Tip #30: Greg Norman's Workout

The repetitive nature of the golf swing predisposes both the professional and amateur golfer to injury. The objective of any exercise program is to enhance performance as well as prevent injury.

The repetitive nature of the golf swing predisposes both professionals and amateurs to injury. The objective of any exercise program is to enhance performance and prevent injury.

Greg Norman's extensive business, golf and travel schedules all contribute to the breakdown of his body. This is why he views fitness as a key component in his overall lifestyle. He alternates parts of these five exercise programs throughout the course of the year. In addition, we constantly evaluate ways of improving his programs.

We've provided six of Norman's workouts to show you the basic format of a solid training session: aerobic activity to warm up the body and maintain cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility training, strength training (upper body, lower body and trunk), balance training and stabilization training (including muscle memory and power training). The variety of the exercises in the programs help keep you interested in your conditioning.

Greg's programs train the neuromuscular system, focusing on the fitness components necessary for reproducing one successful swing after another. Those components include functional flexibility, golf-specific muscular strength, dynamic postural balance and segmental coordination. There are several factors we consider when organizing his workout schedule:

Time of season. Are we planning for in-season or off-season work? What are the major tournaments or tour stops on which we want to focus?

Time of week. Is it the beginning of the week, pro/am day, moving day, or Sunday's last round?

Practice time available. How much practice time is available each week given other commitments, travel time, etc.?

Volume versus intensity. Is it the time of year when we want to build a strength base (typically the off-season) or do we want to create power (late in the off-season, or early in the season)?

Loaded versus unloaded. We save loaded exercises for earlier in the workout and unloaded exercises for later in a workout or after the player has hit a lot of practice balls.

Repetition versus isometric hold. Do we have an injury that will be aggravated by movement or do we need to strengthen the muscle throughout the full range of motion?

Current health status. Is he fatigued after living through five time zones in two weeks, or is he injured or ill?

Greg works on his breathing during all of his workouts. After his workouts we evaluate any problem areas and occasionally do breathing and relaxation techniques.