Off Season Strength Training

[GolfFitPro]

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Better Golf with Fitness "Virtual Roundtable."

Periodically, I send questions out to golf fitness professionals
throughout the country and ask them a question about golf fitness and
post the answers here.  Click Here for the Virtual Roundtable Archive

This month's question I posed to our golf fitness experts is:

"Here in New York, the golf season is coming to an end for a while.
How does your golf fitness programming change during the off-season"

"During the season, because my golfers are playing a lot more, I lower the volume of training. That usually means that we will only meet twice a week, and I decrease the number of sets we do. I try to focus on just maintaining total body strength and power, core stability and flexibility.  The main concern is over-training.
Once the off-season comes, we amp up the volume of training, getting them to the gym at least 3 times a week.  The focus in the beginning of the off-season is gaining total body strength.  Once we get closer to the season, power exercises (medicine ball throws, Olympic lifts) are added as volume once again starts to decrease."
Anthony Renna, CSCS
Five Iron Fitness
www.GolfFitnessProducts.net
Better Golf with Fitness Blog

"Golfers need to understand that an off-season is ESSENTIAL regardless of where you live.  It's the only time where emphasis on skill development can be reduced and development of the physical abilities that allow skills to improve can be emphasized.
The off-season is the time of year to address your individual deficiencies in your physical abilities.  It may be that a golfer needs to improve strength, power, flexibility, or general conditioning.  Focusing on raising your weaker physical abilities, maintaining the rest, allows the golfer to ultimately reach a higher level skill development than if all abilities are treated equally."
Bill Hartman, PT, CSCS
PR Performance Golf Fitness Training
www.yourgolffitnesscoach.com

"I have found that every golfer needs some down time as well as some time to reflect on their game. How did you play? How did you score? Did you accomplish what you wanted? If not, what was holding you back?
In working with professional golfers, I have always used the off season to run assessments and see where the player is at. There are evaluations which break down various elements of strength, flexibility, stability and balance. Once you have a realistic opportunity to see where you're at, you can make specific plans for improvement. If golfers can key in on their weak areas during the off season, I think they have the greatest likelihood of seeing the most progress when the season arrives."
Susan Hill
FitnessforGolf.com

My off-season program emphasizes posture and overall strength. Posture is a crucial component of golf conditioning. It's not the most glamorous, but it is so important that it merits constant attention. Without good posture in your everyday life and in your golf address position, you cannot hope to maximize the other physical performance
factors. Off-Season is also the perfect time to get as strong as possible. Weight training and the use of a stability ball will be your main tools. Don't be afraid to hit the weights hard and heavy - the stronger you can get, the better.
Mike Romatowski
www.golfstarfitness.com
www.mytpipro.com
[email protected]

"In the off-season, first thing would be to evaluate the previous season's areas of
strengths and weaknesses to make sure program emphasis is in the right place.  Secondly,training volume will go up in an effort to build overall strength.  Third, During the golf season I try to limit rotational exercises as so much rotation is occurring during
play, but now in the off-season I will increase the amount of rotational exercises: first
with flexibility, second rotational stability (controlling rotation) and then finally addressing rotational power in the final months before the season begins."
Brad Keisling MSPT, CSCS
www.orthosportedu.com
[email protected]

"I consider the 3-6 months (depending on where you live) of non-golfing/off-season as a perfect time to get back in the gym and work on my Phase I: Base Strength Program.   My clients start participating three times a week in muscular strength training/general base/core protecting exercises that focus on slow controlled as well as power based movements with much more weight involved than in-season.
Many of my clients want to enhance their golf driving power for the next season.  They know that approximately 80% of that driving power starts below the waist.  Therefore, I focus on legs, legs, and more legs!
Swing control and accuracy is high on the list of needs to lower the handicap.  We work upper body push/pull movements in supersets to exhaustion.
Core protection is a major concern for the new season.  My clients know that the "stronger the trunk of their tree, the stronger their limbs will be".  Therefore, overloading all realms of the midsection are key."
Click here for a list of sample exercises.
Mindi Boysen

www.fitforgolfusa.com

"Preparing for the reduction of golf, there needs to be a plan for the next 3-4 months. The main question is what is your goal for this off-season?  How many days per week will you work out and how many minutes will you train per session? Then you need to break down the week of training into Flexibility, strength, power, cardiovascular, stability and injury prevention. The area of weakness should have the highest percentage of training for the week. Starting the program is the first step, and if you maintain your routine throughout the off-season you should see the benefits next summer."
David Donatucci
Director International Performance Institute
Bradenton FL
www.ipitraining.com

"I spend more time working on basic strength/flexibility exercises to develop, or at the very least maintain, the muscles in the legs, hips, lower back and shoulders.
I spend very little time working on golf-specific exercises because the off-season is the time to identify weak links in your body and address those weak links so you can perform better next year.
I also reemphasize the basics of movement. It is important to master basic movement patterns like the squat before moving onto any golf-specific exercise movements. Master the simple stuff before moving onto the advanced and you will constantly increase your power, strength, balance, flexibility and mobility."
Jason Krantz, CSCS
Sonic Boom Golf
www.sonicboomgolf.com
[email protected]

"We have a similar climate in Chicago and find that the off-season is the ideal time to effectively develop the major components of fitness.  My more rabid clients will want to begin immediately after the golf season but I often advise them to take a week or two of active rest.  I ask them to participate in some non-competitive activities that do not resemble golf.   After rest, we assess for structural weaknesses and imbalances before adding resistance.  The off season is the time to progress from a base of strength to power and then skill while making some nice body composition changes as well.   Active range of motion and control also improves during this time."
Scott T. Kroculick MSEd, RKT, CSCS
MAT Certified Specialist
NeuroMuscular Training Institute
312-231-0860
www.NMTI.org

"Typically the Golfers I train have their programs divided into cycles throughout the year. The off-season is always devoted to 4 parts: 1) Increasing strength with more compound exercises. 2) Developing more stamina and endurance. 3) Injury prevention drills, to protect the lower back, shoulders, wrist, and so on. 4) The last portion is dedicated to improving what ever we felt was lacking during the season, stability, body control, tightness in certain areas and more. Since their is not much playing time it's a good time to experiment with new ideas to use during the season as well."
Rafael Moret, CSCS.NASM-Cpt
[email protected]
www.MiamiGolfFitness.com

"The off season is the perfect time to reflect and work on your physical needs. Flexibility, and strength. I break up strength training into 4 phases during the year. Adaptation, strength, power and during the season maintenance. Adaptation to develop deep postural integrity using bodyweight, and swiss balls.Strength for developing the ground work to power, I begin to use free weights. The Power phase is sports specific, lots of loaded rotations movements. The Maintenance phase is designed to keep the golfer fit and strong during the season. I like use a bungee with this phase and keep the workout no more than 20 minutes."
Paul Frediani
www.paulfrediani.com

"Generally I like to allow my players to have a recovery period of 2-3 weeks where the player can choose any activity they want and no structured training is schedule to allow mental and physical rejuvenation.  After this period the focus of training is to address any injury related issues that may have developed or lingered through the season and then begin strength development phases.  As the off-season progresses a power phase will be added to training as well and we will progress into more focused and
specific movements as the upcoming season nears."
Joel Raether MAEd., CSCS
Asst. Strength and Conditioning Coach
University of Denver
[email protected]
(w) 303 871 3887
© 720 217 2705

"I look to be a little more aggressive in the off-season, not just focusing on the most common attributes like flexibility;  but looking outside the box a little.  If  adding a couple pounds of muscle will help, I am all for it.  If they just need some down time from golf, we'll look for an alternate  sport that contains some similar motor qualities so that they can have a break but still be training.  Or if maximal strength is what they need, we'll go after that. I am all for anything that will help a golfer hold-up at little better throughout the duration of the season; and remember, golfers are athletes
One thing that many golfers overlook is that progression is rarely a linear and more likely cyclic.  Therefore, the hope with a golf conditioning program is to produce an effect so that the highs will be a little higher with the lows that are not so low."
Troy M Anderson
[email protected]
bluecollargolfer.com

"There is a heavy emphasis on training movement patterns and motor skill development. The summer is the time to play and the winter is the time to practice and improve.  The focus is on learning and less on outcome.  The winter is a good time to work on all components of performance, strength, mobility, balance, endurance leading into power development in the late winter/early spring."
Eanna Rushe, MS, CSCS, CGFI, MES
BioSport Technologies
[email protected]

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