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Q: Joe,
I am a 43 year old male, who recognizes the need to
work out. I like the ideas your website espouses,
but, at the risk of getting my balls busted, the sport
I want to train for is golf. I know the strength benefit
required for this sport might fly in the face of all
you believe to be holy, but I am serious. What would
you recommend for training for this "grueling"
sport?. . .
Cheers,
Brian
A: Brian,
By no means should the strength benefit required for golf be over-looked! I’m actually pumped that you realize the importance of a properly designed strength training program for golfers. Heck, Tiger Woods has even publicly praised the benefits of strength training. This doesn’t mean that strength training should take precedence over your time on the green, but it should be incorporated. Here are a few tips to get you started:
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Incorporate extra trunk rotational work to your weak side into your program. I met a pro golfer a couple of months ago and his latissimus dorsi and spinal erector on his left side had hypertrophied to about 3X the size of his right side. It was the biggest muscular imbalance that I’ve ever seen! Since he’s always swinging a golf club to his left, I recommended he do some extra cable woodchopper variations for his right side a couple of times a week. Incorporating this into his program may save him from a lifetime of back problems.
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Speaking of muscular imbalances, train your external rotators twice a week. Once a week perform 1 or 2 exercises with your upper arm abducted; on the other day perform external rotator work with your upper arm at your side. This will ensure that both your infraspinatus and teres minor are being activated.
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Although golf is very different than powerlifting or football, your lower-body workout can be very similar. I would highly recommend performing wide stance box squats or a deadlift variation, then a unilateral exercise and then an exercise for your posterior chain. Finish your leg day by crushing your abs. Alternate between weighted abdominal exercises and high-rep abdominal training. This is a similar template that I use with my football players, but you would benefit from it greatly as well. Remember what I said in my 10 Training Myths Exposed article, “Playing your sport makes the strength that you gain in the weightroom sport specific!"
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On your upper body days, focus on strengthening your lats, upper back and forearms (while still training all of the other major muscle groups of the upper body). You can incorporate abdominal work on your upper body days as well. Don’t be afraid to train your forearms like an animal! Get out of your “golfer” mentality and train your grip like an animal. Work on all variations of forearm training - radial and ulnar flexion, crushing grip, supporting grip, etc. Check out dieselcrew.com. Those dudes are obsessed with grip training and you can get some ideas from their site.
People say that some of the biggest business deals in the world take place on the golf course. I say, “Who gives a shit! I’d rather be lifting weights!”
Joe D.
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Q: Joe,
My name is Bert Sims and I was
introduced to your work through your
articles on T-Nation. I also purchased your video
and thoroughly enjoyed it. My goal as a career is
to be doing exactly what you are doing - training
driven athletes at all levels. I would like to know
what steps you took to get your own facility (if you
have your own, I assume you do from the pics I see
in the articles)? Also, what type of transition did
you make to having your own business? I am very interested
in what you have to say because from what I can tell,
you are doing what you love to do and are successful
at it.
Much thanks and appreciation for your time.
Train Smart, Train Hard and
Prosper,
Bert
A: Bert,
Thank you for the praise and I wish you the best of luck in this field. It is a great career. Some days (when I actually have a free minute) I sit back and reflect on how thankful I am to be doing what I love for a living. Some people go through life miserable and stressed out because they hate their job. That is no way to live. Anyway, enough corny BS, let’s discuss your question.
First of all, believe it or not, I don’t even have my own facility yet. I run my business out of Odyssey Athletic Center in Waldwick, NJ. I converted an old storage closet in the back of this gym into a private room that only my athlete’s can use. (Most of the training pics on this website were taken in this “Hole” in the back of the gym.) I will have my own facility soon, but I don’t want to discuss the specifics yet. It’s taking longer than expected because it’s a BIG TIME project and we’re making sure that everything is right. We are going to set a new standard for training athletes in this one-of-a-kind facility!
Anyway, I’ll tell you why I feel that I have become a successful “businessman”. I must warn you that my advice is NOT the advice that you would find in any business books. But, below I will let you in on the #1 reason that I feel my business has become very successful. This, in turn, has led to other lucrative business opportunities for me.
I have literally become successful training athletes out of a storage closet! What does this tell you? It tells you that this business is about results! A fancy gym with a high-budget marketing campaign might get people in the door, but it doesn’t keep them there. Simply put, the success of my company hasn’t been because of some witty marketing campaign; and it certainly isn’t because I’m working out of a big gym with fancy equipment. I attribute the success to a tireless work ethic and an unmatched passion of helping athletes achieve their goals. Every single one of my clients has come to me through word of mouth advertising. Athletes talk. And if your athletes are seeing results training with you, they will tell everyone that they know about you. My schedule is jam-packed and I currently have a waiting list of over 20 athletes. Simply put, when athletes train with me, I make sure that I do everything in my power to get results. When I first started my business, I even asked a couple of the athletes that I was training to leave. I kicked them out of my program because I cared more about their training than they did. Obviously, this was not a smart “business” move at the time because I was struggling to pay my bills. It’s funny, though, because the word got out that if you’re not serious about training, you shouldn’t go to DeFranco’s. This reputation ended up making my program even more attractive to serious athletes and now my phone literally rings off the hook.
By no means is this business easy. If you want to be successful, you must be willing to put in the time. It’s a 7-day-a-week job! Besides training athletes for 40+ hours a week, there’s phone calls, meetings with the accountant, payroll, insurance issues, tax issues, scheduling issues, managing the business books, updating the website, etc., etc.! I’m telling you this because after completing all of the above tasks, you must still have the passion and dedication to continue your education. This field is constantly evolving. I still spend at least one hour every night reading new information on training. Sometimes this “continued education” takes place at 2 o’clock in the morning, but I don’t care. I don’t do this because I have to; I do it because I want to. I’m not saying that I’m the smartest strength coach in the world, but I refuse to be outworked by anyone! You should have this same attitude.
I don’t know if you wanted me to help you market yourself, discuss the best liability insurance for trainers or any other business related topics. If that’s what you were looking for, I apologize. But, I truly feel if you are the hardest-working, most knowledgeable strength coach in your area and you treat your athletes as if they were your own kids, then the business side of things will fall into place.
Sorry for the rant.
Joe D.
(Speaking of education, I highly recommend attending the Yuri Verkhoshanski and Michael Yessis seminar on February 11-13 in Chicago. I have re-arranged my entire schedule for that weekend just to make this seminar. If you’re serious about the science of strength training, you won’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity. For more details go to www.UltimateAthleteConcepts.com )
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Q: Coach DeFranco,
Do you ever train both power and
strength within the same training session? I know
you follow the conjugate method of peridisation, but
there’s different schools of thought regarding
training for power and strength within the same workout,
as opposed to separate days. Do you have any experience
to share on this topic?
Carlos
A: Carlos,
I have used both methods with great results. For most of the year, I train for strength and power on separate days (but within the same training cycle).
Recently, I have been experimenting with training them on the same day and the results have been interesting. We have performed a power exercise before a strength exercise on some days; we have also performed a strength exercise before a power exercise on other days. Interestingly, both ways have improved performance. For example, performing a heavy single in the bench press prior to performing a medicine ball chest pass improved the distance of the throw.
On the other hand, last Thursday I performed a 3-rep max in the close grip bench press after performing 6 sets of 3 reps of ballistic bench presses (I used 45% of my 1RM and the mini bands). The ballistic benches stimulated my nervous system and I hit a huge PR in the close grip bench!
Needless to say, I think all of the methods can be successfully incorporated into your program.
Joe D.
Note: NEVER perform dynamic box squats with bands and then take the bands off and attempt a heavy set of squats with “straight” weight. I experimented with this about 2 years ago and I got STAPLED to the box! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!
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