The Golfer’s Two-Minute Workout: Add 30 yards to your drive in 6 weeks
I’m a little sore right now.
But it’s a good sore.
I started using the techniques described in this book. It’s not easy, but I think it will be worth it.
This is not your typical golf book. There are no lyrical descriptions of the grass, the wind, the trees, or your golfing companions. There are no hole-by-hole retellings of great victories or agonizing defeats.
Instead, the authors, health and fitness experts well known among the body-builder community, took a new approach to weight training and applied it to eight amateur golfers in a controlled study. The results are a bit startling. Not only did the golfers show some surprising strength gains; they also translated that newfound strength into more length off the tee. At least one of them improved by an average of over 30 yards.
In normal weightlifting, most complete workouts take a fair amount of time, with repetition a standard practice. The new technique, described in great detail in this book, uses a set of twelve weight lifts that are completed in two minutes or less. The specific lifts are targeted to the primary muscle groups used in golf.
In essence, you hold the maximum amount of weight you can, in positions of near-full extension, for 10 to 20 seconds. With appropriate time between workouts, this method leads to substantial gains in strength.
The authors say that over 1000 golfers are now using this method, and have duplicated the results of the original study many times over.
For those for whom winter is a real season, with cold, snow, sleet, and closed golf courses, the lack of golfing opportunity usually translates into wretched golf in the spring. If the authors are onto something here, and the hibernating golfers try these methods in the months before the Opening Breakfast, the first several rounds could be far more pleasant than previously.
The authors also give the non-PE majors among us a nice summary of the human muscle system, useful diet information, and also explain the limitations of the usual methods of weightlifting. They describe the differences between aerobic workouts and anaerobic workouts, and explain the benefits and limitations of each. For the recommended weight lifting techniques, the authors give enough detail and useful photographs to avoid significant embarrassment at the local Y.
They also provide graphs and other details about their golfing subjects. The amateurs themselves give testimonials about their experience with the technique and how it improved their performance both on and off the course.
This is a good book for those who want to do a bit more than just the treadmill or stationary bike while waiting for spring. Aerobic exercise is good, but the combination of aerobics and anaerobic exercise (weightlifting) is better.
The techniques described here should be useful to most golfers, without chewing into the limited time available for keeping in shape.
Review Date: November 11, 1998