Best Off-Season Workout Program

[DPG2247]

I'm a new assistant pro and am looking to get back in shape during this off season. I have one more tournament left this upcoming Monday and then I want to begin a structured program that will last 3-3.5 months. I am a member at a nearby gym that can provide all the machines and weights that I will need. I work 40 hours a week and want to still hit balls for an hour or two before work so I don't want a program that will have me in the gym for several hours and something that will make me so sore that I won't be able to swing a golf club the next day (see P-90X). If anyone can recommend me a book or a website that could help me develop this program I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

[Gridiron]

Take a look at the book "Body for Life". It is a 12 week program and takes less than 1 hour a day. There is a Body for Life website as well.

[hbgpagolfpro]

Got some news for you...if you want to get in good shape, you are going to be sore in the beginning. If you stay consistent with your workouts, you won't be sore after workouts. but maybe a little stiff. That is natural, and let's you know you are making progress. In my view, P90X is excellent for golfers because it incorporates a variety of routines and stretching. A teaching pro I know has lost over 50 pounds in the past year doing this workout.

[gwlee7]

And while it made me sore in the beginning, I have never been too sore to swing a golf club doing P90x.

[csycsailor]

crossfit.com

[Gotblades]

I too have had success with Body For Life.

Just use light weights in the beginning. Drink the protein, etc... soreness will be minimum.

Now my wife has me going with her to Yoga (Yes, I am going WITH her) and I think that is really going to be a good thing.

Best regards,

B.

[russc1597187869]

Golf biomechanic--Paul Chek

[douggolf4]

P90x.

[vietnameeh]

if your looking for off season.. a true off season

go lift heavy on the big muscles, always work out the core, and fit in lots of stretching

and in between work in cardio or max interval training stuff

i know things like p90x and insanity work but all it is max interval training and using own body weight (which isnt a bad thing), but truly a good off season workout involves lifting heavy to build insane power IMHO and mixing it up with cardio and stretching

i think insanity/p90x works well for during the ON season work outs it has real good stretches and you wont be doing to heavy of workout so your still good for tournaments etc

[poops]

One word - Pilates.

[#1Ballin]

Snowboarding is working for me pretty well. Played a round after 2 weeks straight of snowboarding powder and hiking up to 13,000 feet, shot a great round at Red Rocks CC and hit the ball a mile.

[Gupps01]

Head to a physical trainer or find a TPI guy and get a program designed around you and not a standardised program that doesn't take into account different structural strengths and weaknesses. Also while your at it you might as well get screened for structural deficiencies so you can work on them in conjunction with the workout program.

If you don't want to go down that route, find a copy of Golf Anatomy by Dr Craig Davies and Dr Vince DiSaia. That has basically everything you need to do and it also explains why, not just what

[justhackin]

As an assistant pro you should know the value of taking instruction from someone that knows the area you are interested in. My wife goes to a TPI person and it has helped her game just as much as lessons. If they have the buisness model set up a certain way (hers is/was a chiropractor) insurance will pay for much of it.

I personally use a kettle bell but in your situation I would look at using a professional in the field.

hackin

[SneakyLong420]

so i hope im not going against any forum rules doing this......but if u would like off course fitness help check out [url="http://www.wannabebig.com"]www.wannabebig.com[/url] many many educated people as far as the gym goes ( and not just about getting huge). As far as

[CincyGolfGirl]

I was watching the Golf Channel over the weekend and caught part of a program called Golf Fitness. The episode was focused on building your core to achieve a better rotation. The exercises seemed pretty straight-forward and easy to do by yourself at the gym. I was going to give it a try. The show doesn't seem to be on that often so I programmed it into my DVR.

[ago33]

if you are having problems with swinging the club the next day with p90x, its because you are in the first week and are not taking enough supplements that combat muscle fatigue.

[Chunky Monkey]

[quote name='csycsailor' timestamp='1290784679' post='2809732']
crossfit.com
[/quote]


I'd like to 2nd the vote for crossfit.

You can also check out [url="http://www.artofstrength.com"]www.artofstrength.com[/url] for some nifty tips. You can do most of the exercises with free weights instead of kettlebells if that's what is available to you.

[SneakyLong420]

svenanole, that is a totally bogus lie. whats gonna help with DOMS( not fatigue) is proper rest and diet

[craig50golf]

crossfit is better than anything I have ever done. I'm more flexible, stronger, quicker, more stamina than I have been in a long time. And I know it works for golf because I have picked back up some distance I had lost over the past few years. Even one of my friends made a comment about about far I was hitting it.

[quote name='csycsailor' timestamp='1290784679' post='2809732']
crossfit.com
[/quote]

[CallawayLefty]

[quote name='craig50golf' timestamp='1325104392' post='3997593']
crossfit is better than anything I have ever done. I'm more flexible, stronger, quicker, more stamina than I have been in a long time. And I know it works for golf because I have picked back up some distance I had lost over the past few years. Even one of my friends made a comment about about far I was hitting it.

[quote name='csycsailor' timestamp='1290784679' post='2809732']
crossfit.com
[/quote]
[/quote]

As a 2 year+ crossfiter, I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot and I was in pretty damn good shape. That said, be careful if you plan on this being your primary fitness routine for golf. First, most crossfit "coaching" sucks. I was fortunate enough to live 2 miles away from one of the best crossfit gyms in the country, so that wasn't a huge issue for me. Second, someone alluded to this above, don't plan on being able to keep a great golf schedule if you keep a consistent crossfit schedule. I was sore all the time, my hands were frequently torn to all hell from pull-ups and olympic lifting, etc. Third, I don't know if you're familiar with the phrase "trying to ride two horses with one backside," but crossfit is like trying to ride 3 dozen horses with one backside. After 2 years, I simply do not believe you can get all physical benefits (strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, etc.) at once. That's what crossfit promises, and it does not deliver. Finally, watch your a** for injuries. I left my gym with a torn labrum earlier this year. Injury prevention is not goal #1 of crossfit.

I warn you - enter with care. I loved it, but I will never go back. There are some great ideas involved with crossfit, but at the end of the day, it's a cult. People who disagree are usually on the payroll or just haven't been doing it long enough to speak with any authority.

Folks above who touted it - let me guess, you've got less than 6 months in...correct?

[TN TITANS]

[quote name='CallawayLefty' timestamp='1325127575' post='3999225']
[quote name='craig50golf' timestamp='1325104392' post='3997593']
crossfit is better than anything I have ever done. I'm more flexible, stronger, quicker, more stamina than I have been in a long time. And I know it works for golf because I have picked back up some distance I had lost over the past few years. Even one of my friends made a comment about about far I was hitting it.

[quote name='csycsailor' timestamp='1290784679' post='2809732']
crossfit.com
[/quote]
[/quote]

As a 2 year+ crossfiter, I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot and I was in pretty damn good shape. That said, be careful if you plan on this being your primary fitness routine for golf. First, most crossfit "coaching" sucks. I was fortunate enough to live 2 miles away from one of the best crossfit gyms in the country, so that wasn't a huge issue for me. Second, someone alluded to this above, don't plan on being able to keep a great golf schedule if you keep a consistent crossfit schedule. I was sore all the time, my hands were frequently torn to all hell from pull-ups and olympic lifting, etc. Third, I don't know if you're familiar with the phrase "trying to ride two horses with one backside," but crossfit is like trying to ride 3 dozen horses with one backside. After 2 years, I simply do not believe you can get all physical benefits (strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, etc.) at once. That's what crossfit promises, and it does not deliver. Finally, watch your a** for injuries. I left my gym with a torn labrum earlier this year. Injury prevention is not goal #1 of crossfit.

I warn you - enter with care. I loved it, but I will never go back. There are some great ideas involved with crossfit, but at the end of the day, it's a cult. People who disagree are usually on the payroll or just haven't been doing it long enough to speak with any authority.

Folks above who touted it - let me guess, you've got less than 6 months in...correct?
[/quote]

I appreciate you taking th time to respond because I have been seriously considering joining my local cross fit gym. I don't know much about it so could you go into a little more detail as far as the workout frequency, " boot camp" period, how a beginner fits into workout sessions until they get in shape enough to hang with the regulars? Any additional info would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[CallawayLefty]

[/quote]

I appreciate you taking th time to respond because I have been seriously considering joining my local cross fit gym. I don't know much about it so could you go into a little more detail as far as the workout frequency, " boot camp" period, how a beginner fits into workout sessions until they get in shape enough to hang with the regulars? Any additional info would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
[/quote]

Sure thing. Workout frequency is basically self-dictated. The official crossfit perscription - i.e. the frequency at which they post workouts on the crossfit website - is 3 days on 1 day off, repeat, repeat...At the affiliate gyms, there are usually workouts Monday - Saturday, and you can attend whichever of those you choose. For me, there was a tremendous benefit from that aspect - I knew that at 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m., I could show up, spend exactly one hour, sometimes less, and get a good, complete workout with warm-up, workout, and stretching. My experience though is that for most mortals, 3 on 1 off is a very aggressive schedule. I did 5 on 2 off for a long time, and I can tell you it's brutal. By Friday night when you are ready to pass out on the couch at 6:00 p.m., you are a babbling, groggy, zonked out mess. This experience was shared by many of my fellow gym-goers. This at least applies to those of us who have normal 40 hour per week jobs (in my case 50+ hours), families, etc. The people who are more immune are the housewives, the self-employed easy schedulers, and the college kids who can sleep 10+ hours per day. I can tell you that I did for a period of time get very good results off of a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule.

The bootcamp period varies by individual, but the beauty of crossfit is that it is (by their terms) "universally scalable." I agree to some extent - weights can always be lowered, reps can be cut, times can be prorated, etc. all based on the individual's fitness. How long before you can hang with the big dogs? Took me 1 month of bootcamp, followed by copious amounts of scaling, including for certain workouts, all the way up until I left.

My main gripes are three - (1) injuries, (2) sport preparation, and (3) cult-likeness. I spoke to (1) above, but my basic gripe is that crossfit claims to be universally scalable, but introduces a competition aspect that makes you want to use more weight, do more reps, go faster, harder, etc., all of which encourages horrible form and sloppiness which lead to injury. People will tell you that you just need to not be boneheaded about it - that's great, but wait until you've been there for 6 months...you won't want to scale, you will crap over your form, and you will be hurt. Happened at one point or another to 100% of the people at my gym - again with one of the best crossfit coaches in the nation overseeing us. (2) Crossfit sucks for sport preparation because crossfit itself becomes the sport. It won't be long before you'll want to be doing extra running, extra weightlifting, skill practice, etc. so your workout times improve. Pretty soon, you'll be just like I was and spending 7-8 hours doing crossfit per week and practicing your other "sport" whenever time allows. Also, the injuries and exhaustion I mentioned above tend to cut into your sport time. One in particular for golf is that your hands are ALWAYS ABSOLUTELY TRASHED from pullups and weightlifting. I had to play in a tournament with two gloves over the summer because my hands were destroyed. I made it, but it sucked. (3) Cult-likeness - put it this way, if you say any of what I have just said to a "crossfitter," prepare to have your ear torn off with the barrage of vitriol that is forthcoming. Talk about exhaustion at the gym...p**sy. Talk about injuries at the gym...p**sy. Talk about bad preparation for sports...p**sy.

Again, enter at your own risk. There is much better stuff you can do for golf.

EDIT: Find me a PGA player that does crossfit...I tried, he doesn't appear to be out there. I can't tell you what to do exactly, but the stuff they throw out of the TPI seems okay I guess. It's a little bit limp-wristed for my taste. It seems to me like the most important things for golf are: (1) flexibility, (2) core strength, (3) a critical mass of total body strength - probably much lower than most good lifting programs would get you, and (4) avoiding having a big belly to lug around. If you are a naturally strong person, a combination of (1), (2) and (4) probably works just fine. I am naturally strong enough to play golf, so that's what I'm focusing on.

[stryper]

[quote name='Gupps01' timestamp='1290857758' post='2810975']
[i]Head to a physical trainer or find a TPI guy and get a program designed around you[/i] and not a standardised program that doesn't take into account different structural strengths and weaknesses. Also while your at it you might as well get screened for structural deficiencies so you can work on them in conjunction with the workout program.
[/quote]
This

[Eag1e]

P90X, Pilates, Crossfit, all huge wastes of time.

How you train is gonna be specific to what your fitness background and desire is. If you're a tournament player where you will be walking you'll need cardio conditioning but otherwise playing cart tournaments is not strenuous enough to make cardio training remotely worth giving time to in a 3.5 month training program. If you are a walking tournament player you'll need to put in SOME effort on leg endurance - endurance squatting will be the best thing in the world once you're strong enough to get 25+ reps with some decent weight on the bar, but before that high incline speed walking/jogging is gonna be what you want. The incline is what will be important, not the speed.

If you have specific weaknesses you'll need to address them but the base of your program needs to be barbell strength training. Stay away from machines, they are an absolute waste of time. Rippetoe's Starting Strength is what you want. The bodybuilding.com forums have a few threads devoted to explaining the SS program and there's also a starting strength wiki you can google for that will have info on all the lifts.

Unless you have flexibility issues you need to address just focus on heavy barbell lifting and getting stronger. Squats, deadlifts, and presses will do more for your core than screwing around with various ab exercises and will actually help your entire body.

When you begin the program you won't get sore, you'll get sore once or twice when the weights finally start getting really rough on you but after the second time you won't really get sore any more as long as you don't do anything dumb like take a week or two off.

[CallawayLefty]

[quote name='Eag1e' timestamp='1325176106' post='4000821']
P90X, Pilates, Crossfit, all huge wastes of time.

How you train is gonna be specific to what your fitness background and desire is. If you're a tournament player where you will be walking you'll need cardio conditioning but otherwise playing cart tournaments is not strenuous enough to make cardio training remotely worth giving time to in a 3.5 month training program. If you are a walking tournament player you'll need to put in SOME effort on leg endurance - endurance squatting will be the best thing in the world once you're strong enough to get 25+ reps with some decent weight on the bar, but before that high incline speed walking/jogging is gonna be what you want. The incline is what will be important, not the speed.

If you have specific weaknesses you'll need to address them but the base of your program needs to be barbell strength training. Stay away from machines, they are an absolute waste of time. Rippetoe's Starting Strength is what you want. The bodybuilding.com forums have a few threads devoted to explaining the SS program and there's also a starting strength wiki you can google for that will have info on all the lifts.

Unless you have flexibility issues you need to address just focus on heavy barbell lifting and getting stronger. Squats, deadlifts, and presses will do more for your core than screwing around with various ab exercises and will actually help your entire body.

When you begin the program you won't get sore, you'll get sore once or twice when the weights finally start getting really rough on you but after the second time you won't really get sore any more as long as you don't do anything dumb like take a week or two off.
[/quote]

Agree on starting strength. If you are in to weightlifting, you could probably ride some variant of this program off into the sunset for many years. I have done it before, I am now heading away from heavy lifts due to the stress and strain on my body. I'd rather play golf into my 80s than lift now and be all torn up. But, if you need a base level of strength for golf that you've never otherwise developed, please do this program instead of some garbage routine.