The term generational talent is not thrown around lightly in professional sports circles. But, it’s hard to argue against Ludvig Aberg and what he has done in less than a year as a member of the PGA Tour.
Aberg’s first summer as a pro saw him lead the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee for the first seven events of his pro career. He also only missed one of his first 17 cuts, finishing 12 of those events in the top 25 along with winning two of those. The 24-year-old was also the first to play in a Ryder Cup before playing in a major championship and has garnered praise and awe from his peers.
M&F was on hand in Maui earlier this year as Adidas unveiled the new TOUR360 24 and we sat down with Aberg in between commercial obligations to go through his gym bag. Of course, three-stripe apparel is a go-to for training along with his resistance bands. We also discussed what he’s listening to when he’s getting a sweat in and how he’s managed to not let pressure consume him.
M&F Talks with Ludvig Aberg
When it comes to your training, are you just going over the basics or do you like to break a sweat?
I like to work out and feel like I’m working out. I do enjoy getting a little bit heavier, with normal workouts, like a bench press or squatting. I like to feel like I’m an athlete, and I like to be able to feel that I’ve worked out afterward. I want to be a little bit sore, a little bit tired.
What does recovery look like after training?
I like to eat a lot. It’s not rocket science to me. If you think it’s healthy, it’s probably going to be healthy. If you don’t think it is, it’s probably not. Another big thing for me is stretching. I haven’t got into all these cold plunges and things like that. I just like to do good old-fashioned stretching in the night and the evenings before I go to bed. I make sure that I hydrate a lot. What I do is nothing revolutionary.
Given the start to your career you’ve gotten off to and the praise you’ve received, what are some ways you handle pressure to not let it consume you?
I do think because we play so many tournaments, we’re under so much pressure. I think it’s important that when you’re not in those moments you just need to block it off. You just need to shut down and do anything else. What might work for me might not work for the guy next to me, but I like to just do anything that has nothing to do with golf. I enjoy watching sports and I follow them a lot. Football or soccer is my big thing and I watch a lot of that. Make sure that the people that I have around me — my friends, my girlfriend, and my parents —are all OK. That’s what’s important to me.
Courtesy of Ludvig Aberg
Ludvig Aberg’s Gym Bage Gear
Adidas Apparel
I use the workout gear a lot. I love working out in UltraBoost because it’s so soft and so nice. But I also like to work out in just my socks as well. I feel like you use the ground force a lot doing that. But UltraBoost will definitely be with me when I go to the gym.
The minibands are more for the activation process. I like to use them for a warmup before I do something heavier. So I don’t go into the heavy stuff all stiff. I use the mini-bands I do with my legs and my glutes. I do it with my upper body just to get those muscles activated.
If I’m playing a tournament or if I’m in a period where I’m playing a lot of golf, I feel like the resistance bands are really good. Say I do a workout on Friday, where I still want to go out and compete the next day — I’ll just play the tournament round and that’s when the resistance bands are really good. They allow you to do all these exercises but with less resistance than what you would do when you have a squatting rack.
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(Not Photo’d) Medicine Ball
Ever since I was in college, I’ve always done med ball circuits, which is a mix between the explosive side — because as a golfer you need to be explosive. Then you can also use it as more for cardio-based workouts where you do 30 on and 30 off.
Sometimes, I’ll go EDM, House — I’m a big hip-hop guy, so I’ll do some 90s hip-hop. I’m always somewhere in between there when I get to my high-intensity workouts and if I were to do a cardio workout, I definitely do country as well.
I use it a lot in practice. It gives me my numbers when I hit a shot. You can tell exactly how far you hit it, how far it flew, how much spin, and all these things.
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