The trail to the title “greatest golfer on the planet” took Rory McIlroy from the tee field to the health club and again once more.
At midnight at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville, Kentucky, McIlroy held off a charging Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler to win the PGA Championship on Sunday. It was McIlroy’s third straight match victory and second main of the yr. The win places him in rarified air, becoming a member of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the one golfers within the trendy period to win 4 majors earlier than the age of 26.
The Northern Eire golfer was all the time proficient, however his rise to world’s greatest accelerated after he made some important modifications in his health practices. If Tiger Woods was the primary golfer to placed on muscle to rise to dominance, McIlroy has adopted Tiger’s lead. We spoke with McIlroy in 2012 about how he upgraded his physique. Preserve studying to find his secrets and techniques, and take a look at the timeline under for perception into the rise of the world’s greatest golfer.
In 2010, McIlroy was a traditional skinny-soft golfer, with apparent pure potential and suppleness—however with a tiny little bit of paunch and jiggle. To make the soar to celebrity, he turned to coach Steve McGregor, Ph.D., who noticed in McIlroy “an enormous expertise, however with comparatively little coaching historical past apart from {golfing}.”
McGregor’s first step was to steadiness the discrepancies between McIlroy’s robust proper aspect and comparatively weak left aspect. Exercises included plenty of single-arm and single-leg work, together with dumbbell presses and break up squats. A lot focus was placed on the decrease physique—the true supply of energy.
“The lower-body work stabilized all the facility that I had generated on the way in which down,” he says. “I might generate the facility, however I wanted the steadiness to carry onto it.”
“I really feel much more secure in my golf swing,” McIlroy mentioned when requested about the advantages of his exercise plan. “There’s lots much less transferring elements.”
That newfound energy allowed McIlroy to swing powerfully but keep balanced, with a end that evokes the traditional swings of Snead and Hogan. The result’s a 5-foot-10, 160-pound 25-year-old who can slam the ball greater than 300 yards with one thing resembling ease.
And McIlroy wasn’t taken with further size—he’s been topping 300 yards for years. It’s simply that now he can do it with out popping out of his sneakers.
Mixed with wholesome consuming—plenty of rooster and broccoli—McIlroy dropped his physique fats from 22 % to 16 %.
“I’m the identical weight as I used to be once I began, however I’ve gained muscle, I’ve gained mass,” he says.
To maintain it, he is within the health club three or 4 instances per week, understanding to keep up the champion’s physique that he and his coach started constructing.
