Rory McIlroy wants to lift weights while carrying Brandel Chamblee on his back

Rory McIlroy, despite what those trying to save him from himself may prefer, takes his gym training very seriously. Which is not to say he can’t engage in a bit of seemingly light-hearted banter about the once and future debate swirling around his bodybuilding regimen.

McIlroy’s brilliant comeback to NBC/Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee’s warning to him on Tuesday not to get too buff was a video on Twitter of himself squatting 265 pounds.

Chamblee, who cautioned McIlroy about ending up like a top-heavy Tiger Woods with a less explosive and fluid swing, took Rory’s rejoinder in good humor. Indeed, the man whose floppy pelt has its own Twitter page pumping two cans of hairspray during his stint on Morning Drive was inspired.

Fast forward a few hours and of course the subject arose during McIlroy’s press conference on the eve of this week’s Northern Trust Open. And though the winner of four majors got real about his reasons for becoming a gym rat, he had Chamblee on more than his mind when he responded to a query about whether he had done any squats prior to the day’s pro-am.

“Not yet. I’m planning to, though,” McIlroy said. “Maybe with Brandel on my back.”

Rory McIlroy, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week (assuming he makes the cut in his first-ever foray at Riviera Country Club). Except that, while his remarks drew guffaws from the gathered reporters, Rory -- who more than two years ago ripped Chamblee for insinuating that Woods had cheated -- wasn’t laughing.

“People wouldn’t know who Brandel Chamblee was if it wasn’t for Tiger Woods,” McIlroy said in October 2013, “so yeah, I am completely against what he said and I think he should be dealt with in the right way.”

So there’s some history behind McIlroy’s recent less-than-amused responses to the opinionated analyst, which brings us to the present.

The latest edition of Brandel Urges Rory to Quit Working Out So Much began with a comment from Chamblee during a teleconference earlier this week. In the midst of praising the current world No. 3, Chamblee reiterated concerns about the impact of “extensive weightlifting” on McIlroy’s longevity as a professional golfer.

“I say it with a lot of trepidation, because it’s a different era for sure and I don’t know the full extent of what he’s doing, but when I see the things he’s doing in the gym, I think of what happened to Tiger Woods,” Chamblee, 53, told reporters on Tuesday. “And I think more than anything of what Tiger Woods did early in his career with his game was just an example of how good a human being can be, what he did towards the middle and end of his career is an example to be wary of. That’s just my opinion. And it does give me a little concern when I see the extensive weightlifting that Rory is doing in the gym.”

About that, McIlroy shared that he launched his health and wellness campaign some five years ago to combat back woes that include a degenerative disc.

“Getting in the gym, eating better, and I think from the start of 2011, the direct correlation between leading a healthier lifestyle and my performance on the course was the same. I won my first major in ’11, I got to the best world ranking I’d ever been in ’11 and then it just continued from there. So I definitely feel the more I got into exercise and fitness and everything the better my game became,” McIlroy said. “Obviously I’m trying to be strong, but the whole reason I started this is because I was injured.”

Putting aside his unrelated ankle affliction last summer, McIlroy said he has been healthy since he began lifting weights. He added that his routine was the reason the disc in his back had not worsened over the years and that playing golf was the real culprit.

“You think of the golf swing and the torque and the load that you’re putting on your spine,” he said. “The spine does two things — it flexes and it rotates. And it doesn’t like to flex and rotate at the same time, which is what a golf swing does. So if anything, the golf swing is way worse for your back than anything I do in the gym.

“I’m trying to make my back as strong as I possibly can,” he noted, “so that when I come out here and swing a golf club at 120 mph, I’m robust enough to take that 200 times a day when I hit shots and I practice and I play golf.”

McIlroy also conceded that he only shows his fans the sexy work he does in the gym.

“I like to post pictures of myself doing a squat,” he said. “They don’t see the mobilization exercises … the other stuff that goes into it, the warmup. Not the real golf-specific stuff, but the things that you might only need a couple of dumbbells that weigh five pounds to do.”

McIlroy chooses not to tweet about the everyday exercises he does to strengthen and stabilize the core.

“I’m lucky because I was hyper-mobile before I started all this gym stuff. If anything, I needed to tighten my body up a little bit. So that’s why I can go in the gym and lift heavy-ish weights — for golfers, anyway,” he said. “I can try to get a little bit stronger … in my core and definitely my lower back and my glutes and my legs [to] help me prolong my career ... and not have to end it prematurely because of not having looked after my body in the right way.”

Back to you, Brandel.