It’s here - the golf off-season. **Insert bittersweet face**
While some of you are “snow birds” and never have a true winter season, it’s still important that we incorporate different phases of training throughout the year.
“Off-season” training doesn’t mean that you can’t play golf. However, Lift Heavy, Swing Fast workouts will start to become a little more demanding, so plan accordingly if you have an upcoming tournament and take your rest days seriously.
The biggest difference when we begin to train for the off-season is the added volume. Think more total work, higher rep counts, and more sets.
Weight selection is still challenging, but, believe it or not, we go a bit lighter for off-season. I know - mind blowing right?
Here’s why we want to use lighter weights for training in the off-season.
Heavy weights in a strength cycle are essential for building strength, but leave the body deconditioned for a higher work capacity. Therefore, the added volume in this next cycle will challenge just that.
Higher volume training means your body will be prepared to recover faster both systemically and locally. Improved systemic conditioning means you will be a better conditioned athlete overall and will recover more quickly between workouts (and rounds of golf). Locally, specific muscle groups like your glutes, will be able to flush out lactic acid more quickly and limit recovery time needed between sets.
This added training volume WILL make it a bit harder to play or practice after, but it’s time to give your body a higher workload so we can adapt and get stronger, faster, more mobile, and better conditioned.
Here’s what you will see in the first 6-Week Phase of Lift Heavy, Swing Fast Off-Season programming.
Eccentric-focused training. Think the lowering phase in a squat or on the way down from a pull-up AKA the “negative.” Eccentric training is important for several reasons: strength development, injury prevention, improved performance, and mental toughness to name a few. The eccentric portion of the lift is also what’s responsible for soreness, so be ready for a bit of that too.
Reps in Reserve (RIR) - Some also call this Reps From Failure. This is essentially how we will manage the fatigue we are looking for in an exercise. Example: if the workout calls for 10 pushups with 1 RIR, and you can do 11 pushups with your 11th one being your absolute max with decent form, you would stop at 10, leaving that 11th Rep in Reserve.
Speed Training - In Lift Heavy, Swing Fast we use jumps, slams and sprints for speed development. This cycle, I would like to see you swap that out for Swing Speed Training, using an OverSpeed club like the RypStick (WESCOTTGOLF gets you 10% off) or simply making some full out effort swings with your driver (no ball). If you are brand new (less than a month) to Lift Heavy, Swing Fast, you may do the jump and slam options written in the workout or the sprints. If you have been in the program for a while and haven’t tried sprinting yet, I highly recommend you do.
As always, let us know if you have questions and don’t forget to join our Private Facebook Group exclusive to our Lift Heavy, Swing Fast athletes for form checks, FB lives with our coaches, and access to more important resources for your training.
-Cody
Comments