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

Some people see golf as more of a game than a sport.  True, it doesn’t involve teams of people running up and down a field trying to pummel each other, but it does require excellent, whole body physical conditioning that can truly be called athletic.

The goal of the golf swing is to strike the ball in order to achieve maximum distance with a high level of accuracy.  There is a kinesthetic sequence that will allow an efficient and effective golf swing.

All great golf strikers have an identical sequence of generating speed and transferring energy through the kinetic chain.  Each segment of the body builds upon the previous segment: lower body — torso — lead arm.  The six phases of the golf swing are: set up, backswing, transition, downswing, impact, and follow through.

The set up position is an athletic address of the ball.  Proper balance and grip will lead to consistent swing.  Improper set up will lead to re-routing of the club, poor sequencing, and swing faults.  Poor mobility and poor stability are common traits for a bad set up.

Back Swing is when you meet the club in the correct position.  During the back swing , the body begins to recruit energy that will be released starting from the top of the action.  Some joints will rotate, while some will remain stable.  The motion creates torque and stores energy in the muscles to be released at impact.  Difficulty in the back swing is also commonly caused by mobility and stability issues.

Transition is when you begin the forward movement.  Your weight shifts from the inside right foot to the inside of the left foot.  The lower body moves first and the torso uncoils.  This requires a high level of flexibility, balance, and strength.

In the downswing, the weight shift continues generating torque and the power is transferred from lower body, through the body and into the club.  The torque is generated by the lower body–glutes, legs, and core.  The downswing is complete when impact occurs with the golf ball.  A golfer lacking physical strength, power, or flexibility will struggle to develop the speed to transfer the stored energy during this phase.

Impact is where the energy created by the body is transferred into the golf ball.  The purpose of impact is to hit the ball in the correct direction.  During impact, 80-90% of the golfer’s weight is supported by the left foot.  The release of hands with correct timing will transfer the power to the club head.  You must shift weight correctly to sequence the transfer of energy.  Physical limitations such as poor mechanics and improper equipment affect impact.  Lack of power at impact will show up in poor distance and direction of the ball’s flight.

Follow through is essential to the deceleration of the body after contact with the ball.  Follow through is complete when the body has rotated and the club head is behind the golfer.  It requires high levels of flexibility, balance, and strength within the kinetic chain.

All of the fitness traits the golf swing requires are also essential to your quality of life.  As a Titleist Performance Institute certified golf fitness professional, I have expertise in how to train people to reach their optimum levels of stability, balance, and strength to achieve their goals on the course and off.

Strength Training: Not just for men.

I was recently approached to answer a question about why women should do weight and strength training. Physical fitness is important for everyone, but unfortunately some people hold on to the myth that strength training is just for bulky gym rats. Nothing could be further from the truth. Below, I included the questions I was asked, along with my responses.

Q. Many women are turned off to weight lifting because they think it will make them look “bulky”, what would you say to a woman who uses this as an excuse not to incorporate weightlifting/ strength training in their exercise routine?
A. Weight lifting will not make you bulky unless you take steroids and work out six hours a day.

Q. Can you explain the metabolic advantages of building muscle?
A. Muscle burns 20 times as many calories per hour as fat. Having more muscle will burn more calories even while you sleep.

Q. What are some of the best benefits of weight lifting,particularly for women?
A. Strengthens the bones, decreases risk of injury, improves performance with everyday activities, from carrying groceries to carrying laundry to carrying your kids.

Q. Physiologically, what happens when someone only does cardiovascular exercise and entirely neglects any type of strength training?
A. Repetitive stress on the joints and muscles, which will increase your risk of back pain, knee injuries, and ankle injuries.

Q. What advice would you give to a woman who wants to start weight lifting but doesn’t know how or where to start?
A. Contact a fitness professional with at least ten years� experience.

Q.If you didn’t already address this topic in a previous question, can you talk a little bit about the benefits of weightlifting for women in terms of preventing age-related issues suchas osteoporosis?
A.Strength training reduces your risk of needing medications, boosts energy and vitality, and maintains weight control.
Q.In your opinion, what’s the number one reason women should incorporate weight lifting in their workout routines?
A.The number one reason to take up strength training is to avoid your doctor telling you that you are frail and that you have a disability from inactivity.

An article in the November 10, 2014 issue of the New Yorker shared some competitive athletes’ secrets of success.

Athletes don’t merely work harder than they once did; now they are working smarter using science and technology to enhance the way they train and perform. It isn’t enough to eat right and put in the hours, you need to have the best PhDs, athletic trainers, stretch coaches, swing coaches, acupuncturists, massage therapists, holistic nutritionists, movement specialists, and psychologists on board as well.

Today’s athletes emphasize sport-specific training over generalized conditioning. There is an increasing use of biometric sensors. Equipped with heart-rate monitors, GPS, and gyroscopes to measure not just performance (how fast a player is accelerating), but also fatigue level. Since many studies show that getting more sleep leads to better performance, teams are worrying about that, too. The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks have equipped players with ReadiBand monitors to measure how much and how well they’re sleeping. Sleep deprivation can increase injury and decrease speed, agility and accuracy.

Golfers are hooked up to sensors to determine the efficiency of the golf swing, making sure that they are using the correct sequence to swing a golf club.

Today’s athletes spend the off-season working on their game in different training environments and sports, making sacrifices, and trying to do what their competition won’t.

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