Week 19 Update
Welcome Players! A 6.1% improvement in VO2 max was almost the best part of my week, but it was outdone only by quality time spent with my Mom on Mother’s day. I didn’t shoot any record-breaking scores, but my heart was full and nothing matters more than that. In this week’s update I breakdown my VO2 max testing and why it’s important.
Contents:
Training Week in Review
Habit Tracker
Training Log
VO2 Max Test
Skill Practice
Golf Performance
Wrap-Up
Training Week in Review
I think I said this in one of the first weeks, but not every week is going to be a knock-your-socks-off successful week. Some will come and go with no drastic shift, but the accumulation of weeks in the right direction are what build momentum and that’s what this week did.
I got some light practice at home and ended the week with spending quality time on Mother’s Day playing nine holes and driving my mom around the golf course (to my shanks - not hers).
I also put more data into the log book this week by re-testing my VO2 max, and got surprisingly positive results after a little math-magic.
Let’s get into it.
Habit Tracker
Not great on this front.
Two nights of putting, including one night of chipping (!).
The cherry on top was playing 9-holes with my mom for mother’s day, so all things aside this week was a win!
Training Log
Resistance Train (Gym): 2
Conditioning (Assault Bike): 1
Yoga (@ home): 0
VO2 Max test: 1
A good week of training once again. Two RT sessions, one assault bike conditioning session, and a max exercise test. Will get into the testing & results of the VO2 max test in the next section.
VO2 Max Testing
Movement requires energy, and in order to create energy the body needs oxygen.
We can indirectly measure how much energy a person is capable of creating by measuring how much oxygen they are consuming, because oxygen is required for aerobic metabolism.
Measuring maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) requires a lab-like setting with expensive equipment, mainly a device or set-up that allows you to directly measure the amount of O2 and CO2 in your breath for every inhale and exhale. It’s expensive and time consuming.
Instead, sport performance has come to find predictive tests that can be performed to get a semi-accurate idea of what an individuals VO2 max is.
A higher VO2 max signifies that an athlete can consume more oxygen during high-intensity exercise, which generally translates to better endurance performance. I’ve written before about how I think conditioning is underrated for a golfer because of the long, aerobic aspect of tournament play.
I tested my VO2 max back in March, and just recently re-tested to see what adaptations my training was resulting in.
Here are the results:
You can see me VO2 Max increased by about 1ml/kg/bw.
Speaking of body weight, let’s take a look at my anthropometrics over the first five months.
I’ve gained about 9 pounds, adding just under two pounds of muscle.
Note here: I was underweight back in January when I started. My typical weight is around 163-165lbs, which since returning to in April/May has felt much better on my body. I’ve always struggled with eating enough calories to support my expenditure and thus have always had a leaner frame.
Let’s do a little investigating as to my improvement in VO2 Max.
If I had a VO2 Max of 48.65 ml/kg/min in March, and I weighed about 160lbs in March, we can calculate that my maximal oxygen uptake was:
48.65 x (160/2.2) / 1000 = 3.54L of Oxygen/min
And when I retested in May, I weighed 166 with a slight improvement in the graded exercise test scoring a 49.91:
49.91 x (166/2.2) / 1000 = 3.77L of Oxygen/min
That’s a big difference!
If I were just using my score on the predicted VO2 graded exercise test, I would have realize a 2.5% improvement.
(48.65/49.91) = .974 -1 = 2.5
But when I take into account the added mass since my last test in addition to the improvement of score on test, I see an improvement of 6.1%! More than double!
3.54/3.77 = .938 -1 = 6.1
For two months of training to see a 6.1% improvement is great! If I can replicate that improvement for the next two months I’ll continue to see big improvements in my endurance on the course.
There are some key takeaways from this last round of testing:
I’ve put on more muscle and improved my endurance
I’ve made small, yet positive changes in nearly every category (golf, fitness, and habits)
If I want to see greater improvements in any one category, I’ll need to siphon time away from another category
#3 is my biggest roadblock right now.
I want to continue training in the gym because it makes my body feel good, even if I don’t consume enough calories to put on considerable muscle (which is unnecessary for me).
I do need to work on eating more food to support my training, and I feel like a weight of 170-175lbs would feel good if I can maintain the eating habits. At that weight I’d like to be at a muscle mass of ~85lbs and then can start to transition to working on mostly speed/power/force development training in the gym.
I’d like to get my VO2 Max up much higher, ideally to 55 ml/kg/min. But that is a multi-year process! For now I’ll aim to stay > 50 and work conditioning around my schedule.
I need to play more golf if I want to score better, there’s no doubt about it. I’ll need to maybe train one or two less days, from RT & Conditioning respectively, if that means I get more time spent on the golf course.
Skill Practice
No range sessions unfortunately.
Golf Performance
Nine holes with my mom was more enjoyable than any statistic could show!
She was a very good beginner golfer. She had a natural feel for hitting an object and had very good follow through in completing the rotation.
As for me - I struck the ball really well, but scored none the better.
A front-nine score of 53:
4 fairways
2 GIR
5 three-putts
3 penalty strokes, 1 bunker shot
5 three putts + 3 penalty strokes = 8.
Without necessarily performing any better, I can potentially improve by 8 strokes just by eliminating mistakes.
Reflecting on that I think one thing I need to transition to now that I’ve been practicing for 5 months is that I need to play more often.
While I’ve been consistent throughout most of the year with practicing at the range and at home I have yet to see a score improvement although I’m subjectively hitting the ball and playing much better. To me this is a sign that I need to spend less time practicing and more time playing.
Of course all playing is a form of practice, and maybe I need to have practice rounds where I play with a finite goal or mini-game to complete to stay engaged and focus on other skills within the same environment.
As summer is here in South Florida it should be easy to find open tee times in the afternoon. I’ve never liked playing as a single but that’s something to overcome in order to get game-reps in!
Wrap-Up
Final thoughts here are that while testing may be time and resource-intensive to plan, track, and analyze different forms of data, it brings you closer to better understanding your project and allows you to make actionable changes quickly.
Some times I think I am tracking too many things, habits, training, golf practice, golf competition, skills, etc.
And there is certainly a perspective that says less is more, but I feel that by putting myself through the intensive program I’ll be able to better understand which metrics are necessary and which ones aren’t so that I can build a more refined structure later that others can mimic.
Until then - the journey continues!
I’m happy with the progress on paper as it validates a lot (all) of the work I’ve been doing.
With a really, really solid four months of base aerobic and resistance training behind me I think I can start to transition in to more of the fun stuff that will contribute to performance in the near terms.
See you next week!