You should always be a little suspicious of people who offer “miracle cures,” but recently, doctors at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in the UK have declared that exercise itself is worthy of the name, “Miracle Cure.”

In fact, they released a report called Exercise: The Miracle Cure and the Role of the Doctor in Promoting It. Now I know that none of my clients need to have a doctor make them exercise, because they’ve already made the wise choice to invest in their health.
It’s not always clear just how valuable an investment that is, however, so I’d like to share with you some statistics from the report.

People who exercised saw the following gains:

• 31% reduction in cardiac mortality.
• 90% improvement in self-esteem and well-being.
• 25%-53% reduction in pain symptoms among osteoarthritis patients.
• 57% lower rate of prostate cancer progression.
• At least 10mm Hg drop in blood pressure among 31% of patients.
• 50%-80% reduction in risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
• 30%-50% reduction in risk of falls among older adults.
• 30% lower all-cause mortality rate.
• 45% reduction in risk of bowel cancer.

That’s only the beginning of what you get from investing just a little bit of time with your fitness professional.

Member Spotlight:

Tom H. of Delmar says: “after working with you these past nine months, I am a full club length longer on my irons and a good 30 yards longer on my drives–even my wife and friends have commented on the changes in distance and accuracy. I also have no pain where once there was considerable discomfort in my shoulders, hips, and limbs. … Oh yeah, I weigh 15 pounds less than before we started–an added benefit!”

Many things we are exposed to in our everyday lives cause inflammation in our bodies, particularly in our joints.  It’s important to recognize this problem, and to take steps to alleviate it.  I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite holistic remedies for inflammation below.

Herbs:  Cayenne, ginger root, horsetail, yucca, oak bark, marshmallow root, lobelia, skullcap, comfrey root, gravel root, flax seeds, devil claw, white willow bark, wintergreen oil, peppermint oil, arnica flowers, St. John’s wort, calendula, garlic, onions, echinacea, dandelion, celery, cats claw, red raspberry, wild yam– Use liquid tinctures, veggie capsules, teas, or salve.  No gelatin capsules.

Apple cider vinegar:  Use only organic or Bragg’s.

Enzymes:  Make sure they are food-based, vegetarian digestive enzymes.

Treatments:  Chiropractor, Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais method, massage therapy, reflexology, acupuncture, physical therapy, soft tissue specialists, Rolfing.

Water:  Drink only filtered or distilled.  80-150 ounces per day.

Foods:  All organic whole foods, fruits, nuts, seeds, vegetables.  Stop all dairy, reduce animal protein, no soda, no caffeine, use only olive oil, cook in only glass and stainless.

Supplements:  Make sure they are food-based only.  Good sources are alfalfa, spirulina, chorella, kelp, all greens like spinach, barley, and wheat grass, orange/lemon peel, rose hips, coenzyme Q10, alpha lipoic acid, MSM.

Exercise:  Work with a personal trainer who specializes in functional training.

Stress:  Find a way to deal with stress, because if you are under too much stress, none of the above  solutions will be enough to prevent inflammation.  Use meditation, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga–find a way to relax and let go of stress.

Essential oil:  Young Living brand is best.

Baths:  Saratoga mineral bath or Epsom salt bath at home with Young Living essential oil.

Inversion Table:  Not everybody has access to one, but it’s a great treatment for inflammation in the joints.

My goal is to add the physical conditioning component to your bag of tricks. Functional strength exercise will increase your ball and club head speed. This will make you a powerful ball striker.
Begin with a dynamic warm up and stretch to prepare the body for quality work. Don’t worry about quantity; focus on quality. Exercise done right works well. Exercise done wrong will hurt your body and harm your swing. The body needs strength in push, pull, rotate, squat, lunge. Since the majority of golfers are hunched over with rounded shoulders, I would do more pulling exercises than pushing exercises.
In the May 2015 Golf Digest Magazine, the 463-yard long ball champ Jeff Flagg advises readers to train on your feet as much as possible; you will be a better athlete.

Standing Back Pull:
Start with a standing tubing pull. Hold the tubing with your hands while pulling the tubing to your shoulder. You should feel your shoulder blades coming together. Do three sets of 12-16 reps.

Standing Chop Exercise:
Put tubing high on a pole or tree, then combine the handles so you have one handle. Stand sideways from the pole in golf stance. Chop to your off hip. Feel the power coming from your core. Do three sets of 12-16 reps on each side.

Standing Rotation Exercise:
Now stand facing the pole with the tubing moved to the middle. Keep your head still and rotate side-to-side. Some people do this movement with a golf club. Doing this with the tubing will create power and strength.

Lunges:
For a powerful glute, the lunge works best. Stand facing the mirror (if you have one.) Take a big step forward with your right leg, then focus on the left leg by dropping the knee to two inches from the floor five times each leg. Repeat this sequence three times.

Squats:
The last exercise is the squat. Face the mirror, feet pointed forward, shoulder width apart. Sit down as far as you can go while keeping your feet flat and knees pointed forward. Do three sets of five squats.

These exercises are simple but important ways to increase your strength, making you a more powerful ball striker and improving your overall fitness.

A surprising finding in sports psychology gives golfers a better clue on how to think, or rather not to think about putting.  Arizona State University conducted a study in which 100 participants attempted a 6 foot putting shot.  They found that golfers predominantly using their left brain had a success rate of 29%, while participants predominantly relying on right brain activity had a success rate of 95%.

How can this help you as a golfer?
First, let’s understand out right and left brain thinking.  The left side is the seat of language and processes of a logical and sequential nature.  The right is more visual, and processes intuitively, holistically, and randomly.

What’s the bottom line?
In crease your success rate by leaving analytical thinking behind and allowing your body to relax so that you can go with your putting instincts.

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We’ve made it through another long winter, and many of you may have used elliptical and treadmill machines to maintain conditioning during the colder months, exercising on these machines differs from moving on solid, unmoving ground.

Weakening Glutes
While walking or running on a moving treadmill, it grabs the lead leg quicker than if the surface was still and your leg muscles had to pull your body forward. This mimics walking or running downhill
more than running on a flat surface, putting strain on the front shin muscle, which has to work harder to decelerate the leg. To compensate strengthen the front of the shins by walking backward.
Tighter Hip Flexors and Low Back Pain
The glutes don’t have to do as much work when moving on a treadmill as opposed to when moving outside as the belt of the machine is pulling the leg back with each stride. This puts more strain on the front hip flexors which can cause the shortening of the front of the hips and an increase in the arch of the lower back causing lower back pain.  Stationary lunges are the best exercise to strengthen the glutes. Five per side. The bridge can also be used to counter all of these issues. Lie on your back with your arms crossed or at your sides and bend
your knees hip distance apart, 1-2 feet from your butt. Use your glutes to lift your hips and back off the ground. Lift in three seconds, hold for three seconds, lower in three seconds, three sets of 8-15 reps, three
times a week.
Tighter Achilles and calf muscles
The moving belt causes an increase in heel striking and the foot to flex more, which results in the back of the calf muscle shortening. Foam roll the calves.  Using the elliptical does not allow your foot to move naturally. It shuts down more of your hip muscles than a treadmill. The arm movements do not mimic natural arm movements, thus resulting in neck, shoulder and back pain. Ideally you should be walking or running outside year round but if you are going to use these machines, work with your body and counter balance the damage that these machines do to your body.

Don’t forget to foam roll the front back and side of both legs before and after use.

Check out this and other videos on my YouTube Channel!

TPI philosophy of the swing: “We don’t believe there is one way to swing a club. We believe there are infinite numbers of ways to swing a club, but we also believe that there is one efficient way for all golfers to swing a club, and it’s based on what they can physically do.”

“Physical pillars” are flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power. The last article was about flexibility, now let’s talk balance. Balance is defined as neuromuscular efficiency throughout the entire golf swing. It’s important for the golfer to maintain the proper spine angle, create weight transfer, and coordinate muscle movements.

This balance exercise should be done three to four times a week for eight to ten reps or 20 seconds.

• Stand tall, lift one leg up to hip level. Hold 20 seconds each leg.

• Golf stance: rest your right toe on the ground while your right heel is up. Cross your hands over your chest and rotate left to right five times each side. Repeat on the other side, progress to using a four pound medicine ball.

• Standing with feet together, take a big step to the right and have left leg stay up, then push off your right leg and balance on left leg while your right leg is up. This is called “ice skates,” jump side to side eight times each leg.

• Standing golf stance: put your feet together, at the same time go into your backswing while stepping sideways with your lead leg and go into follow through. This balance drill will enhance your kinetic sequence progress using a medicine ball.

• Use balance equipment like the Bosu, Balance Boards, Air Disks, and Mini Pods.

In order to improve balance, you must put yourself off balance so that your body can learn to self-correct. You can’t improve balance sitting or lying down.

The goal of a golf swing is to strike the ball achieving maximum distance with a high level of accuracy.All great ball strikers have the same exact kinetic sequence. The golf pro will help you with your skill while, as a fitness expert, I will help your body get in the position for an efficient swing. The “five physical pillars” are flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power. We will start with flexibility and mobility make sure that you always do specific golf stretches before play. It is important to loosen up your neck,shoulders, hips, lower back, hamstrings, and calves . Think rotation and hold strectch for 10­30 sec. One of the best ways to increase hip rotation is to roll your hips around as if you were hula­hooping. Warming up your neck and ankle muscles is as easy as moving them around slowly from side to side. Hamstring and calf stretches can be done with the help of a set of stairs or a wall to push against. Reach one up to the sky to raise the rib cage. Standing back bend put hands on low back and then arch backwards face up to the sky and hold 10­-30 sec.

To see golf­ specific exercises, go to FunctionFitness.com and click on “Video.”

Flexibility is the Foundation

“The goal of a golf swing is to strike the ball in order to achieve maximum distance with a level of accuracy.”

-Corrective Exercises for Golf Fitness

Being good at golf requires great skill, learned over time.  There are aspects of the game that can only be gleaned from repetition and making mistakes.  That’s a given.

Before you can begin to hone those skills, however, you have to tone your body.  Fitness is essential to keep yourself safe from injury, and it’s also important for giving yourself the musculoskeletal control and flexibility necessary to absorb the lessons of the course into your muscle memory.

Make sure that you always stretch before you play golf.  It’s important to loosen up your neck, shoulders, hips, lower back, hamstrings, and calves.

One of the best ways to increase hip rotation is to roll your hips around as if you were hula-hooping.  Warming up your neck and ankle muscles is as easy as moving them around slowly form side to side.  Hamstring and calf stretches can be done with the help of a set of stairs or a wall to push against.  You may choose to stretch against a golf cart, but I would encourage you to skip the cart and walk the course on your own two feet.  That will help keep your muscles looser and keep you in better shape overall.

Golf is hard, life is hard, but if we cultivate stability, beginning with whole-body physical fitness, we can bounce back and learn from our experiences without worrying too much that we will be thrown off course.

Loss of Posture in Golf

Loss of Posture is defined as any significant alteration from your body’s original set up angles during your golf swing. This loss of posture can affect all aspects of the golf swing including timing, balance and rhythm.  Losing your spine angle or altering your posture usually causes two typical miss hits, the block to the right and a hook to the left. And as most competitive players know, having two misses, one to the right and one to the left, can be disastrous in tournament play.

Body Preps

Physical Parameters Affecting the Loss of Posture and How to Diagnose:

In order to not lose your posture during the golf swing several physical characteristics must be developed. First and foremost, research has shown that any limitation in performing a full deep squat or full hip bend can force a player to lose their pelvic posture during the downswing. Failure to perform a deep squat means generalized stiffness and asymmetry in the musculature and joints of the lower body. This limitation will always limit a good set up posture and force players to alter their spinal posture throughout the golf swing. These limitations are best evaluated using the Overhead Deep Squat Test and the Toe Touch Test. Secondly, the ability to separate your upper body from your lower body allows your shoulders to rotate around your spine without altering your original posture. Limited trunk to pelvis separation is usually caused by reduced spinal mobility and shortened lat flexibility. This separation is best be evaluated using the Seated Trunk Rotation Test, the Reach, Roll, and Lift Test, and the Lat Test. Next, the ability to stabilize your spine angle during the swing is directly proportional to the strength and stability of your core musculature (your abs and glutes). When it comes to spinal stabilization the core is the king. These muscles help keep your trunk forward flexed throughout your golf swing. Core strength is best evaluated using the Pelvic Tilt Test and the Bridge w/ Leg Extension Test. Finally, in order to rotate around a stable posture one must have good flexibility in your hips and shoulders. This allows you to get the club into key positions without altering your spine angle. The overall flexibility of your hips and shoulders are best evaluated using the 90/90 Test, the Lat Test and the Lower Quarter Rotation Test.
Source: http://www.mytpi.com/improve-my-game/swing-characteristics/loss-of-posture