We’ve all heard the phrase. And there’s good reason for that. A fundamental fact of disc golf is that the stronger your grip is, the more distance potential you have. There are plenty of good explanations out there as to why.

Two really good articles over at Heavy Disc help explain the role of disc golf grip strength in a throw:
Heavy Disc – Slow Down and Throw Far
Heavy Disc – Right Pec and Some Grip Answers

The bottom line is that if you grip the disc like a metrosexual kitten, you’re just not gonna get a lot of distance. The more grip strength you can muster, the more distance you’ll usually get. Like any other physical skill, this can be trained. To help you in your quest for a more beast like grip, here are 3 ways to train for more grip strength.

Disc Golf Grip Training

Grippers

First is the old stand by, grip trainers. Most of you are familiar with these or have at least seen them. There are some options that are better than others. The ultimate standard in grip strength trainers comes from the Captains of Crush. I started with their trainer level grip trainer. I’ve since progressed to more difficult models. On my desk at work sits four of them. One that is easy (now it is anyway), one that I am training with now, one that is pretty challenging, and one that I have a hard time believing I’ll ever be able to squeeze closed.

The best way to train with this type of implement is called “greasing the groove”. Basically that means that you grab them every hour or two and knock out 10 reps with each hand. Over the course of a day at work, I’ll end up doing 100 or more with both hands. Before you know it, you’ve gained noticeable grip strength.

Fat Gripz

The second way to really help your grip strength comes in the gym. If you do any weight training at all, a simple addition to your routine will net some nice grip improvement.

They are called Fat Gripz. You attach them to the bar on any pushing exercise (bench press, military press, dumbbell presses, etc.). Instead of gripping the bar, you grip these. They make you squeeze the bar a lot harder to maintain control. A nice bonus is that they also help prevent elbow and shoulder strains while lifting. I’ve used these for the last couple of years and never hit the gym without them.

Loaded Carries

The third way to improve grip strength also comes in the gym. This time in the form of a single exercise. Adding farmer’s walks, also know as loaded carries, to your workouts are great for you in many different ways. One of them is significantly increased grip strength. I’m currently in the gym 3 days a week. One of those days I do farmer’w walks. I pick up 80 lb. dumbbells, walk across the gym and back (roughly 30 seconds), and set them back down. Rest 90-120 seconds and repeat 2-5 more times. In 5-10 minutes, you’ve worked just about every muscle in your upper body and every muscle that has anything to do with grip is burning like crazy.

Result

I’ve integrated all three of these things into my regular training routine and I credit those additions with both added distance and control. It also make me feel confident when I step up and can squeeze the tar out of the disc. I really believe that if you add any or all of these techniques, you’ll see the same benefits.

Bonus

There is also a much forgotten grip strength technique straight from the mind of Sylvester Stallone. If you wear a baseball hat, simply turn it around backwards. Your strength, disc golf grip, and everything else, will instantly go through the roof! I’m not kidding! See the classic movie “Over the Top” for proof!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Get a Grip – 3 Ways to Increase Your Disc Golf Grip Strength appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

Looking back at my past 200+ posts (yeah, there are over 200 posts to look through here!), I realized that it’s been longer than it should have been since I posted about physical training for disc golf. Considering how much time I spend working out, rehabbing, obsessing over my diet, and otherwise being a health and fitness dork, I should be posting about those things more often. Especially since all of them directly contribute to playing better disc golf!

The squat, deadlift, bench press, and military press have been part of my gym routine for years. They are much more effective than doing a ton of smaller isolation exercises. They help build whole body strength and endurance. They allow me to grunt and sweat and otherwise feel manly a few times a week. They also beat the crap out of my body. Especially my back, shoulders, and knees.

For this reason I started doing kettle bell workouts at home every day. I wrote about that here. I can’t recommend them enough. I enjoy getting up in the morning and yelling at my monkeys while I work out! But even with how happy I am with the kettle bell stuff, I felt it was important to get in the gym and back to those 4 core compound movements.

Avoiding Injury

There is just no substitute for lifting heavy weight. It’s good for you in so many different ways. It’s also really good for your disc golf game, just ask Avery Jenkins. Figuring out how to do that without risking injury is the challenge.

[tweetthis]Time in the gym is great for your #discgolf game![/tweetthis]

The squat was the first exercise I looked to replace. The squat can put undue stress on your upper back where the bar rests. It can put stress on your lower back as you perform the movement. It compresses your entire spine even with the best of form and technique.

Luckily, there are a ton of variations that don’t involve loading a boat load of weight on your shoulders. It also turns out that there is a variation that’s one of the best disc golf related exercises I’ve found! Funny how that happens in life. You go off looking for one thing and find something completely unexpected instead!

A Great Disc Golf Exercise

The best way to get the benefits of a heavy squat without the heavy part is to do single leg variations. By supporting the weight with just one leg, you drastically reduce the need for a lot of weight. In fact, try to do a single leg squat with just your body weight! A lot of people can’t even do that.

When you do add weight, you do it with dumbbells or kettle bells held in your hands. No big heavy bar resting on top of your spinal column.

Regular squats are great for your legs, core, and stability. All good things for disc golf. Single leg squats add a huge bonus… Balance. All of a sudden, you are recruiting every muscle in your body from your core down just trying not to fall over. These things are tough! In just a couple of short weeks, I’ve noticed a significant increase in my balance and stability. My ankles are getting stronger along with my core. I’ve also seen a bigger improvement in leg strength than I ever did with the standard squat.

Being sure footed with a solid base and core are crucial when it comes to control and power in disc golf. Throwing a disc is a compound movement that starts at your feet and proceeds upwards from there. It only makes sense that strengthening your lower body and increasing your balance at the same time would be beneficial. Once you do a couple single leg squats, you’ll feel exactly what I mean!

Here’s How

Here’s a quick run through of the variation I like the best, the single leg split squat…

1. Position yourself roughly 2 feet in front of a bench, or a couch, or a chair.
2. Take one foot and kick it back until the toe is resting on the bench behind you. This is for balance, not support. You are now standing on one leg.
3. Squat down on that one leg until your thigh is parallel with the ground. Do this in a relatively slow and controlled manner.
4. Make sure you are keeping your back straight and your core tight.
5. Pause.
6. Stand up.
7. Repeat.
8. Don’t fall over.

Once you get the hang of it with your body weight, you can now add the weight of kettle bells or dumbbells. You’ll be surprised at how challenging these are with little to no extra weight. You’ll also be nicely surprised at how they don’t put your back at any risk at all (assuming you maintain a good posture throughout the movement).

When you’ve done these for a few times over the course of several weeks, you’ll be amazed at how much stability you’ve added to your stance. Run ups and stand still throws will be directly impacted. Give these single leg split squats a try. If you spend time in the gym, I think you’ll dig them!

Do you spend time in the gym? Do you do disc golf specific exercises? What are they? Let us know in the comments and we just might write an article about them!

Do you know what’s a lot easier than single leg squat? Subscribing to this blog. Simply enter your email below and we’ll make sure you never miss a single thing!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Strong From the Ground Up, A Disc Golf Exercise appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

Well, it’s that time of year again. No, I don’t mean summer. No, I don’t mean tournament season. I mean it’s time for me to be sidelined with an injury. Just call me the Derek Rose of disc golf. I seem to get injured to the point of not being able to play at least once a year. A lot of other people do too, it seems. So this week instead of a playing tip, I thought I’d share a tip that could keep you playing longer instead.

When I get injured, it’s almost always my lower back. The sad thing is that I know it’s coming and what causes it, but I play anyway when I know I shouldn’t.  It took two solid years to rehab from 4 bulged discs in my back. That was two years of intense pain and no disc golf. I’m intimately familiar with my back, how it works, how it breaks, and how to fix it. The problem is that I’m stubborn. I really need to fix that problem right along with my back.

As I talk to other people I play with, it seems like I’m not alone. This is about the time of year when folks have been playing so much that over use injuries start to crop up. Injuries due to poor form rear their ugly heads. The sale of knee and elbow braces to disc golfers skyrockets. Shoulders pop. Ankles creak. It’s time for those dreaded mid season injuries.

What is a disc golfer to do? It’s 75 degrees and perfect outside. All your friends are headed to the course to play. You think that you could probably gimp your way through a round, so a hand full of Aleve or Advil later and you are out there hucking plastic. That can get you through a few rounds. It works great until it doesn’t. That’s when the real injury happens.

There’s two types of injuries. The ones where we can tough it out and play through them are the first. The second are the serious ones we can’t play through and require medical attention. The problem lies in the fact that number one becomes number two more often than not. We insist on playing when our bodies are giving us every sign not to.

This is why I haven’t played much disc golf lately. When my back starts hurting, that’s my body telling me to take it easy for a bit. That’s my back’s way of saying to do extra yoga, twice a day, and to make sure I use my standing desk at work. If I do those things for a couple of weeks, I’m usually good to go. If I don’t, and I decide to go play instead, I’m asking to be out for much more than a couple of weeks.

We have three choices when aches and pains show up. What we choose determines how much playing time and enjoyment we actually miss.

1.  We can see a doctor and then rest and rehab for a week or two until the injury is healed or the pain subsides.

2.  We can take extra pain meds and play anyway until the injury is so bad that we have to stop playing for several weeks or even months.

3.  We can ride the thin line between not quite healed but still playing occasionally. This typically results in ongoing pain that just never goes away. The serious injury may take longer to come, but it eventually does. Then we are out for an indefinite amount of time as our bodies try to heal from the damage we have inflicted.

By far, choice number one is the smartest. Choice number one, in the long run, has the least down time from playing. Choice number one is also the hardest. It requires that we give up something now to gain something later. It requires that we delay the gratification of a round today in exchange for the gratification of many rounds down the road.

For those of you that have been injured or are injury prone like me, you are familiar with these choices. If you haven’t been injured before, or are suffering from your first real injury now, take heed. The choice never gets easier, but it’s always clear.

For the sake of your health and for the sake of being able to play as much as possible this summer, take a week or two off if you are hurt. See your doctor. Don’t try to play through it. Don’t mask the problem with medications of any kind. Your body hurts because it’s asking you nicely not to over do it. If you ignore it, it won’t be so nice. Trust me when I tell you you don’t want to feel what it’s like to have your body opt for the not so nice reminder.

Here’s something you can do even if you are injured… Subscribe to this blog by entering your email below. You’ll get a weekly newsletter sent directly to you along with links to all of the new posts from that week!

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The post Just the Tip – Injuries appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

I mentioned in one of my Facebook updates this week that I am restricting my reading to sports psychology for the duration of my preparation for the GBO.  I’m really enjoying that decision and I highly recommend that if you play competitively at all you check out at least one book on the subject.  I just so happen to have a whole list of possibilities already put together for you as part of my disc golf reading list.

The one exception to that is a book called Kettlebell – Simple & Sinister by Pavel Tsatsouline.  Pavel is the guy who introduced the kettlebell to North America and is the primary reason you see these cannonballs with handles being swung around so much at your local gym or Crossfit box.

I’ve written a whole series of posts about building a disc golf home gym and disc golf fitness, but I haven’t gotten around to talking about the kettlebells yet.  A big part of that is I don’t have a ton of experience with them yet.  They are a new implement to me and I never really knew what to do with them.  I own a set (you can see them against the wall in the pic below).  I’ve used them here and there.  But that’s pretty much it.

All that has changed.  I’ve been furiously looking for a workout that will get me ready for the GBO.  I went back into the gym for a while as I really enjoy the 4 basic barbell lifts (bench press, military press, squat, deadlift).  At 44, however, I’m just not recovering from that type of workout like I used to.

Also, while I absolutely believe that strength (NOT size) is paramount to peak disc golf performance, I really didn’t feel that my old barbell workouts were paying any disc golf specific dividends.  I’ve been using my sandbag, my rings, some body weight training, and other stuff in my home gym to try to address that, but I just haven’t been totally thrilled with any of it as of late.  Enter Tim Ferriss.

I have an hour drive to and from work each day.  That means I listen to a ton of podcasts.  I wish there were more, but there are only a handful of disc golf podcasts, so I listen to a lot of other types.  (If you like disc golf podcasts, I highly recommend the Smashboxx TV podcast, The Disc Golf Show, Final Round Radio, and of course The Disc Golf Answer Man where you can hear me occasionally)

Outside of disc golf, one of my favorites is the Tim Ferris show.  You’ve probably heard of Tim as he’s the author of 3 NY Times best selling books (The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Chef), all worth reading.  I find his podcast eminently entertaining and educational.  Recently he had Pavel Tsatsouline on as a guest (check out the episode here), and I was hooked at first listen.

First of all, Pavel has this awesome don’t be a whiny wimp attitude that I love.  Excuses are for losers and he is unapologetic about that.  More people in this world need to be as honest and transparent as he is.  You can really tell that he used to train the Russian special forces just by his attitude.

So, what does training the Russian special forces have to do with training for the GBO and for disc golf?  A lot.  First and foremost, it’s training for functional strength, not mirror muscles.  It’s training your body to move forcefully and effectively and with power.  It translates directly to athletic performance in any sport.

Second, it’s minimalist.  It’s literally 3 stretches, 2 exercises, and 2 kettle bells.  That’s it.  One of my challenges in training for the GBO is finding time for everything I want to do.  I need things that are effective, yet don’t take up any more time than necessary.  This program fits that to a tee.

Third, I can already feel the benefits to my game.  The level of stability I have, the core strength, the increase in explosiveness, and the surprising increase in flexibility are all effects that are manifesting much sooner than I thought they would.

Fourth, it’s fun.  I can truly say that I genuinely enjoy this training and look forward to doing it every morning.  I cannot say that about my trips to the gym.  While I enjoyed lifting, it was never something I looked forward to and it was often something I had to drag myself into the gym to do.

It’s kind of weird to think that I’ve stopped using all the stuff I have in my disc golf home gym (except the jump rope, I still love it and do it regularly!) for now.  I’m sure I’ll still use it all occasionally (I was just doing some pull ups on my rings yesterday, for example), but I don’t see myself deviating from this kettle bell workout any time soon.

If you are looking for something simple and effective to get you in great overall shape, get you extremely strong, and directly benefit your disc golf game, try out Pavel’s book and try out some kettlebells.  If you don’t have kettlebells, you can get them pretty cheap at your local Play it Again Sports.  All you need is two for Pavel’s program.  If you want something more badass than that, you can get the primal bells shown in the picture from Onnit.  I’ve got a pair of those on the way to the house and I can’t wait to start swinging around some monkeys!

This training program is 6 days a week, so that means that over the next 83 days, I’ll get in roughly 66 days of kettlebell training.  I am really looking forward to what that will do for my overall strength as well as my overall game.  After the GBO is over, and I am writing the wrap up posts I have planned, I’ll be sure to touch on just how effective I think it was and if I’ll be going back to other types of training at that time.

Regardless of whether you try this program out or not, I’m still an ardent supporter of strength (again, NOT size) being beneficial in disc golf.  It’s beneficial in ALL other sports, there is no reason disc golf should be treated differently.  Everyone can benefit from a strength training program.  If you don’t already have one, you should definitely consider trying it out!

You know what else you should try out?  Subscribing to the blog!  It couldn’t be easier, just enter your email below and I’ll send disc golf goodness straight to you via email every week!  I promise I’ll never sell or spam your email, I’m just not that type of guy!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Road to the 2015 GBO – 83 Days to Go appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

If you’ve been following along on Facebook, you’ve seen that it got cold and snowy here in the Chicago area.  And by cold, I mean stupidly, idiotically, ridiculously cold.  Double digit negative wind chill is nothing to sneeze at.  It’s also not conducive to practicing outside.  With that many clothes on, numb fingers and toes, and muscles tighter than a downhill skier’s body suit, there isn’t a whole lot of improvement that can happen outside.

I still try to go out and throw every day.  I actually like playing in the snow, it’s the sub zero temps that are the problem.  Getting out every day does have the benefit of keeping the throwing motion at least familiar. I feel like I can better stay in the groove I’m carving out for myself by throwing as much as possible.

That brings me to my big aha moment for the week.  Have you ever noticed that some days you are just off?  One day you are threading drives through the narrowest of gaps without a second thought and the next you couldn’t hit a line if your life counted on it.  Every hole sees a shanked drive, an air balled putt, or an approach thrown so far off target that all you can do is laugh.

I’ve had a few of those days lately and it really got me to thinking about what happens if one of those days happens during the GBO?  Months of preparation go down the toilet because my arm suddenly decides to stop working for a day?  That just can’t happen.  So I started retracing my steps.  I keep a much more detailed journal of my daily training than I post here or on Facebook, so it was pretty easy to look back over the last month.

These “off” days just couldn’t be random.  There had to be a cause.  If I could find the cause I could prevent them from happening.  Well, it didn’t take long.  After looking back over the last 30 days, it was as clear as day.

Before I talk about what I found, I want to emphasize that a common cause for these types of days is poor sleep.  Poor sleep is an epidemic in our society and the cause of more “off” days than most want to admit to.  For me, sleep is non negotiable.  I get 8 hours or more every night and I never sacrifice that.  Because of that, I can rule out poor sleep as a cause of these “off” days for myself.  That may not be the case for you.  In addition to what follows, take a hard look at at your sleep habits.  Getting quality sleep every night is one of the best things you can do for your performance in any arena including disc golf.  But since it wasn’t a sleep issue for me, what was it?

Depending on what study you look at, it is said that every molecule in your body with the exception of your bones (which take longer) will be replaced by a new one every 6-12 months.  That means that outside of your skeleton, you have an entirely new body every year or so.  Aside from being a really cool (and kind of creepy if you think about it too much) fact, that begs the easy to answer question of what fuels that process?  Food does.

[tweetthis]Are you a disc golfer made up of Kentucky Fried Chicken?[/tweetthis]

You are entirely made up of what you eat.  That’s right, your body regenerates those molecules every year using the fuel and raw materials you put in your mouth every day.  The foods you eat are the building blocks of your body.  So what are you made of?  Big Macs, Whoppers, White Castle sliders, Oreo cookies, and Tombstone pizzas?  Or are you made of grass fed beef, organic vegetables, fresh fruit, and water?

I ask the question that way because when I looked back at the 4 worst days of practice I’ve had over the last month, all 4 of them were preceded by the crappy meals I listed above.  I normally eat very clean and very healthy.  It’s something I pride myself on.  But every once in a while, the drive through calls my name.  Sometimes I just have to pull a Harold and Kumar and pound down 15 White Castle cheeseburgers.

I never thought that the occasional crap meal would affect me.  I always thought I was putting enough good stuff in me to offset the occasional need to eat an entire bag of Oreos.  Clearly I was wrong.  My performance demonstrated a clear and obvious decrease after eating poorly.  And once a week is still roughly 15% of the time.  If my body is regenerating itself once every 6 months, do I really want 15% of me to be made up of two all beef (debatable) patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun?

So does this all mean that I’m never going to eat shitty food again?  Am I swearing off 2 for $5 chicken sandwiches at Burger King?  Am I done with french fries forever?  HELL NO!  I’m only human and that stuff is delicious!  But I am done with them until after the GBO.  And they will probably be a lot less frequent after that.  Maybe I’ll cut back to only being made up of less than 5% Baconator.

I want every day of practice to make me better.  I want every rep to count as much as possible.  I want to roll into Emporia knowing that I’ve done every single thing in my power to bring the best I have to offer.  If that means that the only tombstone in my life for the next four months involves a spike hyzer, then so be it. I can do that.

As always, thank you so much for following along on the road to the 2015 GBO.  It’s very cool that so many of you are joining in on this journey.  If you haven’t already, do what all the other cool kids are doing and subscribe to the blog.  I’ll never spam or sell your email but I will send you some organic, grass fed articles each week!

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The post Road to the 2015 GBO – 112 Days to Go appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

If I had to pick the athlete that I’d most like to have the traits of, it would be a gymnast.  Gymnasts are extraordinarily strong, but they balance that with explosive speed and incredible flexibility.  That combination is a huge advantage in disc golf.  Their strength gives them precise control over their movements, their flexibility allows them to position their body to exert power, and their speed and quickness would work perfectly to impart that power onto a disc.

I also admire gymnasts because they train for functional strength.  They train to move their body through space with grace and ease.  They do not train to move inert weight through space in an effort to get “swole up” as the kids these days say.  I train to get better at disc golf and to stay healthy.  The training that gymnasts do is perfect for both.

I’m not saying we should all expand the space in our disc golf home gym and put in a pommel horse.  I’m also not saying that tumbling runs are in your near future.  There are no triple flip dismounts from the high bar in my recommendations.  I am, however, going to recommend a piece of gymnastic equipment as one of the favorite things I’ve ever started working out on.  The rings.

Suspension training has become very popular as of late.  The TRX suspension system is probably the most widely used.  It’s also the most versatile.  As cool as the TRX system is (and I would never try to talk you out of it), I still went with traditional gymnast rings.  There is something analog about them.  They just seem simpler and simple has been an increasing focus in my life for the last couple of years.  Both will work.  You could even use this rope system very effectively too.

In my last post in this series, I spent some time talking about body weight training.  Rings/suspension training is one of the best ways to supplement your body weight workout.  They don’t take up much room at all, they fit in your disc golf home gym, and there are a ton of benefits.  Here’s a short list of the benefits of adding ring workouts to your disc golf training:

1.  They are easy on your joints and help to prevent injury.  Doing exercises on the rings allows your joints to move freely through their preferred range of motion.  You are not restricted a static hand planted on the floor, grasping a pull up bar, or holding on to a dip station.  My shoulders, wrists, and elbows feel infinitely better and less sore when using rings over static implements.  Keeping these joints healthy is huge when it comes to successful disc golf.

2.  They are versatile.  While I’d still recommend a sandbag and a jump rope as part of your gym, if I could only have one implement in my gym, rings would be a serious contender.  Moving your body with complete control is important in disc golf.  Rings directly train that.  You can do a huge variety of training with them and can get a complete full body workout using just your body weight and a suspension system.

3.  They incorporate all of the little stabilizer muscles involved in each movement.  Push ups, pull ups, dips, and all other ring exercises make use of all of the muscles needed to perform a particular movement.  A big part of training for disc golf is introducing stability.  It’s introducing total and precise control over each of your body parts.  These stabilizer muscles play a huge part in that.

4.  Speaking of stability, using the rings as a variant to traditional body weight movements significantly activates your core.  The first few times I did suspension training circuits, I didn’t do any specific core work.  The next day, however, felt like I had done a couple hours of core work.  Part of stabilizing the movement of the rings as you perform exercises on them is a total tightening of the core.  Strengthening your core is critical when training for disc golf.

5.  Suspension training improves balance and coordination.  Not a lot extra needs to be said here.  Balance and coordination contribute directly to your timing.  Correct timing is what makes the disc go BOOM!

For all those reasons and more, several times a week, I’m using my rings.  I don’t do anything fancy, but I rarely do a body weight workout without using them.  Pushups, dips, inverted rows, and pull ups are the most common movements.  There are a ton of variations you can do with just those four.  It’s easy to make each particular movement easier or harder in order to match your current fitness level.

It takes a little bit of work to get them hung safely (and please, make sure you do it safely – falling when you are upside down would not be good for your disc golf game), but it’s totally worth it.  If you aren’t a free weight or implement person, this is the perfect way to make the most out of your body weight work outs.

Building a disc golf home gym is one of several recurring series of posts here on the Mind Body Disc blog.  If you don’t already, do what all the cool kids are doing and subscribe to the blog.  We’ll keep you up to date on all the new content and we’ll make sure you don’t miss a thing.  We will never spam or sell your email.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Building a Disc Golf Home Gym, the Rings appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

If you woke up tomorrow and had no muscles, you’d be in trouble.  Let’s start with your heart.  It’s a pretty important muscle.  It moves blood and all that blood carries through your body.  Your diaphragm is another important hunk of muscle.  It’s what moves your lungs and allows you to breath.  Jaw muscles are a personal favorite as that’s what moves your jaws and allows you to eat bacon.  Your leg muscles help you jump and walk and run, the muscles in your fingers allow you to flip people off in traffic, and there’s a very important muscle that allows you to keep yourself from farting in public.

In the end, the primary function of all of your muscles is movement.  You, as a human being, were designed to move.  You were designed to self propel from point A to point B.  You were designed to stand and run and push and pull and otherwise get around a disc golf course on your own.

Since this is the primary function of muscles, that should also be the primary function of training those muscles.  Whether you are training for disc golf specific movements or something else, the focus of healthy training should always be for movement.  If training for disc golf equals training for movement, then our disc golf home gym should be set up to help us work on movement more than anything else.  Having huge guns will not improve your disc golf game.  Having an arm that will move quickly, powerfully, and with great control will greatly benefit your disc golf ability.

So what are we moving in disc golf?  We don’t really have any heavy equipment or implements (unless you are Dave Feldberg’s caddy) to move, so that leaves only our body.  With that in mind, what better way to train ourselves to move our own body than with body weight training.  If you can’t effectively move your own body through space, you will have one heck of a time trying to get a disc to move through space properly too.

When we hear the term “body weight training”, many of us think of our high school gym teachers.  Countless rounds of burpees, push ups, sit ups, and pull ups (or in my case at that time in my life, hanging from a bar and grunting) made up our gym classes.  I much preferred the good old days of junior high where we played dodge ball instead.

As we grew into adults, we left childish things behind.  Even for those that continued to work out, stay fit, and join gyms, most people left the body weight training behind them.  We instead went to the gym and did “adult” workouts with weights and machines.  At best, we did some sit ups to work on our abs of steel.  Many of us became convinced that we needed Nautilus and Hammer Strength and Life Fitness and many other contraptions in order to train our bodies effectively.  Even if we wanted to work out at home, we felt like we needed equipment to be effective.  Some of us even bought a BowFlex…..  Twice.

The interesting thing is that many of us think we need this equipment when we can’t even move our own body weight effectively.  Lots of people can’t perform simple acts like squatting down and standing back up without emitting sounds that closely resemble the mating call of the giant sperm whale.  They can’t lift little kids up over our heads without exclaiming, “you’re getting too big for this!”.  They have trouble with even the most basic acts of moving themselves around.

The point is that if we can’t even effectively move our own body weight around, we have no reason to adds weights or machines.  If we can’t get down and knock out 50 pushups, we have no business bench pressing something.  If we can’t pull our own body weight up via a pull-up at least 10-15 times, we have no reason to jump on a lat pull down machine.  If we can’t move our own bodies through space, we have no reason to spend any money at all on any training equipment.

That’s why I want to take a break from recommending equipment for your disc golf home gym and instead recommend gaining proficiency with some basic body weight training.  Yep, I’m talking about push ups, pull ups, leg raises, hand stand holds, body weight squats, and other similar movements.  There’s no muscle you can’t work with body weight training.  All you need is a space to do it in and maybe a pull up bar.

[tweetthis]Not everything good in life has to cost money.[/tweetthis]

Aside from being the common sense place to start training, body weight training has a bunch of other significant benefits.

1. It’s cheap!  You just need your body, and like mentioned before, maybe a pull up bar.  I had a few people tell me that the sand bag I recommended in a previous post was too expensive.  Well, this is about as inexpensive as it gets!
2. It’s safe.  It’s  how your body actually moves.  You are not restricted or put into unhealthy or compromising positions by equipment or bars.  It allows your joints to travel through their natural range of motion.  You aren’t overloading yourself with a bunch of weights that your muscles are not yet ready for.
3. It’s efficient.  Body weight training usually involves compound movements that work large groups of muscles.  There is very little need to ever spend hours in a gym doing things that isolate single muscles.
4. Anyone can do it.  Can’t do a push up?  Start on your knees.  Can’t do a pull up?  Put your feet on a chair and give yourself a little help.  There isn’t really a minimum fitness requirement to start moving your own body weight around.
5. It incorporates balance and flexibility, especially when you get to some of the more advanced movements (there is a ton more you can do besides the standard push up, pull up, sit up combination).  Try doing some single leg squats without holding on to anything.  Get good at that and you’ve built some serious balance.
6. It works.  Gymnasts are the biggest proof of this.  Their entire sport revolves around moving their body through space.  Most of their training and conditioning is done while performing gymnastic movements.  I challenge anyone to say that an active gymnast is not fit and extremely strong.
7. Your body can tolerate a tremendous amount of body weight work.  It can be done in very high volume if you want.  If you were to just do some body weight work every day and nothing else, you’d eventually get into really great shape.  Check out what happens to members of our armed forces through boot camp.  I had a few friends go through and they were in noticeably better shape after boot camp than before.  All they did was body weight training and conditioning.

So before you run out and get any more pieces of equipment for your disc golf home gym, see if you are proficient in body weight training first.  All you need to start a solid body weight program can be found here.  Try those out for a while.  You’ll be surprised at how much you can gain doing just those by themselves.  You just might find that your disc golf game will thank you too.

If you’ve enjoyed this continuing series on building a disc golf home gym, consider subscribing to this blog.  We’ll send you weekly updates on new posts so that you don’t miss anything.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Building a Disc Golf Home Gym, Body Weight Training appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

Aside from being a lazy person’s excuse for not working out, there’s actually some validity to it.  Plenty of skinny people who have never worked out or trained before can throw far.  Will Shusterick can throw really far.  Simon Lizotte can throw obscene distances.  Simon won the USDGC distance competition by almost 90 feet.  I could be wrong, but he doesn’t look like he hits the gym much, if ever.

First, I’m a firm believer that no matter how skinny you are and how far you throw, you could improve your disc golf performance by working out.  As far as Simon throws, time spent in the gym would improve his game beyond the remarkable level it has already achieved.  Second, the “I’m skinny and can throw far” argument is faulty at it’s core.  It’s a stupid statement for a couple of reasons.

I’ll start with the “I can throw far” part.  Distance is not a measure of how good someone is at disc golf.  Go over to DGCR, FaceBook, or Reddit, and 90-95% of all of the “I want to get better” at disc golf threads are related to throwing farther.

Now look at a score card.  Maybe I’m missing something, but there is no spot on the card where you write down how far you threw your drive.  I’ve never seen payouts given in the order of distance thrown.

[tweetthis]Too many people assume distance equals skill in #discgolf[/tweetthis]

While time in the gym will improve most people’s distance (regardless of what distance they start with), distance is way down on the list of things that training will help you with.  I won’t go over the whole list here, but I wrote an entire post about the disc golf specific benefits of weight training.  Does that mean I never work on distance?  Of course not.  I dream of throwing a disc 500 feet.  I just don’t mislead myself into thinking that will lower my scores.

Next let’s look at the assumption that time spent training in a gym is geared solely at getting bigger muscles.  Honestly, when I put together my disc golf home gym, my physical size was something I never even considered.  Will you get bigger if you train regularly?  Most likely.  If you start off being able to do 5 push ups and work your way up to being able to do 50 push ups, you will be bigger than when you started.  It’s just the way the body works.  It’s not the goal of training for disc golf, though.

What the “I’m skinny and can throw far” crowd don’t seem to get is that the goal of training for disc golf is improved performance across all skills.  It’s lower scores.  It’s prolonging the amount of time in a day or a lifetime that you can effectively play.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to stop playing because I’m out of shape or old.

[tweetthis]One of the best things about disc golf is that if you take care of your body, you should be able to play for almost all of your life.[/tweetthis]

So, if the goal isn’t size, but better performance, let’s go ahead and look at Simon Lizotte and see if there might be something we can do while training to closer approach his inhuman distance.  Why is that little guy able to throw the disc so far?  The answer is twofold.  Timing and technique.  While you can work on both on the practice field, you can also work on one of them in the gym.

To find out how, we have to look at other sports that require things similar to disc golf.  We need to look at a sport that requires the athlete to generate power with their feet and core, transferring that up through their body, down their arm, and result in a massive amount of speed and power delivered by the hand.  Combat sports require all of that.  A fighter’s speed and power comes from timing and technique.  Like disc golf, that timing and technique starts with the feet and works up from there.  How do boxers and MMA fighters work on their speed, footwork, and timing?  Among other things, by jumping rope.

Today’s MMA gym bears little resemblance to the boxing gyms of old.  The drills are different, the equipment is different, the sport is different.  One thing that has remained constant, though, is that you will see people jumping rope in both.  It has remained a part of fight training for a reason.  It’s effective.  Many of the reasons it is effective for training boxers also apply to disc golfers.

1. It teaches you to be light on your feet.
2. It requires great hand eye coordination.
3. It builds endurance.
4. It’s low impact (when done correctly) and has a very low risk of injury.
5. It teaches speed.
6. It teaches footwork.
7. It burns significant calories.
8. It looks badass when done well.

OK, maybe that last one is just a side benefit, but you get the idea.  Jumping rope is one of the best ways to work on speed, coordination, footwork, and timing when you aren’t on the course.

All that said, a jump rope is my clear choice for the next piece of equipment to add to your disc golf home gym.  If you are doing the sandbag training we talked about in this post, you can easily add 5-10 minutes of rope work to end of any of those work outs.  Jumping rope is a great finisher to any training.  As a nice side benefit, ropes are cheap!

If you haven’t ever jumped rope before, you’ll want to start with a heavier rope.  It will be easier to pick up.  Something like this one is a really nice place to start and it comes in under $10.  Once you get the hang of it, you can move up to what’s called a speed rope.  That’s a lighter rope that you can get going faster than the heavier starter rope.  The speed rope is where you start being able to work up to fancier stuff like double unders.

If you end up really liking it, check out this rope set up.  This is what I currently use and I’ve worked my way through about 4 different weight cables at this point.  There’s no need to spend the extra money on an upgraded rope until you get the basics down.  Honestly, the first two I linked will serve you indefinitely.  If you are looking to keep your investment in your disc golf home gym low, just stick with those.

So give it a try.  It’s one of my favorite parts of any training routine.  I’m tall, uncoordinated, and have the vertical leap of a brick.  If I can learn to do it, you can too.

For some inspiration, and to see just what is possible, I’ll leave you with this:

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Building a Disc Golf Home Gym, the Jump Rope appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

At the top of my 20/80 list for disc golf is the one disc round.  It’s one of my favorite things to do and I use it for a lot of purposes.  It’s taught me how to throw a putter for distance.  It’s taught me how to throw a hyzer with an under stable disc.  It’s taught me a lot about how the wind affects the flight of discs I would never have thought to use in the wind.  It’s also taught me what my most versatile discs are.

If I play a one disc round for fun, I always grab either a stable mid or stable fairway driver.  Those are the discs that make up 20% of my bag, but get 80% of my throws.  The value of having one disc that can do just about everything can’t be overstated.  It often makes me wonder why I carry so many discs to begin with.

Like a lot of other aspects of disc golf, this concept translates over into other areas of life.  Finding one thing that gives a lot of benefits is valuable in a lot of areas.  One good chef’s knife in the kitchen can do the work of a $1000 set of a bunch of different knives.  One good pair of shoes can serve where many people have 4-5 pairs.  One good coat, one pair of jeans, one great video game, and the list goes on.

All that said, then, and it’s no surprise that the first piece of equipment I recommend anyone buy for their disc golf home gym is a sand bag.  This is the 20 that gets you 80 for sure.  The sand bag is one of the most versatile pieces of equipment you can have to train with at home.  With a quality sand bag, you can get a full body work out with just one implement.  You can work every muscle effectively with just one sack of sand.  There are a few key benefits that make sandbag training perfect for the disc golfer.

Sandbag training builds stability.

A sandbag is a mass of constantly shifting weight.  Unlike lifting barbells, kettle bells, or dumbbells, the weight is moving around in a way that requires you to use not only your primary muscle groups to move it, but to also incorporates all of the smaller stabilizer muscles as well.  Disc golf is a game that requires both of these muscle groups to work together.  The fine control needed to accurately throw a golf disc often comes from these small stabilizers.  Very few implements work those smaller muscles along with the larger muscle groups as well as a sandbag.

Sandbag training works your core.

No matter what you are doing with the sandbag, no matter what motion or group of muscles you are working, you will also be maintaining core strength at the same time.  Distance in disc golf starts in the legs, but is then generated most by your core.  The spinning motion used to throw a disc relies heavily on a strong core.  One sandbag training session and you’ll feel what I’m talking about.

Sandbag training works both slow and fast twitch muscle groups.

A solid disc golf throw relies on a steady and strong base.  That comes from your slow twitch muscles.  It also relies on explosive acceleration.  That comes from your fast twitch muscles.  Sandbag training works both of those groups of muscles.  You can change the load, type of movement, and rate of movement all with the same implement.  This works both groups of muscles without changing the tool you are using.

Sandbag training builds your grip.

Grip strength is also a huge component of distance in disc golf.  Every exercise you do with the sandbag will simultaneously work your grip along with whatever other muscle groups you are focusing on at the time.  The shifting weight of the sand will test your grip like very few other tools you could use.

Sandbag training is inexpensive.

It’s a bag of sand, for crying out loud.  While I recommend and use what is called a “battle bag” for versatility and durability, you could literally just fill up a bag with sand, wrap it up in a few layers of duct tape, and do most sandbag training routines.  This is a great example of using the 20 that gets you the 80.  A small investment will pay huge dividends.  Home gym equipment can get pretty pricey and for under $100 you can have one implement that covers a vast range of use.  Here is a really good article on how to buy a sandbag which includes how to do it on the cheap!

Sandbag training mimics movements you’d actually do in real life.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  You will most likely never have to bench press your way out of a jam on the disc golf course.  You aren’t going to have to french press a disc into the basket.  Most traditional training movements with barbells and dumbbells not only don’t translate to anything we do in disc golf, they also put undue stress on our joints because they are not natural movements.  With a sandbag, you can do exercises that directly translate to how you move in real life as well as on the disc golf course.  As a bonus, when moving the sandbag, you allow your body to move through its natural and safe range of motion.

Sandbag training is fun.

Honestly, I hate working out.  I love having worked out, but I despise the actual act itself.  For some reason, though, I actually kind of enjoy slinging the sandbag around.  I get pretty rough with mine and it keeps on taking a beating.  You can also get pretty creative with it.  There aren’t really any hard and fast rules so as long as you are safely moving the bag of shifting weight.

All in all, in my opinion, the sand bag is the best piece of training equipment to start your disc golf home gym with.  It’s cheap, it’s versatile, and it’s very, very effective.   Following are some of my favorite drills to do with the battle bag.  You will immediately see and feel how they directly help your disc golf muscles.  You can put all of them together into one circuit, repeat that circuit 3-5 times, and get a great full body training session.

If you are looking for a complete sandbag routine, this 4 week sandbag essentials plan is pretty solid.  I’ve run through it a couple of times and plan on doing it again..  This is great if the sandbag ends up being the only piece of equipment in your new disc golf home gym.

The alternate shoulder swing builds good rotational and upper body strength.

The Zercher squat is a straight forward squat variation.  Squats are a great way to build core and leg stability.  Unlike most people you see squatting in a gym, you do not have to be moving huge amounts of weight for this to be beneficial.

The high pull will work a lot of the back and shoulder muscles that are used in throwing a disc.

The bent over row hits your lats, back, biceps, forearms, and grip.  It’s one of the best disc golf specific exercises out there.

The sandbag spin is my favorite sandbag exercise.  It thoroughly works your core and your entire upper body.  Do 3 sets of 10 in each direction and you will feel it for sure.

If you’ve been following along with the recommendations for your disc golf home gym up ’til now, this is the perfect time to add the sandbag to your training schedule.  If you haven’t been following along up ’til now, head back and read this and this.  Then subscribe below to stay informed as we continue to build your disc golf specific home gym.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Building a Disc Golf Home Gym, the Sandbag appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.

When spring came, I was elated.  I had been cooped up, unable to play, for about 4 solid months.  It was more than I could take.  You can only putt in the garage so much before you admit to yourself that it’s a pale substitute for being on the course.  I had 4 months of pent up disc golf aggression to get out.

On top of that, they were starting to finish up the redesign of my local course.  A two year project that the entire NE Illinois disc golf community had anxiously awaited.  The fairways were cut and object golf was possible.  Once the weather got bearable, I started to spend as much time out on the course as humanly possible.

And here enters the problem.  Any of you who have gone from being sedentary for any length of time to huge bursts of activity know what comes next.  Pain.  Sore muscles, sore joints, sore tendons and ligaments.  Pretty much sore everything.  I think my left eyelid didn’t hurt all that much, but that’s about it.

The shock to my body of going from no athletic activity to playing as much disc golf as humanly possible every single day was huge.  My body was pissed.  And it let me know just how pissed when it would barely let me out of bed one morning.  I tried stretching.  I tried walking it off.  I tried Alleve in quantities that could possibly have warranted calling the poison control center.  Nothing worked.

All of a sudden, I was seeing playable weather outside, and I couldn’t play.  I was not a happy disc golfer.  Not at all.

I was complaining about my woeful inability to play one day and one of my coworkers suggested I get a massage.  More specifically, a sports massage.  “What is this sports massage you speak of?”, I asked.  The woman I was talking to is a competitive cross fitter.  Apparently this sports massage she talked about is a thing.  The more she talked about it, the more I thought it sounded like an incredibly good idea.  So I booked an appointment with her massage person that week.

Apparently I should have asked more questions.  My goal was to get out of pain.  I didn’t realize I was going to a distant relative of one of the torturers from the Spanish Inquisition.  She started at my feet.  And that hurt.  Then she moved to my calves, where it hurt more.  Hamstrings, pain city.  Out of the hour I was there, maybe 5 minutes actually felt good.  At the end, she hands me a bottle of water, tells me I might not feel all that good that day, and then asks me for $100.  What the hell kind of racket was this anyway?

I went to bed that night rehearsing the scolding I was going to give my coworker for recommending such a masochistic activity.  I couldn’t believe that people actually paid for this!  I could have paid some thug in an alley to punch me in the kidney a couple times and that probably would have only cost $20 and been more enjoyable.

The next morning, though.  Oh the next morning.  That glorious, wondrous, unimaginably good next morning.  Not only had I slept better than I had in months, I woke up feeling amazing.  Don’t get me wrong.  I was still sore in some of the spots the massage therapist had really dug into the day before.  But overall I felt better than I had in years.  Suddenly my attitude went from wondering if I had completely wasted $100 to wondering why they didn’t charge $500.

I definitely wanted to do that again.  That was a given.  Unfortunately, wanting to do something once a week that costs $100 and actually being able to afford to do that thing ($400 a month is more than my car payment) are sometimes two completely different things.  I could go every once in a while, but with the amount of disc golf I was playing, it just wouldn’t be often enough.  I needed a solution.  Fast.

Enter the foam roller.  That same cross fitting coworker swore by that as much as she swore by the sports massage.  At this point, I wasn’t going to question her.  Especially since a foam roller was $18.00 on Amazon.

Was it the same as the massage?  No.  Was it close?  Sure was.  In fact, the better I got at using it, the closer I got to the relief I got from the sports massage.  In fact, I’m now convinced that sometimes it’s actually better.  The massage therapist can’t actually feel what I’m feeling during the massage.  When I’m foal rolling, I get immediate feedback as to what is working and what isn’t.  I instantly know what feels the best.

Once I got kind of good at doing it, I also got kind of addicted to it.  I was rolling in the morning, after work, after rounds, before bed, while watching TV, and any other spare moment I had.  It was like having my own personal massage therapist.  I was certainly getting my $20 worth.

As good as that was, the foam roller seemed a little inadequate at getting certain areas of my body.  It didn’t do a lot for my feet.  It was hard to get enough pressure to really dig into some of the knots in my back.  A massage therapist has thumbs and knuckles that can get places that no foam roller can get.  So I logged on to the inter webs and started to do some research.  What I found was a world of mobility tools.  The foam roller was just the tip of the proverbial ice berg!

With credit card in hand and Amazon on my screen, I proceeded to order an alarming number of crazy looking implements.  I couldn’t wait to try all of them out.  I was back to playing a ton of disc golf with the help of the foam roller, these could only make things even better, right?

Well, as is my normal pattern, I bought way too many things to try.  Some worked great, others did not.  Some I still use, others are now paperweights or dog toys.  One of my goals here at the Mind Body Disc blog is to save you all the trouble and pain of trial and error.  I want to be the guinea pig for you.  After buying and trying quite a few implements, I’ve narrowed them down to a list of my favorites.

[tweetthis]A foam roller can be a disc golfer’s best friend.[/tweetthis]

As you build your disc golf home gym, mobility tools like this will be a necessity.  While not technically a piece of work out equipment, no work out or home gym would be complete without at least one or two of them.

I’m putting this list on it’s own page (click here) and linking to it on my resources page.  That way you can get back to it quickly and easily any time you want.  I suppose I could have just skipped the last 1,200 words and told you this at the beginning of the post, but that’s just not my style.  I have yet to find the piece of equipment that keeps me from talking too much.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The post Building a Disc Golf Home Gym, the Mobility Tools appeared first on Mind Body Disc - Disc Golf Blog.