Originally Posted by LowPost42

I'm always wary of moving weight through a range of motion. Too much weight in a weak position leads to strains, tears, and injury.



The top exercise is a lat pulldown. Sit on the bench, grab the bar, pull it behind your head.



That's one of my favourite gym myths. Muscles can only do one of three things: Get bigger, get smaller, or stay the same size. They can't convert to fat, get huge overnight, or do quantum physics.

Now, I do believe that there are two types of muscular strength - endurance and explosive - but that becomes a factor of how you train your muscles rather than how you grow them. What's more impressive: A guy who can bench press 150 lbs for 6 straight hours, or the guy who can bench press 800 lbs one time? Both these guys are obviously strong, but the first guy hasn't trained his muscles to work explosively, while the other guy hasn't trained his muscles to work for long periods of time.

So, that said, workout however you want to. Grow your muscles however you want. But to train your muscles, then you need to pick things that will help your goal.

I think in golf, both types of training are beneficial. If you can play 18 holes and not get tired (endurance), that's great. But you also need explosive power for maximum distance on every shot.

To me, the ideal training routine would be to build muscle through the gym doing reps until exhaustion (not just to a certain number). Let's call that building for strength, if you prefer that term. Then, on your next day, take a weighted club or some other similar lightweight instrument, and work on your swing with it. Again, work until exhaustion. (In the case of your swing, exhaustion would be working until your form suffers).

But I would never, ever, swing a super heavy club with any kind of force. The last thing you want, IMO is a ton of weight being moved through some physiologically weak positions.