DeChambeau Up 25 Lbs

[Gmack1973]

Paul McGinley on Sky saying that DeChanbeau is using a 5 degree driver and thinking about a 10 degree 3 wood going into the bag!!

[tjl48]

Nah. It's mostly just fat. You don't gain that much weight that fast and it be mostly muscle.

[fowlerscousin]

I have hypothesis that BAD proximity to the hole off the tee at this time in the 2020 season, is closer than an 18 handicap after their second shot.

[Schley]

I think Brandel is trying to spend as much "time" with his wife before she wakes up. Enjoy it Brandel.

[bscinstnct]

 

Lol, ya, gettin in some miles, doing intervals training! Tired of getting passed by everybody, lol

 

Actually, I always thought Zach was a stand up guy but wife say he evil. She can be quite the influencer ; )

[JD3]

Clearly the added weight was not only just muscle...he's a big hefty dude now. What a character.

 

Meanwhile woodland looks like he a stick now, like he dropped 25 lbs

[ConditionsWereTough]

Obviously stopped studying green books while working out.

[Jokes]

Watching the broadcast I saw woodland and was amazed. He doesn't look at all like how he used to.

[SoMDGolfer]

Good call...lol

[SoMDGolfer]

Good Grief

[chipa]

Looks like Bryson could win this thing. He has probably gained 15 pounds of muscle, which isn't so bad for a big guy.

I like his swing and how he turns out his left foot when he goes after it. It really saves the knee and I've seen a lot of good players do it like Nicklaus, Palmer etc. Tiger probably should have done it more.

[Catty]

I wonder what his skin folds are like. I wouldn't think by looking at him they wouldn't be anything but high. He has an obvious double chin now which is not made of muscle. Hope it works for him, I don't mind his game.

[Holy Moses]

Interesting how some pros purposely gained weight during the pandemic, while others lost weight. Yet both players (Bryson and Gary) played well.

[gsrjc]

It’s like he went navy seal team 6.

[SirFuego]

It was a concept that was presented to me by a TPI trainer and I've heard it re-iterated by other people as well. Basically, the way it was explained to me was that if someone told you they injured themselves "jumping", it's almost a certainty that they hurt themselves on the landing (deceleration). The actual act of jumping (acceleration) and the time spent in the air is rarely the source of any inijury. During the landing is when the body feels the most forces, so it needs the more strength to decelerate than it does to accelerate. Now think about jumping off of a platform. If that platform is high enough, you are going to second-guess yourself before jumping off of that platform -- this is basically the "governor" in your brain. The brain sees something and doesn't think you are strong enough to handle the landing, so it tries to stop you from jumping. A similar thing happens in your golf swing where your brain will only let you swing up to a certain speed to avoid injury.

Greg Roskopf (Bryson's trainer) feels that muscle tightness is the result of muscle weakness. The idea is that if a muscle is tight (like a hamstring), is because the opposing muscle (like the hip flexor) is weak. If you address that weakness, the tight muscle will loosen up on its own and your mobility will improve and you become less injury prone. Essentially, tight muscles try to protect the weak muscles. This is perhaps a different way to think about your brains "governor". The tight muscles will limit your mobility, which will in turn limit swing speed.

I cannot comment on how much "formal" research there is on it, as golf fitness "research" is limited to small sample sizes and/or not given to the public for scrutiny, so the best you have is "trusting" the opinion of those trainers. Here are a few articles to read regarding speed training as well as having a proper strength base to support it: The Big Break Theory Overspeed: Facts and Fallacies of Training Beyond Maximal Velocity - SimpliFasterThe second article is pretty long and it only briefly touches on needing proper strength for speed training, but the author owns Par4Success and won't even start any of his clients on speed training until they are strong enough to do so. Those guys, and other trainers like Jason Glass, have a pretty big "anti-rotation" component to their training -- plank variations, pallof presses,etc.

[AndersUK]

Not sure what all the fuss is about regarding the excess weight? It is well known in body building that it is difficult to gain muscle without excess calories. To gain muscle and strength in the quickest time possible calories must exceed what the body needs so that the muscles are never left wanting. He is on an aggressive bulking cycle and based on the power he is generating, an efficient one too. Anyone bulking correctly, even eating cleanly, will pile on more fat than muscle unless genetically gifted or chemically enhanced.

At some point he should think about a cutting cycle whilst trying to maintain as much muscle and strength as possible. Then start over, unless he is heading down the power/strength (power lifter) route and is happy to carry the excess.

[chipa]

I have been weightlifting for many years and have found that the calorie surplus needed to grow muscle need not be more than 200 generally and with doing a calorie defecit on the days where the body is not recovering it is actually possible to gain muscle with very little fat gain. It may be different for a young guy in his early 20's. Also, I do intermittent fasting which creates a permanent ketosis which may have helped. Also, the intensity and type of workout affects the calorie needs. I have generally opted for the heavier weight and less reps in order to build muscle fiber density instead of volume.

[SirFuego]

Yeah plus consider that you don't want to bulk or cut in the middle of the season. However, with the wrap around schedule, there really isn't much of an off season to do that. So any sort of bulk/cut will need to be on an aggressive schedule. Plus an aggressive cut has the opposite problem of a bulk -- you lose fat, but you also lose muscle. Supposedly when Brooks did his cut last year, he was busting his butt in the gym, too, to minimize as muscle loss and still lost distance as a result. Also, professional golfers burn a lot more calories than most people think, so restricting calories can also hinder your energy levels (which is another thing Brooks mentioned during his cut). Brooks has since put weight back on and seems to have regained whatever distance he lost.

Whether or not Bryson decides to try to lower his body fat percentage remains to be seen, but I seem to think that a "cut" is actually riskier than the bulk he just did (with respect to his golf game and his quest for distance). Plus it's really common for professional golfers to lose weight during the season because it supposedly can become difficult for professional golfers to actually eat enough during the season, so we might actually see him lean up as the season progresses.

Regardless, he very likely still has a "healthy" body fat percentage anyways. He doesn't have a small build to begin with, so I don't see what amount of "excess" fat he has to really be hindering his mobility or overall health.

Athletes transform their body in other sports at the professional and collegiate levels to improve their performance. I don't understand why doing so in golf is met with so much criticism.

[forrester_fire]

You don't need a lot of excess calories to build muscle. Most top level body builders today don't bulk and cut like they used to...they learned that they lost a lot of the muscle they built if they have to to do a big cut. A calorie surplus of 100-200 calories a day is plenty to maximize muscle gain without the accompanying fat gain...hell, you can gain muscle at maintenance or even in a calorie deficit (if you already have sufficient body fat). You can't break the laws of thermodynamics...surplus calories go to fat storage no matter what.

Calories don't build muscle by themselves...it requires protein, micro-nutrients, and training stimulus to build muscle.

[chigolfer1]

Thanks, good stuff

[woodriff]

Agree @caniac6 I always look to the legs for muscle rather than the upper body. I’m a senior but do a lot of walking and biking and I’ve lost weight. Core and legs for speed with me. I’ll hit the rowing machine for some arm workout. IMHO muscle mass increase In arms and shoulders may hinder rather than enhance. Opinion only. He has great speed but if that swing breaks down it’ll start with timing and then more tinkering. He’s definitely throwing everything at the ball though.

[Myherobobhope]

He has inspired me to chase club head speed in the gym... I needed to get on a workout routine and figured I’d build one that had other direct benefits. Seems like a fun project to chase club head speed while losing weight.

im using fit for golf and focusing on explosive power. We will see if it works!

[ThinkingPlus]

IMO, Bryson won't ever "cut". He isn't interested in looking good, but in maximizing his distance.

[wakit300]

Wow, I'm constantly amazed at the number of golf, nutrition, fitness and weight lifting experts on this forum.

[Scotty1140]

To quote Wayne, Dery, and Squirley Dan, "everyone's a f*****g expert!"

[woodriff]

My only concern in Brysons swing would be injury. It’s a controlled, repeatable swing on that particular day.

He’s a scientist and tinkerer. You can mess around with clubs. Messing with the body is another matter all together.

[MK7Golf21]

yea and one thing I don't see mentioned much is he is using a 5.5 degree driver now and could be slightly longer. I'm using a 10.5 degree driver, if I switched to a 5.5 degree driver and practiced daily with it I would gain a good amount of distance too without any power/speed training.

[marmaduk]

I don’t think that’s how it works?

[jonsnow]

Hmm, so by your reasoning Dustin Johnson is smarter than Bryson as he is ranked #5 in the world & one of the longest guys on tour? I'm not seeing the correlation, but if you say so...

[MK7Golf21]

sure it is, if you are a pro with his talent and working daily on it, you can figure out how to hit a longer 5.5 degree driver pretty fast. His goal from the beginning was distance