Distance, Body Weight

+Ed C I think your question helps illuminate the answer some. I don't know that we have a clear answer. Golf has always been tricky that way. Many different body types meet the requirements. It's not like football where you won't see a tiny lineman or a really large wide receiver. There is a relationship with strength and power. You don't see too many long drive competitors who are really small and wiry.

Also keep in mind that you have 3 different basic body shapes (morphotypes). Ectomorph, Endomorph, Mesomorph. Dustin, Brooks, and Gary Woodland look different partly because of their body morphotype. Bryson appears to be more of a Mesomorph, and they can put on muscle pretty easily. Dustin would probably have a harder time bulking up like that, but could still possibly benefit from strength training.

Simple answer, we don't have enough info to say that one is better for longevity. I'm a big fan of muscle to help protect joints, but you also have to maintain quality of motion and a range of motion to excel at golf.

Distance seems to be more and more important, so we will probably see more larger muscular golfer trying to get that 190 ball speed. ;)

+Tyler F
Hey All,
Mike King, a minor league reliever, was on Eric Cressey's podcast a little while back. He talked about how he realized he could 5 MPH to his fastball just by adding weight, not necessarily even muscle. He made it a routine to eat a dozen Krispy Kremes each Sunday night. I think the power aspect of pitching and driving the golf ball are similar. Not necessarily the overall healthiest thing to do, but at least some empirical evidence that raw weight helps power.

Nick

+Nick W Interesting story. I hadn't heard it before, but it does make some sense to me. But as you said, probably not the overall healthiest way to get 10 more yards ;)

Tyler,

How should we think about F = MA applied to the golf swing, if at all?

This MyTPI video by Dr. Greg Rose on Rory McIlroy is of particular interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9b7gHV2OtI

With more (muscle) mass, and the body accelerating at the same rate as before...are we increasing force to a part of the body during the downswing, and thus leading to greater force (and ultimately velocity) applied to the golf club?

To your last question, I would say no. If you get the handle moving a certain speed, if you had more mass, that speed won't produce a greater distance. But I think there is some truth to his statement about bodyweight helping produce distance easier. If you are very light, it's hard to create the same amount of ground force as someone who is heavier. That's why a lot of skinny juniors drop down significantly in their transition. They don't have the mass to spike the ground force, so they have to drop down more to get a similar GRF value.

As to the underlying question, is more muscle mass helpful? I think yes (to a point). We use a lot of range of motion and having muscle mass (especially with an intelligent fascial system) can help protect the joints and avoid injury. But you have to be smart about it. Just putting on mass could reinforce a bad movement pattern and have a reverse effect.

Rory had to start working out early on in his Pro career to help protect his back in the long term.
He was advised that he was already causing damage at a young age and that he had to train hard to strengthen his body through certain ranges of motion to counter act this. He, like a young Tiger ,Adam Scott, Cameron champ are the hyper mobile type of athlete so they actually have a different set of problems compared to most male golfers.
Alot of these pros have always had loads of speed and they are not just trying to bulk up for club head speed.
Its worth noting that long hitting pros are all brilliant at turning club head speed into ball speed which is efficiency or smash factor.
I would suggest that the first thing anyone should look at is there driver numbers on a launch monitor with an experienced fitter or pga Pro to see how efficient they are at producing Ball speed with their current club head speed. Sometimes their driver set up is robbing them of alot of yardage . The pros are able to use all of these tools to their advantage.

If you are really into golf fitness...the' fit for golf'
Podcast by Micheal Carroll is a great source of information.

Paul, great thoughts. I think starting with some data as to what you are actually doing is a great starting point. And I agree that simply bulking up won't help many golfers hit it further. I really wish Bryson had done his changes in stages. Either just bulk up, or just change the swing, then the other. As he did it, we won't know for sure which gave him the bigger increase. It's my belief that he would have got most the speed gains just with the swing changes he made, without adding much bulk. But we'll never know for sure ;)

With regards to Bryson
He has always had serious speed from a young age but chose not use it in competative tournaments.
He then set out to apply that natural speed through swing changes and endless work in the lab with Chris Commo, working hard on his physical changes with Greg Roskopf (M.A.T, ) people have put to much emphasis behind the added muscle and are not considering how much he has increased his mobility aswell.

https://youtu.be/IHbcJpAZYm4
Worth a watch.

Paul - thanks for sharing the link to the podcast.

What's interesting is whenever I watch Bryson swing side by side with Kyle Berkshire, it is Kyle's swing that looks so much more fluid to me.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJMy9HGFaZb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

For those who like to geek out on everything, Chris Como's instagram page has some interesting interviews with golf psychologists and sports nutrition experts covering a wide range of topics.

No problem 👍