Bryson DeChambeau’s COVID Experiment: Muscle Mass For Golf

So let’s talk a little bit about the latest trend in golf. For anybody that follows golf somewhat closely, Bryson DeChambeau is an individual who has gained a fair amount of the weight and muscle mass. Probably up to 30 pounds, that might even be conservative in terms of muscle and mass. Bryson is an individual who has tried a lot of different things in his game. He’s kind of a thinker, or scientist so to say…likes to experiment. His COVID experiment or his quarantine experiment was to focus on strength and gaining mass. Bryson essentially wanted to see how far he can hit the ball. What sort of advantage that’s going to give him competitively in terms of hitting the ball.

The Science Behind Muscle Mass For Golf

I don’t know if I suggest gaining 30 pounds and just saying, if I gained 30 pounds, I’m going to be good to go. I will though, make an intense argument for the fact of force, right? Let’s go back to, I don’t remember when, sometime…I’m sure high school physics or something like that. F = M*A. Force equals mass times acceleration. So, let’s put this broadly in golf terms: how you add distance off the tee is by creating force. There’s two main ways that you can create more force. It’s either by adding mass or adding acceleration to the situation.

Now, funny enough, when you do one, a lot of times it helps the other. If you add mass, strength, muscle, oftentimes it helps you add acceleration. Sometimes you can try to add acceleration and not add mass. That doesn’t always go as well. For a lot of people, they focus on trying to get fast without building prerequisite strength. You’re trying to add force and all you’re doing is increasing acceleration, which in this case would be swing speed or how hard you swing, but you haven’t increased mass. Yes, you’ve increased your force. Maybe you feel like, “Okay, I didn’t bulk up. I didn’t add muscle. So now I’m, still flexible,” right? All that good stuff that people get worried about.

But you do, I would argue, run the risk of a little bit more repetitive use or repetitive overuse type trauma to the body when you attempt to add acceleration in the absence of adding mass. So, there are golfers on the tour who have focused on speed and probably strength, but primarily speed, and they haven’t necessarily gained mass and they might be having some back problems now or just other issues in general. Others, they haven’t had to gain mass to get stronger. But, they’ve gotten stronger. They haven’t added the mass component of the equation, but because they’ve gotten stronger, they’ve gained speed, and also reduced the risk of injury.

So, Muscle Mass For Golf…Should I Do it?

If you went about it right and gained muscle mass or even just some fat mass for lack of better term, and you also work on all the other right things you’re going to inherently gain mass, and also going to gain acceleration. Additionally, you’re going to have the positive effect of injury prevention that muscle strength gives you.

If I hear one more person say, “But what if I get too big for golf,” I’m going to lose my mind to put it frankly. This is because there are people that worked very, very, very, very, very hard to gain mass, muscle mass, and they still can’t. For you to actually get big enough or strong enough to where you actually get to that point, where now you’re saying, “Oh my gosh, I’ve gained five, 10 pounds of muscle and might that negatively affect my golf game,” that’s extremely hard to do in the first place. Even if you do that, the research and a lot of the things that we see lately are telling us that it’s actually going to benefit you massively for your golf game and also reduce your risk of an injury.

Brooks Koepka Jumps On Board For Gaining Muscle Mass For Golf

Now, quick story. Again, force equals mass times acceleration. If you increase your mass, you increase your force, but you also likely increase your acceleration. Therefore, your force is going to multiply. That’s what Bryson’s trying to do. If you just gain fat to do it, I can’t argue that you’ll still get mass, which is still potentially going to help the force, but you might not have the right kind of mass.

But there was a time when Brooks Koepka went off and he really focused on his fitness. And this was in an article and I’m not saying anything that he hasn’t said. I might be straying a couple of words here or there, but this is directly from him. Brooks was doing a fair amount of cardio and a fair amount of interval training to where he was getting the metabolic effect of losing fat and losing weight.

When he came back and started hitting, he said he wasn’t performing as well because he wasn’t eating cheeseburgers. He wasn’t … He lost weight. He no longer had that mass. Brooks kind of had replicated this information in his article. He said, “Because force equals mass times acceleration, I lost the mass and I didn’t gain much in my swing speed. Therefore, I wasn’t hitting the ball as far.” And he felt like it was a huge detriment to his golf game.

Muscle Mass For Golf Or Any Performance Driven Sport Depending On Mass

So that is a question that’s, again, specific to golf, but I would argue in any major sport where you’re not going to be penalized or you’re not going to lose performance for having weight, having increased weight, as long as it’s muscle mass. Adding muscle mass can only benefit you. It can only benefit you in terms of the force that your body can produce. This improves your sports performance but also prevents injury. The more stress that your muscles can take, the less stress falls onto your joints, discs, nerves, and all these other structures.

There’s a point of diminishing return, of course. You go crazy and that’s all you do, and you don’t focus on mobility. You don’t focus on your skill on the course or on the range or in any sport. All you do is focus on getting big and getting mass and getting strong, but you don’t focus on these other quadrants. You don’t focus on hydration. You don’t focus on nutrition. You don’t focus on sleep. You don’t focus on recovery. Well, of course, there’s going to be a point where you go overboard. Tiger maybe even did that at some point when he was running five miles in the morning, working out, hitting 500 balls, and then running five miles again. I don’t even want to say that was what caused some of his problems, but there is a certain point in time where you reach a point of diminishing return.

What’s the goal you have in mind for something? What’s the outcome you’re looking for. Right now, Bryson, I mean, if you’re going to argue against it, he’s got six or seven straight top 10’s. He’s already won as well. The guy is going to be the favorite for most of the majors this year. I mean, if you want to argue against it, throw out some science and some stats and whatnot, but so far it’s working. I’m not going to bet against him much. I think you’ll see that trend continue. Guys like Brooks, and other guys, Rory, have been focusing on strength for a while. I mean, it’s not a secret anymore. I don’t know why people want to try to keep diminishing it.

I have a hinch, I have a hinch, or a hunch, not a hinch, a hunch that … I just created a new word: combination of hint and hunch. I have a hinch that people don’t want to put in the work, so therefore they don’t want that to become an actual thing because then that means they have to keep up with other people and put in more work. So that’s just hinch though, combination of a hint in a hunch, that people want the quick, easy way. Therefore, instead of actually putting in the work to get stronger and focus on their craft, they’ll make excuses and bad mouth others.

Resources You May Be Interested in:

1. Be sure to check out our video series about strength for golfers:

   1. What Golfers Neglect With Strength

   2. Common Problems With Lack Of Strength

   3. Best Path To Improvement With Strength

   4. Strength For Golfers

2. If you’re looking for a more efficient and pain-free golf swing, be sure to read Dr. Eric’s E-Book: 7 Golf Tips To Ease Pain And Swing Easier

3. Subscribe to Motus Rx’s Audio Experience to gain more information about the latest golf techniques and technology.

   1. Episode 20: Strength: The Most Underrated Component Of The Golf Swing

   2. Episode 21: 5 Commonalities Among The Most Efficient Golf Swings

4. If you feel like you could benefit from a formal and thorough evaluation of your golf swing, be sure to schedule a visit with Motus Rx Physical Therapy.