Hi all, first post on the boards.
I am looking for advice on weight training to increase my ability to generate maximum power in a golf swing. I am not particularly looking for golf specific exercises, though all info welcome.
A bit of background to give you an idea where to pitch this. I am a male professional golfer, 26 years old, trying to play golf for a living. I am currently in the off season (not made it to the European tour yet and my tour in the UK does not run through the winter). I recently joined a gym with a view to getting in better shape for golf. I am not new to lifting weights, but a shoulder injury kept me off the weights a couple of years ago and I got out of the habit, other than injury prevention stuff. Now free from injury I want to concentrate on power development.
I have been given conflicting advice from various sources. One guy I know is an ex national champion body builder. His advice on weight lifting was to lift twice per week, once on "pulling" exercises, once on "pushing" exercises. He suggested that I should do 3 sets of 12 reps, lifting the maximum weight that I could for each of those 3 sets. That is, the weight got smaller for each set, always lifting at my max.
Whilst this seems solid advice for gaining strength and muscle mass (I did it for a couple of weeks and saw immediate results), I do not think it is particularly suited to golf. Golf is about explosive power and this method of training seems to promote huge strength but will not apply it quickly.
At the other end, some guy with a phd in exercise something or other suggested doing 1 rep with my 1RM for each exercise every day, a minimum of 5 days per week. Whilst I can potentially see how doing 1 rep would improve power, common sense would suggest that training 5 days per week is a bad idea.
So guys, what I really want is advice on how to train. How many reps and sets should I be doing, how much weight should I be using for each set, how fast should I be performing the exercises and how often should I be doing them.
Thanks in advance.
Additionally, I am doing 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour on aerobic work 4-5 times per week, usually on the treadmill.
I am looking for advice on weight training to increase my ability to generate maximum power in a golf swing. I am not particularly looking for golf specific exercises, though all info welcome.
A bit of background to give you an idea where to pitch this. I am a male professional golfer, 26 years old, trying to play golf for a living. I am currently in the off season (not made it to the European tour yet and my tour in the UK does not run through the winter). I recently joined a gym with a view to getting in better shape for golf. I am not new to lifting weights, but a shoulder injury kept me off the weights a couple of years ago and I got out of the habit, other than injury prevention stuff. Now free from injury I want to concentrate on power development.
I have been given conflicting advice from various sources. One guy I know is an ex national champion body builder. His advice on weight lifting was to lift twice per week, once on "pulling" exercises, once on "pushing" exercises. He suggested that I should do 3 sets of 12 reps, lifting the maximum weight that I could for each of those 3 sets. That is, the weight got smaller for each set, always lifting at my max.
Whilst this seems solid advice for gaining strength and muscle mass (I did it for a couple of weeks and saw immediate results), I do not think it is particularly suited to golf. Golf is about explosive power and this method of training seems to promote huge strength but will not apply it quickly.
At the other end, some guy with a phd in exercise something or other suggested doing 1 rep with my 1RM for each exercise every day, a minimum of 5 days per week. Whilst I can potentially see how doing 1 rep would improve power, common sense would suggest that training 5 days per week is a bad idea.
So guys, what I really want is advice on how to train. How many reps and sets should I be doing, how much weight should I be using for each set, how fast should I be performing the exercises and how often should I be doing them.
Thanks in advance.
Additionally, I am doing 1/2 - 3/4 of an hour on aerobic work 4-5 times per week, usually on the treadmill.