[Bagger Lance]

Psheehan,

I don't have the disc issue you have, but I can relate to everything else. Age is not a friend for those of us comparing our current performance to our younger selves.

A few years ago when I started going back to the gym, I ramped and trained like I did 20 years earlier. Within 6 weeks, I was sick in bed from overtraining. My immune system was shot. I recovered and then 2 months later, sick again. Overtrained.
It is clear to me that as we age, we don't recover from training as quickly as we did in our youth. I focus just as hard on recovery as I do on the workouts. There are a couple of things that seems to help.

• Warm up slowly during the workout.
• Once warmed up, go at it with as much intensity as you can muster. Knock yourself out! There are days I can barely walk out of the gym. Now that I think about it, it's almost every day.
• Supplement the diet with the highest quality protein, carbohydrate, glutamine, creatine formula you can find. I take the supplement within an hour because muscle cells are most receptive to nutrient replacement within an hour of exercise and then again before bed.
• Eat high quality natural foods in reasonable portions throughout the day.
• Get into a good stretching routine and do it 4 or 5 times a week. Yoga may serve a dual purpose here. Stretch and reduce stress at the same time.
• Try to get the best quality of sleep you can get even if it means a natural sleep supplement.
• Drink as much water as you can get your hands on.
• Limit drinking adult beverages as the Liver has more important things to do. Plus it interferes with good quality sleep.
• Everyday stress also inhibits recovery thus contributing to the overtraining syndrome. Think about your lifestyle and find ways to reduce mental stress.
  

The soreness and stiffness is not necessarily lactic acid buildup although it does contribute. It is the mainly the damage to the muscle tissue brought about from the workout. Lactic Acid helps the muscles recover and rebuild. Personally, I allow each major body part a full two days to recover and that is a stretch. Meaning I do Bench or Squats every three days. As I monitor recovery, I'm finding it may take a bit longer. Every two months, I take a full week off from lifting and just do cardio or tennis or some other "fun" workout activity. Light cardio seems to help recovery as well. In terms of Testosterone, it decreases as we age and the only way to keep the levels up is through exercise. The more instense the exercise and specifically compound exercises, the higher the potential levels produced. Squats and Deadlifts are good for this, but you need to be sensitive to your spine. I'm not qualified to say whether or not you can do these with good form and not effect your disc. Since you have a powerlifting background, I'll take your word that these are not options. What about incline leg presses? These are compound and are good supplements for squats.

In terms of mixing strength training with golf, there are days when you will be sore and stiff. I have not found soreness to be a determent to my game. It's uncomfortable for sure, but it doesn't seem to interfere with the swing. But stiffness is a swing killer. Spasms signal to me that the muscles are recovering and not only need rest, but a nice stretch might help as well.

A few suggestions for Golf and Strength Training:

If you are a hitter, don’t do a heavy chest/tricep/back workout the day before playing. You won’t have the strength to get your normal distance and your timing may get thrown off.

If you are a swinger, don’t worry about the soreness, but do worry about the stiffness.

Make sure you spend 30 minutes to an hour prior to the round stretching everything. If you are riding in a cart, experiencing slow play, or playing in cold weather then stretch constantly throughout the round.

There isn't anything we can do about the effects of aging but as for me, I'm not going down that path without a fight!