[tongzilla]

Vickie: I am just under six foot and was 10 1/2 stone my normal weight that never shifts (mainly ectomorph with a touch of mesomorph) . After two weeks of weights ( 3 times a week Arms ,chest,shoulder and lats one day . Torso ie lower back and abs another and pure leg day)and eating I am up to 11 stone which is the the most heavy I have ever been. I do all the excercises you recommended bar the bicep curl. I was under the impression that you should leave the biceps alone in golf and concentrate on the triceps. Looking at my body I would say my right arm and right upper body looks a bit bigger and stronger than the left (years of playing tennis). The most useful excercise that relates to golf that I have found is using a pulley system where I attach a rope and pull down as in the start of the downswing to about half way down. The machine is also set up so that there is a pulley close to floor level and I attach the rope there and pull from a little lower than half way down to the point in the swing where both arms are straight in the follow through. Both these are done with a golf swing set up and attitude. My plan is to weight train with heavy weights to get to 12 stone then speed up the training with lower weights and more reps for power when I get there. What do you think of that plan and as a trainer how to you recommend getting both sides of my upper body balanced ? I have been thinking of slipping in a pure left side only day to take the training days up to 4. I am getting a very heavy weighted 7 iron that I will hit balls with and will do a couple of Yoga sessions on the off days. I used to do yoga and am already quite flexible.

This post is not just for hue, but for all those who want to take their physical game onto another level.

Stick with compound exercises, lift heavy and explosively (with good technique) and stay within the 6-8 rep range. When I say 6-8, it means you shouldn't be able to do more than 8 reps, even when you try your very best. Excellent exercises are deadlifts, pull ups (if you can't do them, do pull downs), bench press, seated rows and upright rows. Add in few sets of barbell curls, reverse curls, tricep pull downs, and that's a pretty good program. Golf-specific exercise are overated and misunderstood. They claim to work your "golf muscles" (...your whole body?), but they don't overload your muscles enough. You shouldn't need more than 14 sets of exercises in any workout. Overload and intensity is the key. You achieve that by trying to lift more every workout. There is no alternative. How strong can you get by doing a few core stability exercises on a swiss ball? Hmmm...

No need to spend more than 40 mins doing weights in gym every day. Remember, your goal is do get more powerful, and you do that by doing the above, not swinging with a weighted club or some other goofy exercise! IMO, most people have got their priorities wrong, doing all these isolated exercises in a very controlled manner. You and I don't have 5 hours a day devoted to physical training. Indeed, you don't need that much time to achieve peak golfing condition!

One more piece of advice before I go: do not mix endurance training with weight training! This is such a very misunderstood area. The golf swing is an explosive motion....requires no endurance (the swing lasts about 2 seconds!). Doing 50 reps of pull downs doesn't build endurance, it's just a very very slow way to get stronger. So when you do weights, it's all about getting more powerful (i.e. stronger and quicker). For endurance, do cardio. I suggest reasonably high intesity (70% MHR+) cardio for 15-30 minutes for maximum efficiency (especially if you want to supercharge your matabolism) Don't get stuck in the middle. You get best of neither worlds!

I feel this is going to be a very controversial post, and many people will have questions...you're welcome!