Ok decided to start a H&F thread to track my progress. Goals here are two over the next 6 months:

1) Lose Weight/Generally Improve Fitness
2) Increase Clubhead Speed with my Driver (and all clubs really)

Quick bit about each in reverse order:

Increase Clubhead Speed

Everyone looking for that increased speed which correlates into longer drives. I used to play pretty competitively but got burned out, have 2 girls that play competitive sports, life, etc. and basically stopped playing in ~2011. I still played a bit for shits and giggles with my buddies but lost the fire to grind.

At my best I was a +3 handicap and played in multiple USGA events, state events, etc. I was a dime a dozen but on a given day I could wheel it around pretty well. Now 8-9 years later I'm a pencil 3 handicap and just don't play that well. But I don't practice so therein lies the problem. I have no illusions of playing as competitively as I used to but I play with kids that play in college, etc. and them hitting the ball 40-50 yards by me is pretty tough. I think if I could add 20-ish yards that would make the game more fun and who knows may reignite my desire to sharpen up my game.

My goal is to spend the winter hitting in my club's hitting loft at least 2 times per week. I will be doing the following:

Overspeed Training (essentially working with lighter clubs to try and get comfortable swinging at higher speeds). There is a specific protocol for this and will be doing it at each hitting session. Happy to share what this looks like if there is interest. Goal is to increase Driver Clubhead Speed to 120 mph by May 1 from current 113-114

Weight Loss I'm 51 years old. 5'11" and have always been a fattie. After COVID lockdown I had balooned up to over 250 and July 1 decided to get back to what had worked best for me...counting calories. I now weigh 235. I eat Atkins-ish but don't kill myself if once a week I eat a slice or two of pizza. My caloric intake goal is 2,100 and that has equated to ~1 lb/week of weight loss. I realize I may have to reduce that as weight continues to drop. Goal is to lose another 25 lbs by May 1 which would get me to 210

Fitness I lift 3-4 days per week and do standard split with Chest Day, Leg Day, Shoulder Day, Back Day. Do the normal compound lifts with some bro lifts and complementary stuff in there just to mix it up. I'm not trying to bulk up or anything but would love to maintain my squat and DL lifts as best as possible given my weight loss goals. I have been inconsistent with DL and Squats of all the lifts.

I traditionally don't do enough cardio but have gotten in 2-3 Peloton rides per week the last month or so. Wife is a Peloton freak and I find it fine. Probably hate it less than other options. Once a week or so I'll just do a HIIT workout with kb swings, assault bike sprints and/or rowing on the Concept. Goal is to lift 4 times per week and get 3 cardio sessions in per week

Flexibility-I sit all day so hamstrings/posterior chain is pretty tight. I stretch but not with any consistency. Frankly tend to only stretch when something is sore or tight. I know there is a lot of question as to the efficacy of stretching but I'll take advice here.

Here are a couple of recent launch monitor summaries.

First is my baseline. This was after a standard warm up of probably 15-20 balls hit.


Important numbers are Clubhead Speed obviously. Also important is Smash Factor (not on these first two screens). Smash Factor is Ball Speed divided by Club Speed and essentially measures how effieciently the hitter is delivering energy to the ball. Smash Factor of 1.5 is considered optimal for Rory, Bryson, etc.

Then I did a SuperSpeed Overspeed Training workout (only takes 10-15 minutes) and hit more balls

Here is the best of that bunch post SST


I then did the same thing this week and here is the best of that session:


Small sample but seems to be trending in the right direction. These yardages likely don't correlate to on course distances yet. I suspect on course my yardages will be 15-20 yards shorter.

So that's the plan. Any comments are welcomed. i'll likely just update with my workouts and calories consumed. Also any interesting golf stuff I'll maybe post pics. Doing a quick overnight this weekend for probably the last golf of the year.

I'm also a huge music guy and in honor of one of my favorites, Depeche Mode being inducted into the RRHOF this weekend I present you with my favorite Depeche song.

Everything looks good for the dieting plan.

Not a fan of that bodysplit but it's no big deal, it works for most people's strength and aesthetics goals. But it's not a natty optimal training plan, where hitting each body part 2x per week is superior. I think it would be so much better to throw the shoulders into chest day and then go a little more often. I cant imagine any natty training shoulders for a whole workout (they are small muscles) Crazy. You want to press two wheels or something? But like I said, no big deal. Do what you enjoy, it's more important.

If I only do 3 days lift I generally do slip shoulders. Like I’ll do some OHP on day where I do back or w/e.

This evening I didn’t feel super strong and my knee didn’t feel great so didn’t go real heavy.

Back Squats

1x6 95
1x6 135
1x6 185
1x5 205
3x5 225
1x4 245
1x3 265

Walking Lunges


2,153 calories

Nice, good luck!

+3 at your peak is really, really, sick. I only ever got down to 4 (minus, obvs) and like you, lost the passion at some point. I haven't touched a club in years (except for chipping at the office) and I am not sure I would be able to break 90 now. I still think I will pick it back up at some point.

Regarding hamstring flexibility - I always thought mine was terrible and I stretched it a LOT. It turns out I realized I was doing it all wrong after watching this video. I had APT and stretching it made it worse. I stopped doing that, addressed APT, and hamstring flexibility is so much better! It may not apply to you, but worth a watch anyway.

Finally, the log that will bring back kyleb.

Nice! Welcome. Very excited to read about your golf workouts. +3! Damn.

I just started playing seriously this year (age 41) and got down to a 20 index, which I am happy with for year 1. I had a blast playing. I can shoot high 80s at best, but it feels pretty good compared to where I started in the spring.

I did the superspeed training as a warmup or cooldown after lifting weights, and I still use the clubs to warm up. I'm not sure how productive or not this is for me, but I can swing the driver hilariously hard but not accurately at all. I have to slow it down to ~105-115 to hit the dang ball. Again, terrible path though. I have had a few lessons, and I think that's probably my best path to success long term. Anyway, this is your log, not mine, looking forward to reading it.

So you're the one!

Stretching is great, I recommend do it daily.

Your squats are too heavy. You training to move some furniture or something?

See that last post by Spy is completely telling.

This guy's knowledge is from the 90s. Total donk. I surrender, I hope other people chime in. Arjun with a solid post regarding the subject on hand.

#wherearethouThremp

How much you want me squatting?

If you check my thread Squid posted an important leg muscle building tool you should be using instead of squats.

Thanks I’ll check it out


Yeah having solid fundamentals is critical. Honestly I saw my teacher 6-8x per year when I played my best and maybe went from +1 to +3. Everybody can improve under the right set of eyes. Technology now is so incredibly helpful

But playing bogey golf in season 1 id solid.


More the merrier


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Played today. Was 75-ish degrees in Nov. not bad

I’ve only played once since early Oct so wasn’t very good. Drove it fairly well with a few 300-ish yards. But irons and short game weren’t good and shot 82 on a pretty penal golf course. Oh well

Playing tomorrow in what will likely be my last round of the year.

Didn’t work out but walked nearly 7 rather hilly miles

2,350 calories

Player likely my last round of the year. Continue driving it fairly well but irons are atrocious. Ended up with 78. Hit some good shots this weekend but a lot of poor ones too

Did not workout today but walked about 4 miles. Back in the gym tomorrow.

1,882 calories

Worked out tonight. Chest day. Shoulder felt a little tender after a lot of golf this weekend so I decided to do DB work rather than using a bar.

DB Flat Bench Press

90 1x8
120 1x6
150 3x6
170 2x5

Not sure what percentage of my barbell range I should be when using DB?? My working weight with a bar is 225

Flys

80 1x6
100 3x6

DB Incline Bench

90 1x6
120 3x6
140 1x5

Did some tricep push downs as well.

Assault Bike Sprint/Recoveries

8 15/45

—————————

2,150 calories

I know people dislike him and his schtick but this is impressive stuff and certainly has the golf world chasing swing speed. This is ridiculous

Did a quick lunchtime leg session in the gym today.

Back Squats

95 1X8
135 1x6
185 1x6
225 2x5
275 3x5

Walking lunges as well

Did 30 mins of HIIT this evening so decent day from output perspective.

1,950 calories

Yesterday (Wed) I was pretty run down and tired so I took the day off.

Today was busy. Got in early as I knew I'd watch a lot of The Masters.

Went to the hitting loft at lunch. Couldn't seem to get much speed generated. I did do SSP training after getting warmed up. Here is my best swing prior to the speed work



All the numbers did improve after speed training but I seemed to be a bit slower across the session. Here is the best post speed training


Not very efficient energy transfer (smash factor). Should be more like 1.46 or so ideally which would translate into roughly 6 mph more ball speed weigh would mean about 10 ish more yards of carry.

Later I went to the gym. Did the following:

Elevated DL (went light here as I haven't been DL much lately)

95 1x6
135 1x6
185 1x5
205 1x5
225 3x5

Pretty unimpressive but just focused on form right now

Also did cable rows, shoulder press and some lat stuff. So more a back and shoulder day.

Finally, did 30 mins on the bike. Didn't kill it tho. Did get a good sweat going.

1,800 calories-Wednesday
2,200 calories-Thursday

My Whoop says it was a 13 strain day so that is a pretty good day for me

"the hitting loft" sounds and looks awesome! At your club?

What numbers are you watching the most intra-session?

Yes at my club. We have three simulators in a space that was long used as storage or something. Really nice. I'll post a pic next time I go (likely tomorrow).

Right now I'm just really looking at the club and ball speed numbers. There are some other items in there like launch angle (mine's generally too high) that probably need work but right now it's just the club and ball speed.

You’re in the DC metro area?
Is it common for cold weather clubs to have indoor facilities ?

Certainly becoming more common for the "better" clubs. Not sure exactly who does and who doesn't. I think the technology has dropped in price considerably so now it's just a space issue

Worked out this evening using a HIIT circuit. Did 6 each of :

20 second air bike sprint at 100%
10 KB swings (50 lb kB)
8 TRX body weight pulls (not sure what they are called)
8 medicine ball wall slams (left and right side)
8 18” box jumps


Each circuit takes about 4.5-5 mins

No clue f this is a good mix or not. Kind of looked around the gym and seemed like a good mix of stuff


2,075 calories

As promised pics. I'm standing on the indoor putting turf and there is an additional hitting bay to my left

Had a long hitting session today. But for over an hour.

Here is my best driver before doing SSP training



280 carry at 110.6 club head speed. Pretty good launch angle and spin rate.

But after the training I saw a pretty big jump. Here is the best


Over 295 carry and 3mph+ in speed. That’s a big jump. My hope is that this becomes a base line. We shall see if that happens.

Had a few swings in the 114.5-115 range but none were solid so the ball flights weren’t very good.

Overall I am pleased with the progress but still it’s only been 4 SSP training sessions. Small sample obviously

1,625 calories