Golf Performance Guidelines to Avoid Bulking Up.
With golf fitness and high performance training taking the golf industry by storm, a common concern amongst golfers both male and female is putting on too much muscle mass and bulking up as a result of exercising. While there’s no denying that performance training for the game of golf (golf fitness) and the science surrounding the development of your “golf body” has proven to be beneficial, is it entirely possible to enhance your physical performance without the repercussions of building performance diminishing amounts of muscle mass.
At this day and age golfers, both touring professionals and amateurs alike, are revolutionizing the industry by way of developing a “golfers are athletes” culture. Two very prominent figures in golf that are widely regarded as advocates and trend setters of the fitness related performance benefits for the game of golf are Tiger Woods, and more currently Rory McIlroy. On the LPGA tour, Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson are two exceptionally athletic women who also embody these values. All four professional golfers are athletes who exercise for the sole purpose of performance enhancement for the golf swing.
There is no arguing that the golf swing is a highly demanding, physically stressful, complex athletic maneuver. Some even argue that it may stand alone as the most athletically complex move in professional sports. There are multiple moving parts requiring various feats of athleticism that all can be improved through performance training. An athlete’s acceleration, deceleration, strength, balance, mobility, power, agility, speed and stability abilities are all challenged when he or she swings a golf club. These can and need to be improved to increase overall performance and to reduce the incidence of injury by building resilience to the repetitive nature of the golf swing.
Contrary to the evidence, many golfers still feel that exercising will yield more negative than positive results, and these claims could hold a certain level of legitimacy. You could claim that excessive performance training contributed to Tiger’s increase in muscle mass and his recent spiral of injuries, or Rory’s sudden lack of on course success. While these are completely legitimate concerns, the probability of injury and decline in on course performance can absolutely be avoided with the correct exercise prescription and training periodization.
If high performance training is something that interests you, but your hesitant or unsure where to start or what to do, follow these three tips to increase your athletic performance, avoid adverse muscle mass gains and reduce your risk of injury during your season.
1. Avoid Isolation.
Exercises requiring the use of machines are designed to stabilize you in order to focus on individual muscle groups. When the focus shifts from training movements to training individual muscles, muscles size will rapidly increase. To avoid performance diminishing amounts of muscles growth, perform exercises that require your entire body, especially ones that involve you pushing into the ground.
2. Save your swing for the course and the range.
The golf swing is an extremely fast movement. It requires the nervous system to move the necessary segments of our body as fast as possible when commanded to do so. In the gym, there is a limited amount of equipment that can reproduce that same intensity. If we perform golf swings with weight, what we are doing is training our nervous system to move our body segments slower than they normally would move when swinging a golf club. This will decrease your club head speed and increase your risk for injury.
3. Get an assessment.
The most important thing you can do for your golf performance and overall health is to get an assessment. You don’t know what you don’t know! In order to improve upon your weaknesses, you need to identify what you’re already efficient at and what lacks efficiency. Once assessed, you and your Titleist Performance Institute-certified Fitness Professional Performance Coach can put a personalized plan together with the correct level of intensity and progression ensuring maximum improvement and minimal risk.
Contact Coach Nick Mueller for your Complimentary Golf Assessment Today!!
Nick Mueller
Professional Training Coach
p. 604.536.1355
www.innovativefitness.com
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