JCrane

you are putting me to shame !

2 hrs of Pick up Pickle ball this morning 2 hrs of Pickle ball league 1 hr of Pilates 1 Hr on the machines ( slow reps ) 1 hr of Yoga That should cover it aerobic exercise, strength building, muscle building and mobility training

This is an excellent post. We do not realize that we are training our body all of the time, one way or the other. I always laugh when I see people at the Y looking for that parking spot closest to the entrance and then a half an hour later they emerge wearing jogging pants. One of the things I tell my students is when you walk up stairs grab the railing and just put the ball mount of the foot on the stairs and let the rest hang off. As the heel drops you get a stretch in the calf muscles. You have to go up the stairs anyway, make it to your benefit !

Great advice excellent post !

LOL The tittle of this thread is " weightlifting and golf " which says nothing about it being geared toward people interested in lifting or it being pro or con but i will leave you with an old saying. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

no one has said that ? I would disagree as I read the posts. Obvious ? no it is not obvious. Once again as I read the posts,I don't see any words of caution and that is why I posted my comments. No, safety is never a given. It is something that needs to be brought up consistently. It is essential in my opinion to add a stretching program to any workout that includes heavy weights. Those are my thoughts. Thanks for posting

As a power lifter of 30 years, I can tell you there are several things to watch out for and take into consideration when lifting heavy weights. Number 1 is compression of the spine, It happened to me and it happens to a lot of people as they age. Put a heavy weight on the back of a younger body and you may build strength, but put a heavy weight on the shoulders of a older body or a body that has some spinal or disk weakness and you may be asking for trouble. I meet these people every day and I was one myself. Most have had surgery and had to give up golf. I was fortunate to discover other methods. yes, you can build a lot of power with heavy weights, but you can also screw up your back. Connective strength can be build by slow movement exercise, encouraging the muscle fibers to fire as you move the body dynamically. Also balance can become an issue over time if it is not practiced. Keeping muscles stretched out especially around the spine will allow the body to flow more freely, i have used an inversion table over the last 25 years and that works for me. If heavy weights work for you I say go for it, but to say everyone should be doing it and it is not risky is nonsense and I hope no one has to learn that lesson the hard way like I did.

Maybe add some towns to the courses. It would be helpful

I am just not getting the results I want I've been Playing Golf for: 40 years My current handicap index or average score is: 12 My typical ball flight is: not consistent The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: fading the ball too much Videos: attention grab.mp4 - Google Drive

After 30 years of weightlifting and 21 years of doing and teaching different styles of Yoga I feel totally confident and qualified to answer the question of whether weightlifting and golf go together. My experience over all those years has me answer without hesitation that it truly depends on the individual. Some people should not be lifting heavy weights period and are better off using their own body weight to increase strength. This can be for a variety of reasons, but there are many ways of increasing your strength without heavy weights if you are one of those people, especially in sports such as golf. Some people will benefit from heavy lifting and if that works for them , they should continue, but to think everyone should be doing it is without merit. I have personally witnessed many bodies that did not take well to weights. As one of the posters said and I repeat. If you lift heavy consider a flexibility program to complement the strength training. Putting heavy weights on our back compresses the spine which is already being compressed from gravity over the years and we need to do things to counter that or it can lead to back problems which is what happened to me later in life. Fortunately I found ways to decompress.

We should always do what works for us. I think the key point you made here which may be over looked by many who read the post is your 3 goals here . 1)Lift weights with the idea of increasing strength, 2) stretch and continually stretch and work on flexibility, and 3) your lifting and stretching must emulate what you need for your activity. Too many people and I have found this in the workout section on this forum, focus only on the first one and minimize the 2nd and 3rd and that gives rise to the idea of not lifting heavy weights. The body is dynamic and needs to be trained that way which means a big emphasis on flexibility. Lifting heavy weights with no regard to the other two things you mention will result in tight muscles and no one wants that. I see far too many lifters throwing the weights around in a herky jerky fashion and not using full range of motion. Personally I like to use pullies to complete your third goal, because I can simulate the golf swing with the pulllies in a controlled manner and build strength dynamically . Good Post and good points !

I think you need to have someone perform an exorcism on that club. It is possessed

So who did your wife hit ?

yes it has, but so has high fat diets, but it is only recently through new studies and an intro to main stream media that we start to understand the science and it's popularity has grown. It was not long ago when everyone was doing low fat The same is true with Time under Tension. Most people do not understand the concept, the science and the benefits of time under tension. It is not just lowering the weight slowly but to actually set the Gage of improvement by increasing that time. As Thomas says it is much better on the joints as we age. There is a good chance we will be hearing more about this now that someone like Thomas has put it out to his many followers. Thanks for posting !

Dam too bad

First of all there are very few things that are new. Things that we think are new usually have been around, but may not be mainstream. As the case with me in 1985 the lifters that I was associated with did not understand this concept. That was my point . The time under tension concept as talked about by Thomas is to increase the time the muscle is under stress on both phases as opposed to increasing the reps or sets. I hope this makes it clearer.

yea, but did those same people watching you fall, also see you on the par 5 ?

I got you. It is a really strange feeling that you have to experience in order to relate to it. Thanks for sharing !

Great question. as a former power lifter and longtime Yoga teacher, I can offer my 2 cents. The body changes over time and at about 50 we start to feel the effects of muscle loss and a decrease in balance. Science proves this. In 1985 I was playing with some slow movement bench presses and it felt pretty good. I shared that and got laughed out of the gym. Fast forward to the early two thousands and I came a cross a guy who had trademarked a style of weight training called Super Slow I have not really seen people use it. I did power Yoga for about 8 years and found it started to feel too fast, so I started to slow it down. After about 6 months I felt stronger. I had not thought about these things until about three weeks ago when I looked at a video Thomas Delauer made. Thomas is the top health and fitness yourtube instructor in the country with over a million subscribers. Thomas put out a video called " Building muscle over the age 40 " Everything Thomas talks about is backed by science. In this video he talks about a methodology called "Time under Tension " . Instead of trying to lift heavy weights and increase reps, he recommends focusing on how long you can keep the muscle under tension. It forces the muscles fibers to fire. This is huge because at last this method will be introduced into the mainstream. I just turned 70 and use this training on the weight machines and in my Yoga practice and I am more balanced, stronger, and more mobile than I was at 50. I will say that golf is a dynamic sport that requires muscle groups to work together and if we just do standard weight training we are training the muscles to isolate and work independently of each other I have observed people who train that way in my classes and have seen them struggle when I put them through dynamic movement exercises.

when we think embarrassing, we usually think bad things, but can a good thing be embarrassing. I say yes. It was many years ago about my 3rd or 4th year in the game. I entered a tournament with a fairly high handicap. Did you ever have a day when nothing went right ? Probably. Did you ever have a day when nothing went wrong. I hope so. Well this was the day for me. I had been pouring over Jack Nicholas tapes (golf my way) and the adrenaline was flowing. I remember being on a par 3 that I had played earlier in a different tournament where I proceeded to hit or should I say shank the ball off the toe of the club and into a corn field . One of the tournament marshals remarked what a good job I did launching the ball straight into the corn field leaving no doubt where that ball was going. Anyway this time I put the ball three feet from the cup and putted in. As the round went on I continued to amaze myself at how well I was playing and amaze the others in the foursome, but by the time we got into the back nine, they began to ask about my handicap. About the 13th hole one of them walked up to me and said. You are about to shave about 15 strokes off your handicap. He did not look happy for me. In fact at the end of the round this same guy tore up his card and threw it in the wastebasket. Oh yea, I started to feel it "Sandbagger". I finished strong and won my flight and at the trophy presentation I remember walking up to get it repeating over and over again for everyone to hear " I shot out of head " I do not know if they believed me , but it was very embarrassing.

yes. I think you answered your own question.. When I was younger I lifted heavy, as I got older over 50 , I turned to Yoga and swimming.. That was 22 years ago. Let me offer this. The body is dynamic and we want the muscles to be mobile and strong. Heavy weights tighten the muscles and we are also isolating the muscle when we focus on a particular body part. We want to build connective strength so the muscles work together and support each other so when we swing the club it becomes all about muscle memory. Hopes this makes sense and hope it helps.

ok, but you are comparing these things to athletes, not every day people. I would venture to guess that the majority of people looking for ways to be healthy are not people running triathlons, or playing professional sports. They are people who are living an average life and looking for ways to live longer and healthier and play their golf games without pain. Those are the people i deal with. Someone once said : The only thing that is real is what we experience. and I am simple saying what I have experienced over the last twenty years. You do not have to agree with it. If it is worth anything I would say if someone came up to me when I was in my 40s and said to me what I am saying here, I would have told them to go to hell. LOL

It is your body and you get to choose, It is not about getting hurt. It is about tightening the muscles and compression of the spine. All day every day we have gravity pushing us down and as we age that compression actually shrinks people. Now if we put heavy weights on our back do you think that helps compression or creates more ? Besides that as I stated our bodies are dynamic and we want the muscles to work together as a unit. This is not stuff I am making up, these are things I have experienced and have observed in my classes. Whenever I have weightlifters in my class, I see the same thing. They can not move with fluidity. Now if they created a balance of weights and stretching they would limit the damage, but I only had one person in my class that has done that and he started weights at the same time he started doing the classes, so I consider him the exception. As far as cardio goes , I could write a whole chapter on that. Contrary to popular opinion we do not have to move the body quickly to create cardio. We can do it with the breath as long as we are creating an intensity in the muscles. My resting heart rate gets below athletic and I do not do any running or treadmills or anything of the sort. With that all said you should do what works for you and if lifting is what to do then I say do it. I lifted for 30 years, so I understand where you are coming from. I will turn 70 this year and I think much different now. Thanks

That is your body talking to you. I had the same experience some 25 years ago. I would suggest you listen to it and stay off the weights. I do not know how old you are but at about 50 most people start to feel the effects of the tight muscles from the heavy lifting. If you are preparing the body for golf and life, you are far better off using exercises that are dynamic in nature and build strength by creating muscle integration instead of muscle isolation. You need to keep the muscles lengthened around the back not tightened. That will only cause you more problems down the line, but I would imagine you already know that. You could also have used inversion therapy to lengthen the muscles in the back and create more separation between the vertebrae . That might not be advisable anymore. Good Luck. .

Hatha is a generic term in Yoga. It just means physical Yoga. I teach my own brand that I have developed over the last 20 years. It is very slow moving but yet demanding. In fact I have found we build more strength in the body when we move as opposed to moving fast. Why ? Because we activate more supportive muscles then we do with fast movement. This methodology is used in some kinds of weight training called time under tension. As far as your hamstrings go. you are not alone. You may have short hamstrings to begin with. Any Yoga class is like going to a buffet. A lot of things are offered because the instructor is working on different parts of body and for different reasons ( strength, mobility, balance ) What I suggest is picking out a few exercises that work on your tight hamstrings. Example : 1. seated forward fold with legs bent, 2. Laying down on back lifting one leg with a strap and guiding the leg toward the head. I would also add a calf stretch. Put your foot on a chair and let most of your foot hang off, just keep the ball mount on it . Bring your hands on the top of the thigh and put some weight on it to lengthen the calf muscle. Do some of these every day along with the rest of your program .Hope this helps !