Golf!

One of my very good high school friends is getting married in a little under 2 weeks. That means that this weekend is the bachelor party, which I have the pleasure of helping to plan. We're starting off the day of funtivities with 18 holes of golf. So, with that lead-in sufficiently in place, I remembered a while back how I heard a little bit about Tiger Woods' workout regimen, and how he was allegedly pound-for-pound one of the better athletes out there (for any sport). Time for me to investigate that claim a little bit...

At 6'2 and 185lbs, Tiger Woods is much stronger than he was when he first joined the tour out of Stanford, where he weighed in at 158lbs. Tiger works out 5-6 days a week, even during tournaments. His training revolves around generating a combination of power, speed, and flexibility, as is demanded by his golf game. Back, legs, chest, core, and endurance training are the main focus of Woods and his trainer.

In this Men's Fitness article, Woods and his trainer tend to use lighter weights at much higher reps (25 to 50 reps per set wouldn't be uncommon). He also admittedly loves doing core work and sit-ups. Very smart, considering the relatively unhealthy appearance of many golfers on the pro tour. Core strengthis extremely important, perhaps even more so than in many other sports. At the professional level, anything requiring a swinging motion (baseball, tennis, golf) necessitates the athlete having a strong and powerful core.
He also does a fair amount of distance running, which to me seems counter-intuitive to the way golf is played. Sure, playing 72 holes a day could get a little bit tiring, but I'd think that increasing your raw, explosive power (i.e. a significant and defining characteristic of a golf swing) would be a main goal, even if that meant sacrificing a little bit of endurance. The idea that going on 3 mile "speed runs" and 7 mile "endurance runs" will help improve your golf game seems a little bit off base to me.

Woods also does 34-40 minutes of stretching and mobility work before every workout. I gots to give him credit for this. If he's working out 6 times a week, with a half hour plus of mobility work before every workout, he's got to have some world class flexibility going on.

Based on the less than 10 minutes of golf that I've watched in my life, and the combined 72 holes of golf that I've played which doesn't start with "miniature" of "putt-putt", I think I can sufficiently say that Tiger Woods is likely the most athletically minded athlete on the PGA tour. Compared to many golfers out there, he's leaps and bounds ahead of the fitness curve. In the article, he even mentions as much; "It would be asinine for someone not to work out and go play football. It doesn't make sense for golf either". Maybe his dedication to GPP (General Physical Preparedness) is one of the big reasons why he's been able to dominate the pro tour for so many years. Just sayin'...

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Today's WiscFit Music Library addition comes to you courtesy of Entourage (again). That show has some damn good tracks backing it up. I promise, I'll get a few in here that aren't strait from the Entourage soundtrack...

De La Soul - Grind Date

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WOD 100630 Wednesday

Warm-up
S/S: Press, 2x8
Push Press, 2x8
Push Jerk, 2x8
WOD: For total reps of med ball cleans and push presses:
-2 min Med Ball Cleans, 20lb ball
-2 min Push Press, 70/45#
-5 Burpees
-1 min Rest
-1.5 min Med Ball Cleans, 20lb ball
-1.5 min Push Press, 70/45#
-5 Burpees
-1 min Rest
-1 min Med Ball Cleans, 20lb ball
-1 min Push Press, 70/45#
-5 Burpees
-1 min Rest
-.5 min Med Ball Cleans, 20lb ball
-.5 min Push Press, 70/45#
-5 Burpees
Finish: Static wall sits with 45/25# plate, 3 mins.