Training Fast Twitch Muscles

[rwh]

Where are the "fast twitch" muscles involved in the golf swing?

[Vickie]

First let me emphasize that red and white fibers are present in all muscles, the quantity of each is, yea you guessed it, genetic and influenced by your body type. Think of your white fiber, the fast twitch, as your power muscles, typically your larger muscles that can provide a rapid burst of speed and power. Then you can generally consider your smaller muscles more red, slow twitch fiber that provide endurance. So we could consider that the muscles of your upper leg, the quads and hamstrings are typically more white than red fiber, as are the large trunk muscles (I'm trying to get away from the overuse of the word core) your back and chest and abdominals. You wil often hear that the calves, triceps and to some degree forearms have a larger percentage of red fiber. And again you could take a plug from your bicep and one from mine and we can throw the generalities out the window.

Now, even though a muscle may be red or white, since you know it contrains both fibers it should make perfect sense to mix your training up. For example, even though the calves are considered an endurance, mainly red fiber muscle in one workout I will do a couple of sets with heavy weight and less repetitions and then drop the weight to endure more repetitions. This allows me to train for the terrain I am on. If I am hiking or if my golf travels are put me on courses with more hills than I saw in Florida, I might take a couple of weeks and train my strength up. Conversely if I know that my calves are really strong enough but I am going to golf every day for a vacation I might train the endurance aspect of my acquired strength. Most people come in with one or the other advantage. You just need to train for your game, and your expectations.

Now, as to training. The best training you can do for golf is to create a balance of strength and create positive posture so that everytime you address, you are working with the same physiology. As your body fatigues throughout your game poor postural habits will begin to create inconsistencies in your performance. If all of the muscles are working appropriately and you are well nourished and well rested in general, you should be able to replicate your form on every hole.

But . . . The muscles I think are most often lacking in some kind of training are the lats, the rhomboids, to some degree the traps and the glutes and hamstrings. For everyone this could mean too weak or too tight or too strong and too lax. Again the key is balance.

The latissimus dorsi muscle is the large back muscle that creates the "V" so promanant on swimmers and gymnists. In my experience, this is the most singularly neglected muscle for most golfers. This muscle is the primary stabilizer for your hips (the abdomen on your front), attaches to the thorasic vertebrae and then crosses under your armpit and attaches to the front of your arm in close proximity to your chest muscle attachment. It is a huge muscle and is intricately/ critically involved in shoulder rotation and bringing your arm across your body (adduction); pretty important issues for the golfer. When I read so often that the hamstrings are the culprit for all that ails hip action I cringe because if your are underdeveloped in your lat function (again out of balance) you could have perfect hip flexors and hamstrings and you still won't have good hip managemdnt.

Best exercises you may ask? The Lat pulldown in any gym is a good first exercise to consider. DO NOT pull the bar down behind your back. Instead, place your hands on the bar wide (not too wide in the beginning and then reach wider and wider over about 6-8 workouts). Sit up straight, draw your shoulders down, engage some abdominal support, and then pull the bar to your chest using the lat muscles. Slowly stretch your arms back out and repeat 10-15 times slowly, deliberately with no jerking. If your weight is not too heavy you should feel your chest lift to the bar slightly but you should not arch your back. Also you should keep your shoulders down and pull your elbows back and not round your shoulders to make contact. You can create a makeshift lat pulldown with bands or surgical tubing (you can buy at any sporting good store). Just tie a knot in the middle of the band, lop it over a closet door, close the door and voila, instant equipment. Other exercises would include one arm rows, chin ups, or reverse grip straight bar rows with a wide grip. I could describe them all but I recommend you get a book with pictures, worth a thousand words. This will be the first pictures we will put up and I promise to get on that immediately after Easter.

If you don't want to go buy a book just go to the library or even on line and copy some pictures. I am a big believer in predictability and yet know that variety is important to muscle adaptation so I would look for a Weider or Arnold's exercise encycolpedia. These books always have good descriptions and good pictures and the exercises can be adapted to your fitness level. There are plenty of books for golf but I don't think they are better. Lynn and I have some exercises specific to TGM that we will release to help imprint the tensions that you want to apply to the TGM technique. But your first order of business is to establish correct posture thereby creating balance. Don't pick a muscle and then over emphasize it to the disservice of body balance.

A number of the posts have explored individual exercise programs. The most important thing to remember is to train all of the muscles appropriately. The legs are bigger and more numerous than say your arm muscles so . . .the legs will take more weight and often more exercises to be balanced to your triceps. But . . .Last week, I saw a fellow doing a leg extension with 40 lbs. and then turn around and do his triceps on a cable with 60lbs. I would normally jump to the conclusion that he was over training his triceps except that you never know what someone is doing on any given workout. For all I know he might be rehabing a knee or he might be doing some very specific tricep work to get his bench press up. I am only telling you this as a reminder that you have to create your workout for your needs. Be careful when you are watching people in the gym.

Hope this gets you started. I know I dumped a lot on you. I'll come back to my office this afternoon and clean it up a little. Let's explore this some more. Vik

[rwh]

Vicki,

Thank you for the reply and clearing up the fast twitch - slow twitch fiber distinction. I'm glad you will be posting some "TGM" training tips later on.

[Yoda]

Lynn and I have some exercises specific to TGM that we will release to help imprint the tensions that you want to apply to the TGM technique.

Vickie and I have put together a series of basic exercises that incorporates a TGM Twist. My 'bod' is definitely not ready for prime time, but I can hold a video camera while Vickie does the exercises to perfection. Between her demonstration and incredibly articulate presentation, you will get a crystal clear picture of how to achieve the results you seek and why.

Coming soon!

[LSH]

Best exercises you may ask? The Lat pulldown in any gym is a good first exercise to consider. DO NOT pull the bar down behind your back. Instead, place your hands on the bar wide (not too wide in the beginning and then reach wider and wider over about 6-8 workouts). Sit up straight, draw your shoulders down, engage some abdominal support, and then pull the bar to your chest using the lat muscles. Slowly stretch your arms back out and repeat 10-15 times slowly, deliberately with no jerking. Vik

Vickie
I extracted a partial quote from your message. I have been doing the lat pull down behind my head to the base of my neck for a while. What is the issue with doing that?
Steve

[Matt]

Vickie
I extracted a partial quote from your message. I have been doing the lat pull down behind my head to the base of my neck for a while. What is the issue with doing that?
Steve

'Behind the neck' puts a lot of strain on your shoulders, specifically your rotator cuff. Refrain from doing lat pulldowns as well as military presses behind the neck - to the front is much better. I actually prefer doing chinups and pullups as opposed to lat pulldowns, so give that a try as well or use them to complement the pulldowns. Mix those in with some bent-over rows and/or one-arm dumbbell rows and you'll be pretty set for your lats.

[Vickie]

The science of exercise is changing all the time. The behind the neck pull down is mostly contraindicated because it raises your exposure to potential injury and simply isn't as effective as many other exercises for the latisimus dorsi muscle. It took a lot of years and a lot of high level injuries for the fitness industry to finally say enough is enough. I still use it in about 2% of my client cases and for very specific purposes. But it isn't a part of my training routine nor the final and permanent make up of any protocol I would recommend. Make your work easy and effective for your body and your time and go with the best science you can find.

The problem with a behind the neck pulldown is that it forces the trapezoid muscle (a large muscle that makes up the part of the upper back most often called the neck the neck, attaches to your shoulder and then to the first lumbar vertebrae) to over-work to allow the lats to do the job you are requesting. If you will hold the lat bar and just engage your lats, without resisting with your shoulders, you will see that the elbows will slightly drop making a path for the bar to be drawn directly into your upper pec muscle, this is your rotator cuff family working at their best. The natural and most advatageous use of the lat will simply not pull the bar back and over your head forcing the neck to fall forward and out of the way. The best use of exercise in an isolation mode is to reacquaint your mind and your muscle with the safe and effecient motion that is natural to the muslce connections.


With any pull downs make sure only use weight that allows you to keep your shoulders stationary, your seat on the seat and the front of your shoulders open, never rounding. It is better to have complete and deliberate control of the bar at all times. Feel your muscle through the range of each repetition and you will get much safer and more continuously progressive results.

The best answer to choosing 'in front and opposed to in back' is because it's easier and in this case that makes it better.

Vickie

[jim_0068]

I think the back is one of the biggest un-trained parts of the golf swing too...once my back started getting stronger my whole swing got better and faster. Why? Beats me, but it does.

I also believe that is part of the reason why my skinny waffer of a friend swings so ungodly fast, he has a very strong back due from being an all state swimmer. He's only like 5'9", 135-140lbs (MAYBE, i had him up to 140lbs when i showed him how to eat cuz he has a super fast metabolism) and he has to swing it in the 120-125 range because he routinely hits his 15* steel shafted 3 wood 275-280.

[Vickie]

The why is the latissimus dorsi muscle. That is the swimmer wings that you see also on gymnasts. This muscle is the largest back muscle and is responsible for the twisting motion of your torso. Yea it's important for the swing. If you could see a picture of the muscle you would see that it attaches to the front of your upper arm, to much of your thorasic vertebrae and then to your hip. In fact the lat is the primary stabilizer for your hip on the back; your abdominal muscles are the primary stabilizers for the front.

Even if you don't have wings, if you have strength in your lats you have torso power. You can't expect that little ole tricep to power that little white ball as far as you want so get that big back goin'

Vickie