Customer Reviews

The Golfer's Two-Minute Workout

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I have just finished my first week of "two-minute" workouts as per the instructions within "The Golfer's 2-Minute Workout." I read about their ground-breaking study and book in Golf magazine and liked the idea that there was actually a scientific study conducted on their method with positive results such as a dramatic increase in average drive distance. To my knowledge, this is the only study ever conducted on a strength training method that has a direct application to golfers (many other books I've read are simply taking general bodybuilding exercises and saying that they "also work" for golfers).I am pleased to report that the book delivers exactly what its title indicates, as I'm already (after only one week!) far stronger and experiencing gains in both distance off the tee and in control, that I would not have imagined (having been an avid golfer for 14 years already). I think that the authors have hit upon an innovation that is truly revolutionary and that is that strength is a key ingredient to being or becoming a better golfer. And their program builds it quicker and more dramatically than any I've ever seen. The good news is their program is so brief but the results of it are immediate and substantial. I recommend this method of exercise and this book to any golfer looking to improve his or her game.

My first thought when encountering this book was that the claims were too outrageous. Thirty yards is a lot, especially after only 6 weeks. However, I think it's silly to spend thousands of dollars on clubs and green fees and not be willing to spend a few bucks for a book.

I have worked out off and on for many years with weights. I stopped my routine and dutifully followed the book. I worked out once a week, doing the exercises as outlined. After about 5 weeks, I didn't notice any appreciable increase in my strength or my driving distance. Yes, the amount of weight that I could lift using their static technique had increased quite a bit. However, the same thing happens when I lift weights normally. Anytime I start a new exercise, I am initially very bad at it and improve quickly to a plataeu.

On the book itself. I was really disappointed that the authors made their claims based on a study of 6 golfers. Just 6! That's hardly enough for any kind of reasonable statistics. Furthermore, they didn't use any kind of control group to verify that it wasn't simply a placebo effect. I would also have like to seen a control group to verify that the extra yardage wasn't caused by people simply trying harder because they were part of an experiment. I kept wondering if these people were practicing at the range more often because of this experiment.

Also, the exercises are hard to perform without a partner. They seem to work better if you have someone to put the weight into position for you. Also, I found that some exercises were hard to do with the equipment I had at home. It seemed like I was expending a fair amount of effort using other muscles just to hold my position. Sometimes, I didn't feel that the target muscles got exercised as much as they were supposed to be.

What will probably interest most people more is that I did indeed increase my driving distance anywhere from 30-50 yards, but it had nothing to do with the book. First, I bought a Momentus weight club. It easily gave me another 10-15 yards. A weighted club exercises muscles which don't get exercised with normal weights. Secondly, and even more important, I discovered that I was hitting all of my shots on the heel of the club. Once I fixed my address position to account for that, I started bombing my drives. For most of the year, 250 yards was about as far as I could drive. Not long after I fixed my address positions, I hit a couple of 300 yard drives and my 3 wood is consistently in the 240-250 yard range. At the beginning of the year, my 3 wood was about 220 yards.

The only thing I did like about the book was the explanation on why static exercises work. They talk in a fair amount of detail on how muscles work. It made sense to me.

Unfortunately, I just didn't see any results.

I was the not sure if this program would work. Worked out hard over the winter with Body for Life. Did not seem to be getting any stronger and the diet was killing me. I have since discovered I am a diabetic. Decided to try the progam and I am amazed at the increase in my stength. In 4 weeks I have gone from 150 lbs. in the bench press to 286. Other exercises show the same result. Have I increased my drives yes and all other clubs. Hit the ball more consistent. Length increase with driver 15 to 20 yards. Buy the book and give it and honest chance. You will be susprised. Only problem is I have maxed out all of the machines at the Y and I am having to move over to free weights.

i have been on this program for 3 months and have increased my overall strength, with ease. it is such a revolutionary idea, that it is hard to believe that it will work. i am 46 and have tried many strength-building programs, with absolutely no success, until this program. i am a scratch golfer and it is very difficult to say that i am longer, but i feel that i am controlling the club much better, due to better balance and overall strength.

After reading this book and applying the author's revolutionary principles to my now VERY BRIEF workouts, I'm hitting the ball off the tee substantially farther (over 20 yards!) than I ever did before. And this is a consistent 20 yards further! Even more important to me than my dramatic improvement in my golf game is the fact that I've dropped about 12 pounds of fat and am far stronger than I have ever been at any point in my life. All this from a two-minute workout performed only ten times in eight weeks! As the authors' recommend, I'm now only working out once every two weeks on strength training and I'm still gaining distance on my drive (although not as dramatically now) and am getting stronger with each workout. This is truly a ground-breaking book by two gentleman who are already the talk of the golf world. If you're serious about wanting to improve your game and your health, you'll want this book.

I know a great deal regarding golf, but very little of weight training. This book promotes "static contraction" weight lifting, where you hold as much weight as possible for 20 seconds---once a week for a particular muscle group. After 6 weeks, the average strength gain is 85%, resulting in an average of 15 yards off the tee. It's a decent book---an interesting book---but one which raises skepticism. If it's too good to be true--it usually is. And that may be the case here. However, it DOES make a lot of sense. Again, I know little of weight training, but why NOT push yourself to the max for a short duration, as compared to doing many reps for an hour? I do know this---static contraction was a fad in the mid 50's. It's not around anymore for a reason. Why? I don't know. But I'm willing to try it---again, it makes sense to me. The best golf fitness book I've heard about is "Physical Golf". It drew rave reviews, but it takes 5 weeks to get a copy. There's not much out there in the way of strength training for golf---there should be more. Try this here book out first---at the very least, you'll expand your knowledge on the topic. It's very well worded---the authors "appear" to know what they're talking about---but are they telling the truth???

The authors' claims are based on a flawed research project. They did before-and-after measurements of driving distance, and found that all eight golfers increased their distance after doing the static exercise program. But almost all of the gains were less than ten yards; only one had the 30-yard gain that is mentioned in the book cover hype. The problem with the research is that it did not include a control group that did everything else the same but did not do the special exercises. The reported gains might have been due to nonspecific effects such as increased concentration or increased confidence. Also, the actual time to do the exercises is a good deal more than two minutes a day: two minutes is the total time with tense muscles, but after each exercise you have to rest, move to another station, change weights, etc. Bottom line: If you are seriously out of shape, probably any kind of exercise will be better than none. If you want to improve your driving distance, take a lesson and cure your slice!

If you don't have access to body building equipment forget it.

I found the premise not so hot in that holding a static position would help my swing. I have read a good deal about what the tour players and others are doing, and I found no evidence of this program in use. When I looked at the book, I felt the exercises might be ok for someone just starting out. However, when I ran this by my physician he said that holding a movement is bad for my blood pressure, so I nixed the whole idea.

Not realistic, as most athletes train pretty hard for their spor