By Craig Huntington

Golf season will soon be upon us. Every year, all around the world, golfers obsessively spend millions, if not billions of dollars in a feverish attempt to improve their games.  Some of those funds will be allocated for instruction by a professional, (Norman White thanks you.) some will be used to buy training gadgets and videos, and some will go towards books and courses teaching the newest "Jedi Mind Tricks" in golf.  The highest percentage however, will be spent on the latest advances in golf equipment.  
 
Since 1421, when the game was invented in The Kingdom of Fife, golfers have neglected to pay attention to the most important piece of equipment they own.  And what extremely valuable piece might that be? Yep, you guessed it; the human body, more specifically the muscular-skeletal system. Golf is the most behind the times sport in the world when it comes to the use of proper exercise for performance enhancement.

In the 1960's and 70's Gary Player, who was considered the PGA's guru of conditioning, told golfers to avoid strength training like the plague. He said it would make them bulky and inflexible so instead he came up with a silly, borderline useless stretching regimen. Hey Gary! Shut the hell up, and stick to your day job!

Reasons for this irrationality can be blamed in most part by the numerous idiotic notions about strength training that have lingered since the dawn of the fitness industry.  Strength training will "bulk you up".  Strength training will make you muscle bound, and inflexible. Strength training will make you slower. Strength training will cause injuries, and blah blah blah blah blah blah! All pure bull s#&$t!

I will now go toe to toe with these myths and crush them one at a time.
 
#1 "Bulking up" is something that happens because of too many trips to MacDonald's drive through.  New muscle and stored body fat are literally at odds with each other. While eating a maintenance diet and strength training at the same time, your body will take calories and nutrients from the food you eat to feed new muscle. To maintain existing healthy tissues, and to keep the internal organs functioning, your body will have to dip into fat stores.  Overeating will eventually lead to fat gain no matter what you do, but if you're strength training, fat storage will be slowed considerably.
 
#2   The muscle bound myth actually came from a stereotype of the turn of the century circus strongman. These guys were certainly big and strong, but most of them were also overweight.  They were really "fat-bound". The #1 deterrent to flexibility is excess body fat.  I've known people who claimed they couldn't touch their toes from a standing position because of tight hamstrings, when in fact if they lost a few inches off of their bellies they could do it with relative ease.  Building muscle mass through proper strength training will increase flexibility dramatically.
 
#3 Stronger muscles will increase needed speed in any athletic skill, including golf.  How do you think clubhead speed is produced? Through telekinesis?  You have to contract just about every major muscle group to swing a golf club. Larger, stronger muscles produce greater force, which produces greater clubhead speed, which produces the holy grail of golf, DISTANCE!  To get more distance on your golf shots, you must get stronger.  Why does the PGA play on longer courses than LPGA and Seniors? Because they hit the ball farther. Why? Because they are stronger!  With all else being equal, the larger stronger player will hit the ball the farthest.
 
#4 The golf swing is an extremely dangerous, high force movement, especially to the lumbar spine. This quote is taken from "In Arthur's Shadow" by Gary Bannister, B.A, B.P.E., M.Ed.
 
Golf is tough on backs. According to orthopedic surgeon Dr. Michael Fulton, "Spinal discs do not tolerate the forces of rotation well." He sees (in his practice) greater degeneration among golfers than non golfers, a direct relationship between frequency of play and injury risk, and high incidence of weak musculature. It's no wonder that of the golf related injuries studied by the Centinela Hospital in the PGA Tour fitness van; (1990-1995) low backs led the way with 24%. "The profile of injury is simple," says Dr. Fulton. "If the force imposed on a muscle or joint system exceeds the breaking point of that system, injury occurs".
 
Which leaves golfers two choices: Decrease the force the system is exposed to, or strengthen the system. Many address the first by modifying their swing, but few address the second in a meaningful way. As Fulton suggests," the focus is still on flexibility and cardiovascular improvement, not on the critical issue of strength. Proper strengthening is a vital component to the participants of one of the most dangerous sports on the planet.  If strength training for football players is crucial to injury prevention, then the idea of it being the cause of injury for golfers is simply ludicrous.  Injuries occur during a workout because of human error, the trainee is at fault. With proper exercise, injury is not par for the course. No pun intended.
 
Most golfers are playing far below their physical ability because they don't understand the inestimable value of a proper strength training program.  Think Tiger Woods not Gary Player. Lack of time is definitely not an excuse. It takes as little as 12-15 minutes, 1-2 times a week to get the most out strength training.  All you golfers out there still have time before the season really gets cooking.

Don't sell your self short.  Start now!