This short article is derived from Strength Training For Golf – The Fit For Golf Guide That article goes into detail on everything you need to know about strength training for golf. In this shorter piece, I am providing some insight into strength training and injury risk, and some other common myths.
A lot of people, especially seniors, worry about hurting themselves with weight training. It’s understandable. Strength training has had a reputation for being risky or hard on the body for decades. The problem is that people tend to focus on the small risks and forget to weigh them against the enormous benefits. They also forget that people get injured doing the most ordinary things: getting out of a chair, gardening, picking up kids, or swinging a golf club. Nobody tells them to stop doing those.
For some reason, there is still a stigma around lifting weights, especially “heavy” weights. You’ll often hear that it’s bad for your joints, that it causes “wear and tear” (utterly unfounded claim), or that the risk outweighs the reward. The truth is, there’s no good data to support those claims. When strength training is done with an appropriate build-up, controlled technique, and sensible programming, the injury risk is extremely low, even in older adults.
Data on injury rates shows strength training to be one of the safest forms of exercise available.
Competitive strength athletes (bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, and strongman): 1–4 injuries per 1,000 training hours (Keogh & Winwood, 2017). These data come from athletes training at high intensities for competition, often pushing physical limits and handling very heavy loads.
Recreational lifters (regular adults training for health and fitness, not competition): 0.31 injuries per 1,000 hours for men, and 0.05 for women (Aasa et al., 2021). Participants trained at least twice per week for six months or more, mostly using standard gym-based resistance training with free weights, machines, and functional equipment.
For context:
- Golf practice and play: 1–6 per 1,000 hours (Fradkin et al., 2007).
- Running: 2–12 per 1,000 hours (Videbæk et al., 2015).
- Pickleball: 3–6 per 1,000 hours (Merriman et al., 2023).
- Yoga / Pilates: 2–6 per 1,000 hours (Cramer et al., 2019).
Even at the higher estimates, strength training remains among the safest physical activities you can do.
Heavy Strength Training in Older Adults
Recent research has shown that heavy strength training, meaning loads above 80–85% of one-rep max, is safe and extremely effective for older adults. A 2024 review in Sports Medicine Open (Hernandez et al., 2024) found that heavy and very heavy loading protocols produced large improvements in strength, rate of force development, and function without increased injury risk when performed in supervised, progressive settings. The authors concluded that healthy and clinical older adults “may, and should, train with heavier loads than current guidelines” to maximise performance and health outcomes.
Beyond Safety: The Broader Benefits
The benefits go far beyond safety. A 2022 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Kraschnewski et al., 2022) found that people who strength train have a 15–20% lower all-cause mortality risk, including lower rates of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Strength training also reduces the risk of injuries in other activities. Stronger muscles and tendons protect joints, absorb load more effectively, and reduce the likelihood of overuse injuries. Training through a full range of motion improves tissue capacity and mobility, not wear and tear.
When people do get hurt in the gym, it usually comes down to the same things that cause injuries in any activity: doing too much too soon, using poor technique, or not recovering properly. That’s not a problem with lifting weights, it’s a problem of impatience and poor judgment.
Strength Training and Flexibility
A common myth is that lifting weights makes you tight or reduces your range of motion. It doesn’t. When you lift through a full range of motion with control, flexibility actually improves. The muscles, tendons, and connective tissues adapt to the ranges they are trained through and become stronger and more comfortable there.
This has been shown clearly in research comparing strength training and stretching. When people train through a full range of motion with proper control, flexibility improves just as much as, and often more than, from stretching alone. The reason is simple: you are taking the joint through the same range, but you are also asking the muscles to produce and control force there, which creates a more lasting adaptation (Afonso et al., 2021; Thomas et al., 2022).
If someone feels tighter from lifting, it’s not because strength training reduces flexibility. It usually happens from training in short ranges with poor programming. The solution is not less lifting, but better lifting: full ranges of motion, consistent technique, and appropriate training volume.
For golfers, this is especially important. The swing demands mobility and strength through range. Exercises such as deep squats, split squats, Romanian deadlifts, and controlled cable rotations build usable flexibility, strength and stability at the end of your movement, not just looseness. When you can control force at these end ranges, your body becomes stronger and more mobile.
So the truth is the opposite of the myth. Strength training does not make you lose flexibility.
The Bottom Line
Strength training, even heavy strength training, is not inherently dangerous. When approached gradually and intelligently, it is one of the safest and most beneficial things you can do for your health, performance, and longevity.
Yes, there are small risks involved, as there are with everything. But what we know for certain is that if you don’t strength train, you are setting yourself up for a predictable loss of muscle mass, strength, and power. That loss is a much bigger threat to your health, mobility, and golf performance than the small risks that come with training.
“If you think strength training is dangerous, try being weak.”
— Brett Contreras
To learn more about strength training for golf, check out my most comprehensive article on the subject, Strength Training For Golf – The Fit For Golf Guide.
