Recently, I’ve been telling you all about the Max Golf Workout.  If you checked out my interview with author John Little, then you heard a lot about my experience already.

To briefly summarize the Max Contraction system (on which the Max Golf Workout is based), it is characterized by these two main points:

1. Loading a muscle with maximal weight for a brief period in a fully-contracted position until 100% of its energy is drained.
2. Longer recovery times spanning from 7-14 days between workouts, or even longer in some cases.

Right after I began the 100-push up challenge, I mentioned that I was putting it aside temporarily so that I could experiment with a new workout.  Well, the Max Golf Workout was it.

I haven’t abandoned the 100 pushup challenge, I’ve just been attacking it from another angle.  When I started, my initial push up test was 6 (well, really 5 because the 6th was pretty poor form).  Tonight, just before I wrote this, I cranked out a solid 15 push ups, triple my initial test, and triple the number I did at any one point during my one week of the prescribed 100-push up challenge regimen.

I know 15 doesn’t sound like much, but if you look at where I started, it’s a huge gain for me.  I should also mention that I’ve only done 5 Max Contraction workouts in 6 weeks and each one takes me less than half an hour in the gym.  Most of that half hour is rest.  Actual exercise time is no more than ten minutes.

If you really want to boil it down, you could say that I tripled the number of push ups I’m able to do with a total of 50 minutes of weight training done across six weeks.

I used the 100-push up challenge as a comparison for the simple reason that it’s a way to actually quantify my results.  I’m seeing several other benefits too.

The Benefits

For the science behind Max Contraction and why it can help you, check out the book and my interview with John.  Now, I’m talking about the benefits to me personally.  Here are several of the positive benefits that I’ve observed along the way:

• I’ve doubled the amount of weight that I can hold in a maximally-contracted position on just about every exercise I do.  And that’s in five sessions.
• Unlike with traditional strength workouts, I don’t feel nearly as sore the day after a hard workout.  I also don’t get a lot of the little nagging aches and joint pains that I get with strength training regimens that have me working through the entire range of motion.
• I feel pretty good.  I’m hitting the ball as long as ever.  My endurance is as good as it’s been at any time in the last few years.
• The herniated disk in my back doesn’t nag me nearly as much as it used to.  I haven’t done any of my usual rehab exercises in a long while, yet I still feel good enough to practice and play as much as I like.  I’m careful, however, not to do any exercises that put stress on my spine, such as overhead presses and the like.
• I haven’t done a stretching exercise in well over two months.  My golf warm-up consists of hitting some wedges on the range and working up to full swings.  Even without stretching, my swing feels as fluid as ever.  Is my flexibility the same as it was when I was intentionally working on it?  Probably not, but I’m not feeling restricted in any way, so why not stick with my natural range of motion?  My joints are likely more stable now, giving me a better chance to avoid injury.
• Even with added muscle mass, I don’t feel like my golf swing is impeded in any way.
• I’m saving a lot of time on weight training and stretching that I can spend on practice and play.

The Drawbacks

I’ve thought long and hard trying to identify any drawback that I’ve observed over the last six weeks.  I truly cannot think of anything I’ve encountered that I’ve been unhappy with.

Well, maybe one thing.  I’m gaining strength too quickly.  I’ve nearly maxed out the weight capacity of the machines I normally work with.  I have one or two plates to go on most of them.  After that, I’m going to be in maintenance mode, I guess.

This also leads to one other minor issue:  Because the weight is held in a fully contracted position, I can handle more weight than I can easily move through the complete range of motion.  So, while I can hold a large amount of weight, sometimes it’s difficult to get it into position.  It helps to have a partner to aid in getting fully contracted. So far, I’ve been managing by myself, though.

Conclusion

For me, Max Contraction training has been almost too good to be true.  I say almost because contrary what you might think, a 30 minute Max Contraction workout is extraordinarily demanding and it leaves me out of gas for a day or two afterward.

At the same time, it takes a lot less time while giving me larger strength increases than I was previously able to get with high rep/low weight workouts.

If you engage in strength training, I recommend giving it a try.  I think you’ll notice an almost immediate increase in strength.

Check out the Max Golf Workout book for more information.  Also, have a look at John Little’s home page.  If you’d like to see a Max Contraction workout in action, there’s a series of videos on YouTube showing John Little supervising a workout (that link goes to the first of three videos).

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Further Reading:

The Max Golf Workout (Life in the Rough)
Interview with John Little (Life in the Rough)
John Little’s Home Page (maxcontraction.com)
John Little supervising a workout (YouTube)

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