Adding mass in the gym WILL increase your club head speed

[powerboy]

As a longtime lurker I've gathered that most of the fellow golfers here is of the opinion that just adding mass in the gym doesn't add swing speed in any substantial way. Well let me debunk that.

 

I only play golf for around 3 months per year(I live in Scandinavia) and each summer I'll go through several trackman sessions, and for as long as I've played I have always been around 95 mph with the driver. This winter I went from 155 pounds to 185 pounds, both at 14% body fat. So far in 2 sessions my average swing speed with the driver have been 115 mph. It just feels like a whole new game to me. The new muscle mass also brings a whole new level of control for me, even when swinging 20 mph faster.

 

My gym sessions didn't include any "golf exercises", I just trained for pure power. Deadlifts, squats, benchpress etc. So if any of you are looking to add swing speed take my advice and get your a** in the gym!

[Golfjack]

Yeah of course. Look at guys like Koepka, or the long drive guys. Those guys are ripped. It's not just for looks. 30 pounds over a winter is a lot!

[BB28403]

It depends , the new thought is that the muscle needs to be added thru dynamic golf like or similar sport movements.

People cannot go wrong with Joey D's stuff. I would recommend a TPI trainer 1 day a month at a minimum for everyone.

Tell us when your new speed gets your handicap way down.

[Justsomeguy]

Smaller scale. I've had ups and downs w SS over last couple years. Mostly due to back injury. Led to fitness layoffs.

My highest SS periods were when I was adding muscle. Not even close.

Recently got the back into a serviceable spot for now, and gym gains and overall fitness are paying dividends.

[stryper]

> @Golfjack said:

> Yeah of course. Look at guys like Koepka, or the long drive guys. Those guys are ripped. It's not just for looks. 30 pounds over a winter is a lot!

 

Wouldn’t call Sadlowski “ripped”, nor Dustin Johnson, who no doubt could compete in long drive, if that were his focus. Justin Thomas is small, Tiger was never “built like a linebacker”, and that list of long hitters on tour goes on forever.

 

Not to say they’s no benefit to training, it’s just that muscle mass isn’t everything when it comes to clubhead speed.

 

 

[buckeyefl]

Can not will

[trilerian]

Raw power will make it so you can accelerate the club faster, no doubt about it. But sequencing the swing correctly is where the biggest gains are. I know a few small guys that I would pummel in strength contests, yet they out drive me by a mile. They just know how to sequence their swing to get crazy swing speed. But adding both mass and sequencing would most likely yield the best results.

[bladehunter]

Eh. Plenty of thin tall kids out there who will blow it by a 115 mph bulky Guy. Give me long and lean with natural speed anyway. That guy will play fast for 40 years or more.

[MK7Golf21]

watch a long drive comp. and you will see nearly all the guys are huge, sadlowski is an outlier freak of nature. Dustin Johnson wouldn't stand a chance with the long drive guys, no one on the pga tour would. However, long drive guys are all about speed and power and not shooting lowest score.

[Socrates]

I added mass to my Word not allowed. It didn't help. :(

[Celebros]

I did almost the exact opposite of your weight progression and can confirm the impact.

 

I'm 5'9" and went from 186 to 158 over the winter/spring, but despite being in better shape I am about a club shorter than I was before.

[Z1ggy16]

I don't think this is a universal truth with respect to golf. Most long drive guys are huge, but you still need a solid swing mechanic to make it all work together.

 

I spent 0 time in the gym from last September to November, but did Overspeed training and gained like 15mph to my top speed and about 8mph average. I did Overspeed again this spring and gained like another 10mph on my top end max, and another 2-3mph on my average. Guys like DJ aren't big but use long levers to create speed (tons of shoulder turn, long arms) and guys like Brooks aren't very flexible relative to DJ but use pure power to get CHS. However, from what I hear, Brooks already had high speed before he got big. I think his muscularity comes more in to play when hitting out of deep rough and other bad lies where you need to power the ball out.

 

 

If you suddenly made DJ more muscular, I'd put $$ on the chance that he loses speed. He can gain strength though without gaining much muscle, which is fine. But this discussion seems to be suggesting gaining pounds of muscle suddenly helps CHS, which I don't think is true.

[MK7Golf21]

right, I think the bigger and stronger you are, the more potential you have to create speed given the mechanics are good. I remember Charles Barkley, who was very strong and big, caught one of the screws on a launch monitor and it went like 450 carry, it was indoors too where he doesn't get that hitch in his swing. Obviously this was a stars aligned moment with his swing when the mechanics lined up. Smaller guys have no chance to ever catch one on the screws like that

[BottleCap]

i think if it’s in the lower body to stabilize the swing it can really help

[stryper]

> @Redjeep83 said:

> watch a long drive comp. and you will see nearly all the guys are huge, sadlowski is an outlier freak of nature. Dustin Johnson wouldn't stand a chance with the long drive guys, no one on the pga tour would. However, long drive guys are all about speed and power and not shooting lowest score.

 

And I _think_ plenty of guys on tour could hang with the long drive crowd, if they were inclined to train for that. But they’re not, and they won’t, because their bread and butter is shotmaking and controlling the golf ball, as opposed to 1/8 finding the grid each round. So both on my part and on yours this part of the discussion Is nothing but speculation.

 

However, I think we can agree that proper training is essential for maximizing performance in any sport. As for added muscle mass alone, I agree with the poster above who said “can not will”...it’s not an absolute.

[vietnameeh]

adding mass PLUS creating mobility strength will help your game

Don't expect to train like a power lifter and play golf with no thoracic spine mobility

[KMeloney]

> @Z1ggy16 said:

>But this discussion seems to be suggesting gaining pounds of muscle suddenly helps CHS, which I don't think is true.

 

...Except that the OP is saying exactly that.

 

 

 

[ferrispgm]

If you go from never working out to working out....sure you will increase speed....I don't think it has much to do with adding mass though. Yes a lot of long drive guy are massive...but they are also guys that tend to be naturally strong and/or athletic. I've played golf with construction workers and brick layers that smash the heck out of the ball and you can tell they never worked out. IMHO, I think grip and forearm strength as a lot to do with it and letting you swing as fast as you can for your body. Look at guys like Sadlowski or DJ or Jason Day, Rory, etc.....not really physically imposing but naturally strong and athletic. Heck, look at Monte...he's not a small guy but certainly not a massive guy like Zuback and he won in the early 90s and still gets it out there in the 330+ range at 50 some years old. Working out will certainly help but it's not as simple as adding mass....and the effects are going to be greater for those who never worked out before than those who have been for a few years.

[chigolfer1]

> @powerboy said:

> As a longtime lurker I've gathered that most of the fellow golfers here is of the opinion that just adding mass in the gym doesn't add swing speed in any substantial way. Well let me debunk that.

>

> I only play golf for around 3 months per year(I live in Scandinavia) and each summer I'll go through several trackman sessions, and for as long as I've played I have always been around 95 mph with the driver. This winter I went from 155 pounds to 185 pounds, both at 14% body fat. So far in 2 sessions my average swing speed with the driver have been 115 mph. It just feels like a whole new game to me. The new muscle mass also brings a whole new level of control for me, even when swinging 20 mph faster.

>

> My gym sessions didn't include any "golf exercises", I just trained for pure power. Deadlifts, squats, benchpress etc. So if any of you are looking to add swing speed take my advice and get your a** in the gym!

 

Well it's not the mass, it's the strength you're adding along with the improvement in your CNS. Ideally, you would be able to do this without adding mass but that's pretty difficult.

[chigolfer1]

> @ferrispgm said:

> If you go from never working out to working out....sure you will increase speed....I don't think it has much to do with adding mass though. Yes a lot of long drive guy are massive...but they are also guys that tend to be naturally strong and/or athletic. I've played golf with construction workers and brick layers that smash the heck out of the ball and you can tell they never worked out. IMHO, I think grip and forearm strength as a lot to do with it and letting you swing as fast as you can for your body. Look at guys like Sadlowski or DJ or Jason Day, Rory, etc.....not really physically imposing but naturally strong and athletic. Heck, look at Monte...he's not a small guy but certainly not a massive guy like Zuback and he won in the early 90s and still gets it out there in the 330+ range at 50 some years old. Working out will certainly help but it's not as simple as adding mass....and the effects are going to be greater for those who never worked out before than those who have been for a few years.

 

As you allude to, I don't think people understand how truly "naturally" strong someone could be relative to other people. Look up articles on JB Holmes. He talks about in college how he had a friend trying to bench 200 (or something like that) and JB, who had never lifted in his life just walks up to it and is like, this doesn't seem that hard. Same for guys that can dunk. They might have never squated a day in their life but if you put them in the gym for a month, they'd be blowing past what I can squat even though I've been working on it forever. Unfortunately, life isnt' fair, lol.

 

Now, as far as smaller guys that hit it a mile, I think we are now learning there is so much going on that we never understood. There truly is ground force and a way they move their body that generates power that people that are short knockers don't do. Yes, as Kelvin would call them, micro moves. Some people, like Monte and Jamie, are just natural athletes that, for whatever reason, naturally know how to tap into this. Monte's dad was a baseball player who obviously also knew how to tap into this. I guess what I'm saying is that, independent of getting stronger, yes, the golf swing is an athletic movement that comes much more naturally to some. And, we're not even getting into fast twitch muscles, ability to recruit them faster and all that kind of stuff that separates super long hitters from mere mortals.

[chigolfer1]

nt

 

 

[PureSlice]

Thats a very very long winter.

[ferrispgm]

Ground forces are huge.....Literally picked up 15-20 with my driver this year thanks to Monte and learning how to use the ground better

[farmer]

30 lbs in 9 months?!! Incredible. Being strong is certainly an advantage, but there has to be a swing in there somewhere that makes for efficient delivery of the strength.

[Keen]

There is also the "power" aspect, i.e. the ability to shift weight fast. E.g. cleans, snatch, plyo-stuff, etc. Still need a foundation of strength tho.

Chech out [Golffreakfitness](https://www.instagram.com/golffreakfitness/ "Golffreakfitness") on instagram, who's a ranked long driver and recently won a competition. Lot of explosive training.

 

Another is [https://instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/](https://www.instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/ "https://instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/")

 

 

 

[chigolfer1]

> @Keen said:

> There is also the "power" aspect, i.e. the ability to shift weight fast. E.g. cleans, snatch, plyo-stuff, etc. Still need a foundation of strength tho.

> Chech out [Golffreakfitness](https://www.instagram.com/golffreakfitness/ "Golffreakfitness") on instagram, who's a ranked long driver and recently won a competition. Lot of explosive training.

>

> Another is [https://instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/](https://www.instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/ "https://instagram.com/the.bio.mechanic/")

>

>

>

 

Thanks for these links! I've been doing a lot of power/olympic lifting in the last couple of years but awesome to see some stuff from a long driver.

[Krt22]

OP how tall are you?

[powerboy]

> @Krt22 said:

> OP how tall are you?

 

5' 8''

[BottleCap]

> @Golfjack said:

> Yeah of course. Look at guys like Koepka, or the long drive guys. Those guys are ripped. It's not just for looks. 30 pounds over a winter is a lot!

 

the OP went from 150 to 180, that just a kid turning into a man, going from 180 to 210 would be a big deal

[vietnameeh]

> @powerboy said:

> > @Krt22 said:

> > OP how tall are you?

>

> 5' 8''

 

185 lbs 14% bf!?!?! from 155?

Im having a hard time believing you did this during the winter. you would need to bulk for a few months and then cut.

You almost have the same specs as professional physique bodybuilders (minus the BF%)