Mark Wolfson trains last week at a private gym. The

Mark Chapman performs an exercise under Wolfson's close scrutiny.

Golfing isn’t just for hackers and out-of-shape people anymore.

Over the past few years physical fitness training has grown in popularity among weekend golf warriors, thanks in part, Lawrence trainer Mark Wolfson said, to the physical transformation of the game’s golden child, Tiger Woods.

“When you look out on the (PGA) Tour today, everyone’s training,” Wolfson, owner and president of Health and Fitness Consultants, said, adding that professionals aren’t the only golfers who could benefit from additional athletic training.

“If you don’t do it, you’re going to fall behind the competition,” he said of any golfer who plays competitively.

Wolfson, 67, has been working out for 50 years and helping people train for 40. He got into the training profession full-time in the early ’70s when he founded Cardiotone Fitness Institute in San Francisco.

“I might’ve been the world’s first personal trainer and never knew it,” he said.

The Lawrence native, who moved back here seven years ago after living in California for most of his life, started doing sports-specific training for clients at Cardiotone from the get-go and was a little ahead of his time. Wolfson developed different strength and conditioning programs for athletes by analyzing the movements involved in various sports such as golf, tennis and skiing.

While strength training is commonplace now in most every sport, Wolfson recalled that everyone wasn’t receptive to the idea when he first got started.

“They used to think you can’t do that as a tennis player or golfer because you’re going to get muscle-bound. But when you train right you can get more muscle but stay flexible,” Wolfson explained.

In his heyday, Wolfson was a scratch golfer before he wore out his hips, which he plans to have surgically repaired in the near future. Although he isn’t out on the course these days, he knows what muscles a golfer needs to develop.

Semi-retired, Wolfson works out just a few clients a week. He puts the recreational golfers through a 30-to-40-minute workout session twice a week that starts with some aerobic warmups, followed by weight training that takes up 90 percent of the session and finishes them with some dynamic stretching.

For golf training, Wolfson said, he helps his clients build strength in their legs and shoulders while working in concentrated motions for slow-twitch muscles and short bursts for fast-twitch muscles.

“The stronger you are, the better you’re going to be,” the former body builder said, noting that conditioning can be equally as important for a golfer.

“When you’re coming down the 16th, 17th and 18th fairways and you’re dragging your rear end, if someone’s playing alongside you and they’re still energized and strong, you’re at a disadvantage,” Wolfson explained.

“It’s amazing how fast you’ll start to feel the benefits (of training),” he said. “Within a week or two you can start to feel some difference.”

Mark Chapman, owner and operator of Lada Salon & Spa, who has worked out with Wolfson in a private gym two mornings each week for two months, can attest to that.

“With core exercises and isolation muscle-building I have become a better golfer in the matter of a couple of months,” said Chapman, adding that his conditioning had improved markedly.

“I was used to riding in the cart for 18 holes at Alvamar (Golf and Country Club) before working with Mr. Wolfson,” the 37-year-old said. “I am now walking 18 and turning around and playing another 18 without feeling fatigued.”

Chapman said the weight training has strengthened his golf game as well.

“I have more power on my drives off the tee box, and when I am in the rough under one of those trees I can now have the strength to punch it out without it going only three yards,” he said.

When Wolfson puts Chapman through a workout, one of the things the trainer stresses is correct posture and form in every exercise. Chapman said that had improved the consistency of his swing.

“Working with Mr. Wolfson has shown me what correct posture looks like,” Chapman, who has been playing seriously for eight to 10 years, said. “When I am now addressing my next shot on the golf course, I hear that little voice in the back of my head that says, ‘Keep your shoulders back, take a deep breath, keep your head up.’ In turn, this has made my swing plane with a golf club look and feel more comfortable and confident.”

The biggest step in training to become a better golfer, Wolfson said, is getting started in a program.

“I like being in the gym, and I like to train. But at the beginning, most people don’t,” said Wolfson, who works out nearly every day.

Chapman said once he got into the program, his body adapted and responded with relative ease.

“I think it’s really easy to adapt to,” he said. “You just have to have the drive.”

A training program can benefit more than a golfer’s game, Wolfson said, adding that he enjoys helping people stay fit and feels he gains as much from the experience as his clients do.

“It’s not just about your golf. It’s about everything you do for your health,” he said. “It can be beneficial to your whole life.”

Wolfson encouraged anyone interested in getting started with a training program for golf or any other sport to e-mail him at msw1@sunflower.com.

He also said he would send a free comprehensive nutrition pack, which outlines some strategies for a healthy lifestyle, to anyone who sends a self-addressed and stamped envelope to him at 4241 Briarwood Drive, G3, Lawrence, KS, 66049.