Train Like a Pro Golfer: Talor Gooch’s Weight Training for Power & Flexibility

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I’m Taylor Gu, proud Oklahoma State Cowboy, the 2023 Live Golf Champion. Welcome to my live lesson. Oh, that’s incredible. Good job, T. Just sensational from Taylor Gu. He can hook this one away. He is the Live Golf League champion. You know, golfers obviously look different than other sports and other athletes. Uh we uh don’t have quite as much muscle mass. We don’t have quite as much uh chiseled bodies, but weightlifting is still uh crucial. It’s still important. At the end of the day, we’re trying to prolong our careers. We’re trying to play as much golf as possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re an amateur or a pro. And to do so, you have to have strength. The ground is not uh forgiving, and we’re hitting the ground a lot. And so, you know, you got to have strength and that just comes through weightlifting. So, we’re going to go over some of uh some of those key factors that I do both in season and in the off season to, you know, help make sure that I’m continuing to improve my body and making sure that I’m going to be able to play this game as long as I can. He sends it on his way. Goodness. Taylor Gu is the Live Golf Leagues Road Warrior. Everything we’re going to do here is is great, but there’s some stuff that I’m only going to do before a tournament and there’s there’s some stuff I’m only going to do after a tournament. So, we’re going to go over both of those. Obviously, as I start throwing more weights around, that’s going to be more for after a tournament. For post round, we’re going to go get a workout in. We’re going to, you know, throw some weights around. my body has, you know, 12 to however 20 hours to recover rather than doing, you know, three sets of, you know, front uh dumbbell squats before a round and I start to fatigue my muscles. Again, before round is to to warm the muscles up. After the round is to fatigue the muscles. So, you want to get warmed up before the round. You want to go get a good lather in. And we’re going to go over what a post round uh workout looks like where we’re going to throw some more weights around. We’re going to start to exhaust the muscles cuz they’re going to have time to recover before we get going the next day. Now, we’re going to get some dumbbells. We’re going to get some plates. We’re going to get some weights. Stuff that most people that spend time in the gym are a little bit more accustomed to than what we’ve been doing. So, these are going to be movements that are not only going to build strength, but are going to continue to make you dynamic and continue to work on your range of motion. So, you know, while we are going to be focusing more on weights, what we’re going to continue to do is try to be as athletic and as dynamic as possible. So, again, the golf swing, you’re not just standing here moving one movement. We will never stand here and just curl. We will never stand here and just tricep press, right? The golf swing is tons of movements on different planes, uh, weight transfers and all that. So, while we are lifting weights and we’re starting to throw some weights around, we’re still going to stay dynamic. Uh, so the first thing we’re going to do is called a curl to press, but it’s going to be on a single leg. Again, trying to make this more challenging, more dynamic than just your traditional, you know, just curling, right? You’re not just going to curl. So, you’re going to get on one leg. So, now the leg that’s down, everything has to fire. Everything has to be locked in as you curl to press. So, you’re building strength while staying dynamic. And if this looks easy, then just go try it. Okay. So, usually when I start to get into the the weightlifting parts, we’re we’re now moving into to three sets. Again, six to 10 reps. So, just then my right leg was down. I’m going to do, you know, four to five reps on that side. And then we’re going to switch. So, left leg is down and do four to five reps here. And again, left leg is firing, stabilizing, working on balance while we’re also building strength. The ground is not soft. And so when you’re continuing to hit golf balls and you’re taking divots and you’re hitting hitting the ball and hitting the ground, your joints and especially, you know, your wrist and your elbows and your shoulders are are going to take a beating and especially if you’re spending much time doing it. So, you know, making sure that, you know, your your arms, your shoulders, you know, your wrists, everything is is strong, it it’s crucial cuz, um, you know, you you don’t often see very small guys with no muscle that stay healthy in this game. So, um, you know, you got to make sure that we got a little bit of meat on them bones to make sure that it can take the pounding that that this game will give you. I know that uh there’s a lot of people out there who like to skip legs day, but the the golf swing doesn’t doesn’t allow that. I mean, your legs, your feet, that’s the only thing that’s connected to the ground. And so, you have to have strength in there. You have to have mobility. Uh you have to be able to balance. I mean, all the things that that the body needs to do to be able to swing in a in a great way, it starts with the legs. It starts with your lower body. So, that has to be a focus. And we’re going to we’re going to show some things to help you with that. Like we talk about, your legs are what’s connected to the ground. So, we’re not taking taking leg days off. So, one of my favorite movements to do is a squat, but rather than loading our back and doing back squats, uh we’re going to get again a little bit more dynamic here. We’re going to get a little bit more depth than what your traditional squats are going to be. So, we like to do a front squat with a dumbbell here. You’re going to hold it here and then you’re going down and you got to get low with it, right? So, look at the depth here. This is working on my range of motion while also working on your strength. Same thing here. We’re starting to lift weights. So, it’s going to be six to 10 reps. And we’re going to be doing three sets of that. So that’s again not only great for strength, but it’s also great for range of motion, hip mobility. Pros and ams have a little bit different styles of golf and the training methods might be a little bit different. Uh, but I have far too often seen my buddies back home or amateurs when we’re playing in proAM events that, you know, they’re complaining about their back or they’re complaining about their shoulder. They’re complaining about something. And, you know, I know it’s not an amateur’s job to be uh a refined uh, incredible athlete, but we all love golf. We want to play as much as possible. So, getting in the gym is so crucial. Uh, I know everyone wants to take a little bit of money off their boys back home. Uh, I know everyone wants to go and and shoot the lowest score they can, you know, just everyone still wants to be good at this game and and to do so. You can’t just show and go and you got to go put the time in in the gym and it doesn’t have to be long. You know, you can spend 20 minutes before a round or 20 minutes after a round making sure you’re getting your body right or recovering right and I it it just doesn’t take that much time to make sure you’re playing your best golf possible. So, let’s make sure we can do that. So, the next exercise we’re going to move into is going to continue to build strength, but it’s also going to be an explosive movement while also working on range of motion, being dynamic, being athletic. So, this is going to be your squat to pulls. So, you’re going to get these cables, get them down. You’re going to put whatever weight you’re comfortable with on these. You’re going to grab the cables. You’re going to move away. You’re going to go down and explode up and pull. So again, we’re not working just on curls or, you know, bench press. We’re getting athletic. We’re getting dynamic. So, this is working on obviously your hips. You’re getting down deep into it. You’re not, you know, you’re getting down here. You’re not stopping here. So, you’re getting good depth and exploding and pulling. So, again, you’re building strength, you’re you’re being explosive, and you’re working on range of motion. One of my next favorite things to do, you know, just like when we were on the ground, you know, you got to work on your core, you got to work on your your T-spine, your rotational movements, you also got to work on your hips. You got to work on, you know, your mobility, range of motion, your strength. Also, you got to work on your balance. So, one of my other favorite movements, and we’ve got some weight here, but it’s very, very light. Uh, this is not a heavy weightlifting move. This is one about mobility, two about strength, but most importantly this is about firing your the the you know your your brain to match up with your muscles which is balance. You want to get as much balance through this movement as possible. Okay. So you grab with one arm the opposite leg. So I have left arm, right leg. And what we’re going to do is called a hinge to pull. So, we’re going to hinge down and then pull up. It’s not fast movements. And you want to do this again six to 10 times. And this is working hard on firing everything in here to make sure you don’t fall over. Right? So, again, you’re going to do six to 10 hinges to pulls with this side. And then after you’ve done six to 10 of those, you’re going to switch the other side. So again, you have an arm right here that’s grabbing it. Opposite leg is what’s down. Then you’re going to hinge to pull. Hinge to pull. Same thing. your your butt, your your glute, your hips, everything has to fire whenever you’re doing this movement right here. And again, not only is it firing, but it’s stabilizing. Without the stability, you’re going to lose balance. So, you do six to 10 of those. how we go about my training. There’s not an inseason and offseason really. Uh we we don’t look at it like other sports where in the offseason you go and put a bunch of muscle mass on or go get a lot stronger a lot faster. We try to view my training as a rocket ship. Like there’s no highs and lows. You’re just continuing to ascend. Now, we do incorporate a little bit more strength training uh when it’s not tournament week just because you don’t want to exhaust your muscles too much during a tournament week. Uh, so during offseason there’s going to be a little bit more strength training, but still, you know, there’s not a huge difference in my off seasonason and inseason as far as how I’m training because again, like I said, we like to view my my training like a rocket ship. It’s just we’re going to continue to ascend and and continue to improve. And that’s how we like to how we like to view it. Everything we do, we try to hit more than just one thing. Again, the golf swing is about balance. It’s about power and it’s about mobility. So, everything we’re going to do is going to continue to focus on those things. Repetition, it’s it exhausts the body. We’ve all been on on golf trips with buddies and a couple days in, dudes start to struggle. Dudes start to hurt and they, you know, start to say, “Man, these three, four, five day golf trips, they’re they’re tough on the body.” And so with what I do, making sure the body is in shape uh and strong enough and we’re recovering right to make sure on all this repetition that it’s staying as healthy as it can. And it doesn’t matter if you’re an amateur or a pro. Like I said, you want to be able to go to, you know, your buddy’s trips and go play 3, four, 5 days of golf and on that last day, you’re still feeling as good as you can. And that’s a challenge, but you can overcome that challenge with the more time that you spend in the gym. So each each one of these exercises we’re going to be doing eight to 10 times and then we’re going to be doing three sets of it, right? Because this is the type of stuff that we’re going to be doing post round. This is the type of stuff we’re going to be doing, you know, in off weeks. Uh before I go and te off in a tournament, we might add some of this weight stuff in, but it’s going to be more focused on the medicine balls and some of the, you know, just body weight stuff. After the rounds, that’s when we start throwing some weight around. And also in off weeks we’re throwing weight around. Next we’re gonna get a medicine ball here. And then you’re going to get some dumbbells. So again, rather than just benching, staying on a standard uh bench, we’re going to get dynamic with it. So, you’re going to get on a medicine ball and we’re going to do presses. So, what this does is you’re on an unstable surface. So, your core is having to activate. Your legs are having to activate. So, you’re not just standing on or laying on a flat stable surface. This is again getting dynamic. It’s having your brain having to fire these different muscles to maintain balance. You’re pressing and if you are a little bit off then you start to lose balance, right? So everything has to be working in unison. So, same thing. You’re doing eight to 10 reps there. Three sets. You’re building strength. You’re building that dynamic movement, and you’re on an unstable surface. So, you’re continuing to fire more than just one muscle. Your core is firing, your hips are firing, and you’re you’re starting to get athletic. All right. Now that we got the muscles firing, it’s just time to aim and pull the trigger. Let’s get in the simulator and have some fun.