week 1

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saevel's workout

 

[saevel25]

I have been keeping up with my three full body workouts a week. I am finding the better I learn a lifting technique the more I have to adjust the weight to be a bit less because I am not compensating. I am also sick enough to, in the final set of squats, to say out loud, "No that one doesn't count." because I compensated on the ascent. I am trying to isolate my quads by going down slowly, staking as vertical as possible, making my butt hit my thighs, pause for a second, and using my quads to ascend. No leaning forward or to the side to engage the glutes or hamstrings. Man, I fried my quads. 😂

[Grizvok]

I've never really done a golf-centric gym workout where the focus was to get more fit for golf, but that has changed. I really like the idea of doing a lot of single leg stuff as I've never done any of that training either (definitely open to single leg exercise suggestions if you have them). I'm not diagnosing myself, but I think I have a lot of symptoms of "lower crossed syndrome" so working on specific things to help address potential imbalances. I've been sitting down for work (software engineer) for so long that the hip flexors are definitely super tight and glutes are pretty weak.

Lower Crossed Syndrome - Physiopedia

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Original Editor - Anja Vanroelen

 I had never done a cable pallof press before but damn that felt awesome for the core. 

Need to add medicine ball slams. This one looks really good for a few reasons. First is that when done correctly I can build some awareness of how long it takes power to transfer through my legs and core to my actual arms. This takes longer than I think and because of that needs to happen early (exactly what I'm working on in the golf swing). Secondly is that I'm absolutely an over the top swinger, and rehearsing the pattern of slamming the ball down right behind the trail foot is a great way to drill in the general direction the arms move in the downswing.

[Clemsonfan]

I have been using the Par4Success golf training for almost a year. Currently, strength training two days a week and mobility training for three. I am a big fan. Strength training last night completing squats, pallof presses with elastic bands, and bench presses with bow flex dumbbells and elastic bands wrapped around my back and thumbs - a difficult but fun exercise!

[TN94z]

On 6/9/2025 at 7:19 PM, saevel25 said:

I have been keeping up with my three full body workouts a week. I am finding the better I learn a lifting technique the more I have to adjust the weight to be a bit less because I am not compensating. I am also sick enough to, in the final set of squats, to say out loud, "No that one doesn't count." because I compensated on the ascent. I am trying to isolate my quads by going down slowly, staking as vertical as possible, making my butt hit my thighs, pause for a second, and using my quads to ascend. No leaning forward or to the side to engage the glutes or hamstrings. Man, I fried my quads. 😂

Want to smoke the quads? Try the Kb cyclist squats!  Elevate your heels,  hold a Kb behind you and do cyclist squats...wow! They were a humbling surprise

[saevel25]

29 minutes ago, TN94z said:

Want to smoke the quads? Try the Kb cyclist squats!  Elevate your heels,  hold a Kb behind you and do cyclist squats...wow! They were a humbling surprise

 Basically what I am doing, except I don’t use a KB. I use a barbell. I would add, make the eccentric part 4-5x slower than the concentric.

Yea, elevated heels and staying as vertical as possible will require the engagement of the quads more.

 

[TN94z]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

 Basically what I am doing, except I don’t use a KB. I use a barbell. I would add, make the eccentric part 4-5x slower than the concentric.

Yea, elevated heels and staying as vertical as possible will require the engagement of the quads more.

 

You have no choice but to do these slow..It is a somewhat awkward position. Try this one when you think about it. I found it much more quad dominant than anything I was doing barbell wise, mainly with the positioning of the kb behind the back.  But the elevation is the key to isolating the quads for sure

[saevel25]

Also, when you go slow, pause like half a second to a full second at the bottom. People can bounce a bit to gain momentum. I find it bothers my knees if I bounce and lose control of the eccentric. 

[TN94z]

27 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Also, when you go slow, pause like half a second to a full second at the bottom. People can bounce a bit to gain momentum. I find it bothers my knees if I bounce and lose control of the eccentric. 

Agreed. Tempo work is great

[Grizvok]

Another good golf-focused gym workout. Absolutely prioritizing strength over speed work as that is where I believe I have the most gains to make/is the lowest hanging fruit. I'd really like to be more like 170 lbs versus the just over 160, and I'm trending that way with a few lbs already gained over the past month or so. Luckily strength work is more conducive to hypertrophy than something like speed training, so that's a nice overlap. When applicable, I've been trying to flare the feet out at a similar angle to what I'd be using in my stance as well as bringing a lot of awareness to my glutes when doing cardio.

[saevel25]

8 hours ago, Grizvok said:

Luckily strength work is more conducive to hypertrophy than something like speed training, so that's a nice overlap.

In a small overlap of rep range, yes. It is in the 5 to 8 rep. range. 

You can gain strength in the hypertrophy ranges of like 10 to 20, but it takes much longer to increase the weight you are lifting. There have been body builders who can squat big number, but they have been increase the load for like 15+ years. A strength trainer is going to blow past that much faster. 

Hypertrophy can interfere with speed development because you are performing the reps under meticulous attention to technique, so very slow eccentric and a powerful concentric. Speed, you don't really care about technique, it is just how fast you can move something. 

 

[Grizvok]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

In a small overlap of rep range, yes. It is in the 5 to 8 rep. range. 

You can gain strength in the hypertrophy ranges of like 10 to 20, but it takes much longer to increase the weight you are lifting. There have been body builders who can squat big number, but they have been increase the load for like 15+ years. A strength trainer is going to blow past that much faster. 

Hypertrophy can interfere with speed development because you are performing the reps under meticulous attention to technique, so very slow eccentric and a powerful concentric. Speed, you don't really care about technique, it is just how fast you can move something. 

 

Yeah, I like sticking to the upper range of that and maybe slightly higher like 8-10. Not exactly ideal for the strength bit, but in terms of my joints always feeling good, it’s a trade-off I think I have to make. My understanding is overall load is kinda injury risk factor #1.

The whole 5-30 rep sets taken to failure producing similar hypertrophy was just coming around when I was really young and only cared about hypertrophy. I switched to the higher rep ranges as a test and I’m absolutely built to do better hypertrophy-wise when lifting in that 15-20 rep range. It’s interesting in that mechanical tension becomes less of a driver and stuff like cell swelling and metabolite accumulation become more involved in the signaling.

I have absolutely no idea what speed training looks like with weights tbh. I need to do some research on that and even though speed isn’t a main concern it’d be fun to throw in a speed day here and there if not for just learning what good speed training looks like/potentially counterbalancing any losses in speed from my normal training.

I respond well to creatine and need to start supplementation again.

Edited July 1 by Grizvok

[saevel25]

21 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

The whole 5-30 rep sets taken to failure producing similar hypertrophy was just coming around when I was really young and only cared about hypertrophy. I switched to the higher rep ranges as a test and I’m absolutely built to do better hypertrophy-wise when lifting in that 15-20 rep range. It’s interesting in that mechanical tension becomes less of a driver and stuff like cell swelling and metabolite accumulation become more involved in the signaling.

You don't need to go to failure. About 2-3 reps from failure gets you like 95%+ similar benefits of going to failure.

Hypertrophy is mostly about amount of workings sets per week. The rep range is something like 5 to 30+ reps. The whole, you are training for endurance is actually wrong at high rep ranges. 5 to 20 sets per week per muscle. The effort is measure in reps in reserve. 

Strength is measured in rate of perceived exertion. It's not about taking to failure, it's about improving how much weight you can move. The mid-range of perceived exertion for technique learning, but 7-9 for actual improvement. 5 to 15 sets per week for each movement pattern (not specific muscle). 

32 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

I have absolutely no idea what speed training looks like with weights tbh. I need to do some research on that and even though speed isn’t a main concern it’d be fun to throw in a speed day here and there if not for just learning what good speed training looks like/potentially counterbalancing any losses in speed from my normal training.

It is like the stack system. Its basically moving something very fast and progressively improving it (similar to strength training) except the goal is not speed overall maximum weight moved. 

Then power is just moving heavy stuff fast. This might be like, plyometric training. Like, improving your jumping height/distance. Throwing medicine balls as fast/far as you can. 

[Grizvok]

11 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

You don't need to go to failure. About 2-3 reps from failure gets you like 95%+ similar benefits of going to failure.

Hypertrophy is mostly about amount of workings sets per week. The rep range is something like 5 to 30+ reps. The whole, you are training for endurance is actually wrong at high rep ranges. 5 to 20 sets per week per muscle. The effort is measure in reps in reserve. 

Strength is measured in rate of perceived exertion. It's not about taking to failure, it's about improving how much weight you can move. The mid-range of perceived exertion for technique learning, but 7-9 for actual improvement. 5 to 15 sets per week for each movement pattern (not specific muscle). 

It is like the stack system. Its basically moving something very fast and progressively improving it (similar to strength training) except the goal is not speed overall maximum weight moved. 

Then power is just moving heavy stuff fast. This might be like, plyometric training. Like, improving your jumping height/distance. Throwing medicine balls as fast/far as you can. 

Interesting. I never really gave thought to the idea of actual power-type training. I had always worked off of just improving strength then improving speed separately being enough/ideal but now that I say that it does sound naive. So yeah, a power day is actually more in line with what I had in mind, and I could see that doing a lot of good stuff for me. I'm guessing a block/phasic structure with each mesocycle being specifically tailored to strength/hypertrophy/power would potentially be better than just throwing a random power day in here or there? Very interested in your thoughts there. I would also be more willing to go slightly heavier if I knew that was only for a shorter stint before getting to the next training block. I've only recently began perusing the golfwrx forums, but I seem to see more than a few people talk about injury and golf-specific speed training (like the stack system). Is that just bad technique/programming or is the injury risk high for that?

[saevel25]

23 minutes ago, Grizvok said:

Interesting. I never really gave thought to the idea of actual power-type training. I had always worked off of just improving strength then improving speed separately being enough/ideal but now that I say that it does sound naive. So yeah, a power day is actually more in line with what I had in mind, and I could see that doing a lot of good stuff for me. I'm guessing a block/phasic structure with each mesocycle being specifically tailored to strength/hypertrophy/power would potentially be better than just throwing a random power day in here or there? Very interested in your thoughts there. I would also be more willing to go slightly heavier if I knew that was only for a shorter stint before getting to the next training block. I've only recently began perusing the golfwrx forums, but I seem to see more than a few people talk about injury and golf-specific speed training (like the stack system). Is that just bad technique/programming or is the injury risk high for that?

Trying to go at high speed without the foundation of strength is just asking for injury. Also, certain golf motions promote injury (i.e. Zalatoris's back injury). 

Power is trying to merge strength + speed. So, Plyometrics, Olympic Weightlifting explosive movements. Sprinting is a form of power training. The amount of force an Olympic sprinter can apply to the ground is crazy. 

Drills & Exercises | TPI

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The internet’s largest collection of golf specific drills and exercises.

I have been thinking of asking my fitness center if there is a space I can throw a medicine ball. 

I am doing hypertrophy because I want to stave off muscle loss. I will switch to strength training at some point. 

[Grizvok]

50 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Trying to go at high speed without the foundation of strength is just asking for injury. Also, certain golf motions promote injury (i.e. Zalatoris's back injury). 

Power is trying to merge strength + speed. So, Plyometrics, Olympic Weightlifting explosive movements. Sprinting is a form of power training. The amount of force an Olympic sprinter can apply to the ground is crazy. 

Drills & Exercises | TPI

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The internet’s largest collection of golf specific drills and exercises.

I have been thinking of asking my fitness center if there is a space I can throw a medicine ball. 

I am doing hypertrophy because I want to stave off muscle loss. I will switch to strength training at some point. 

My hip mobility and how much I actively restrict hip turn isn't doing my lumbar spine any favors. Dr. Rose emphatically talking about the low-back often being the whipping boy for the sins of the hips was an eye opener.

I just had a 10lb medicine ball delivered a few days ago (as well as a nice set of bands) so that link will come in handy. I think Fit for Golf has a decent library of band movements I can check out.

I appreciate all of the awesome info!