Most people, when they imagine relaxation, imagine inactivity.  Hot baths, meditation, Netflix and chill, sitting by a pool, drink in hand–all of these are popular forms of relaxation, and they all involve parking oneself in one spot.  My approach is different.  I suggest getting outside and getting active to relax.  Walking, gardening, and sports are all ways to get out of your head and into a relaxed state.

Most people wouldn’t normally think of brisk activity as a way to relax, but it’s truly the best way.  Studies have shown that exercise can reduce anxiety more effectively than anti-anxiety drugs, especially over the long term.  Relaxation isn’t just a mental state, either, it’s a physiological one, and exercise is shown to reduce physiological signs of stress by lowering blood pressure and reducing levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.  Exercise also causes the body to release endorphins, natural chemicals that produce a feeling of well-being and reduce pain in the body.

Sometimes the long-term goals of fitness can be hard to keep in focus.  When that happens, it’s good to also remember the short-term feeling of well-being that exercise brings about.  If you think about it in the right way, and focus on the right feelings, exercise doesn’t just have to be about delayed gratification.  It can also be an immediate relief from life’s stressors.

I was recently asked what I thought was the best protein powder.  Protein powder comes in a few forms, and it’s a popular nutritional supplement, especially for people who consider themselves bodybuilders.  I don’t consider myself a bodybuilder, and I’m not a big fan of protein powders in general.  Here’s my take on them:

Be careful with protein powder.  Protein has to be processed by the liver in order to be useful to your body, and too much of it–especially animal protein–can cause renal toxicity in the long term.  High-protein diets were a big deal a decade ago, but they are not healthy or balanced.  

If you’re going to supplement with protein, plant-based protein is best, and if I were going to take it in concentrated form (which I rarely do) I would choose spirulina.  It’s extracted from algae, and it’s got all 22 amino acids plus some great phytonutrients like chlorophyll.  It’s also much more environmentally friendly than animal protein, since it produces 400 times the protein per acre than beef cattle.  It’s anti-inflammatory, and unlike soy protein, it’s easy to find clean, organic, non-GMO sources.  Spirulina protein is already broken down into amino acids for easy absorption, and it won’t stress your liver and kidneys like whole animal protein will.  That’s one reason that I’ve been getting most of my protein from plants and sea vegetables for the past 20 years.

I can’t talk about protein powder without talking about whey.  Whey is a byproduct of cheese manufacturing that was formerly considered toxic waste.  Where I live, whey was routinely dumped into sewers until it was made illegal to do so, and in fact some cheese manufacturers were fined for continuing to dump whey in the sewers.  The dairy industry and the department of agriculture decided that when needed to be disposed of some other way, and through clever marketing, it was transformed into a premium nutrition product.  Whey protein isn’t great stuff, despite its reputation as a complete protein.

You should get most of your protein from the food you eat, which should be clean, organic, and mostly plant-based.  You shouldn’t have to add anything fancy to good natural nutrition–that’s what your body wants, and it’s what you should eat.

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This past week, I attended the Perform Better 3 Day Summit in Providence, RI, with 1,200 trainers, therapists, and chiropractors. Together, we took in the latest knowledge from industry
leaders like Dr. Greg Rose, the founder of the Titleist Performance institute.
In any field, it’s important to invest in yourself. I invest my time, money, and travel in my profession
because I value being the best trainer I can be. It’s important to me personally to be constantly
improving. Obviously I want to be a more successful trainer from a business standpoint, but more
importantly, refining and expanding my skills is personally fulfilling.
One of the things we focused on at the summit is the idea that structure dictates function or
dysfunction. The goal of golf fitness is to build and refine your structure (body) to the point where
it is in balance and optimized for golf. If your body is out of alignment at the start of a golf swing,
chances are you’re going to be out of alignment at the end, too. Misalignment like this can result
in excessive wearing on joints and connective tissue. Joint replacement surgeries are at an all
time high right now, and if you keep yourself in the right shape for your sport, you can avoid being
a part of that statistic.
If you are in a rotational sport like golf, you need explosive control at impact, and proper
deceleration control to reduce injuries and bad shots. Your joints need to be limber in all three
planes of motion. Incorporate a dynamic warmup
before golf and do a body check. When I say
“body check,” I mean scan your body with your senses, and note anything that feels out of
alignment. Adjust your posture and your swing accordingly.

I was recently asked by a reporter whether I had tips to share with younger people in their 20’s and 30’s to help them stay healthy as they grow older.  I thought about it, and it’s something that’s fundamental to my life’s work.  Fitness professionals like me are in the business of helping your current self do favors for your future self.  I’m going to share some of the tips I have to help you age more gracefully here:

When it comes to exercise, consistency is key, and the key to consistency is convenience. Don’t over stress about getting thirty minutes to an hour a day of exercise. Make sure you get five to ten minutes every day. Fit it in wherever you can, just make sure you some exercise every day. If you feel good or if you have time to do more, go for it. Just make sure you anchor that habit with five to ten minutes of some exercise every day.

Your workout should include five fundamental motions: pushing, pulling, rotating, squatting, lunging. No need to break your back, just make sure you get it in every day. It’s good to get exercise in around the edges of your day, too. Do simple things like parking the car farther away from the store to force yourself to walk more, take the stairs instead of the elevator, keep exercise tubing in a convenient place and do back pulls or other simple exercises during downtime. All of it adds up, and all of it helps forestall the aging process.

Here’s something you can do when you’re younger that will pay off greatly when you’re older: practice better posture. Bad posture is a leading cause of back pain and other chronic pain, and we’re all at risk from sitting at computers and looking at our phones. Keep mindful of the way you are sitting. Better yet, do less sitting and more standing straight up, with your shoulders back and eyes eyes forward.

In terms of nutrition, what you eat is more important than how much you eat. You can eat as much as you want, just make sure that what you’re eating is mostly organic fruits and vegetables and other whole foods. You should eat minimally-processed food, without chemical dyes, preservatives, etc.

These guidelines are fairly simple, but if you work on making them habits, you’ll be making a great investment in the health of your future self.

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I love green and growing things. Gardening is an excellent way to get active. You probably know by now that I focus on functional fitness, meaning fitness that’s grounded in balanced, natural movement, that helps you stay injury-free and fit for daily life. Gardening is a great way to reinforce and enjoy the benefits of functional fitness.

You can get good cardio from raking and mowing, digging and weeding are great resistance exercises, and just walking around on the natural surface of the garden promotes balance and stability. Gardening burns a fair amount of calories, too. A 175 lb. person burns over 200 calories per hour while gardening.

Here are some tips to make the most of your time out in the garden:

-Warm up and stretch before gardening. Walk around for a few minutes and do some light stretches before gardening. Not only will this reduce your risk of injury while gardening, it also makes gardening more effective as a fitness-promoting exercise.
-Don’t do any one activity for too long. Alternate different tasks every fifteen or twenty minutes to prevent repetitive strain injury and to keep different muscle groups warm.
-Don’t try to do all the hard work in one marathon session. Doing so is a surefire way to get aches and pains.
-Use ergonomic tools. Good, comfortable gardening tools help keep you from injuring yourself through repetitive motion, and you’re also less likely to cut yourself or strain muscles when you have enough leverage and a good grip on your gear.
-Lift with your knees, not your back! Enough said.
-Alternate sides while you’re working. Switch your grip from hand to hand while raking, digging, or hoeing. This will promote muscle balance and coordination.
-Protect yourself from sun and strain. Wear sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses. Drink lots of water. Wear good work gloves. Try not to garden in the middle of the day when the sun is hottest.
-Avoid twisting while you lift or reach. Twisting the body while lifting or reaching is one of the most common ways people injure themselves, and it’s also one of the most preventable. Stay mindful of what you’re doing and where you are.

Speaking of mindfulness, the benefits of getting outside go beyond physical fitness. It’s been shown that getting out into the natural environment reduces anxiety and increases creativity. Here’s a meditation you can do to get in that zone:

Sit on a chair or bench in good posture. Place your feet flat on the ground and your hands on your lap. Inhale through your nose as you count up to four. Pause at the top of your breath and slowly exhale through your mouth as you count down from four. Repeat, each time adding a count until you reach a count of eight. This will help relax your mind and body and make an excellent pre- or post-gardening ritual.

So get outside, enjoy the weather, and get active! Just take it easy, drink plenty of water, and make sure to smell the roses.

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This is the last in our series of TPI Performance tests.  If you haven’t read the other seven, you should check some out at www.FunctionFitness.com/2016/05.  The idea behind these tests is that a TPI golf fitness professional can use them to assess your physical strengths and weaknesses, and isolate where you may have problems with your golf swing on that basis.  You can also do them yourself for fun, and just to get an idea of where you stand.

So, what’s the cervical rotation test?  It’s a test we can do to check the mobility of your neck and upper back, which is important for a smooth golf swing with a full range of motion.

Here’s how to do it:
Stand up perfectly straight with your feet together, toes pointing forward.  Keeping your head level, rotate it as far as possible to one side, now tilt your head down and try to touch your chin to your collarbone.  Don’t open your mouth or try to close the gap by moving your shoulder up.  Now do it on the other side.  If you can touch your chin to your collarbone on both sides (without it hurting,) then you have full bilateral  cervical rotation.  If not, you could have issues with your spine, or you might just have tight muscles that need to be worked on.

If your mobility is limited in this test in any way, the first thing you can do is make sure you’re maintaining healthy posture as much as possible in your daily life.  You can check out the video below if you need some tips.  Otherwise, here are some exercises you can do to help out:

Stand up straight, place one hand flat across the small of your back, with the palm out.  Using the other hand, reach up and across the top of your head.  Gently pull the top of your head away from arm that’s behind your back, just enough to feel a stretch.  This will help stretch and loosen muscles on the side of your neck.  Another easy stretch you can do will be to stand up straight, turn your head to the side, and tilt your head to look up at the ceiling.

These stretches can help loosen and lengthen any tight muscles that could be inhibiting your motion.

That’s it for this week!  Drink lots of water and stay on top of your game!

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This post is the sixth in a series about a few important tests that TPI fitness professionals can use to diagnose your golf strengths and weaknesses by observing your body’s strengths and weaknesses.  This week, we’re going to talk about the Single Leg Balance test, which tests stability, balance, and an important quality called proprioception.

To perform the test, stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart.  Hold your arms down at your sides, but not touching your sides  Lift up one knee until your thigh is parallel with the ground.  Get stable, and then close your eyes.  Have someone time how long you can stand that way without making any adjustments (i.e., without leaning or lifting your arms up higher.)  Repeat on the other leg.

If you make it to 25 seconds, that’s amazing.  Most people can’t do that, and you’ve done a great job.  If you can’t do 25 seconds, that’s okay, just time how long you can do it for.  If you can go more than ten seconds, you’re doing better than about 60% of amateur golfers and 40% of PGA tour pros.

Sight is probably a human being’s most important sense.  We use more information about our world through our eyes than from any other source.  We even use our vision to keep ourselves balanced, but when we can’t use our eyes to test our balance, we use the balance-sensors in our inner ear, along with our sense of proprioception.  Proprioception is your sense of where your body is in space.  It’s what allows you to close your eyes and touch your nose, or to keep running while you’re looking up to catch a ball.

Balance and proprioception are critical to golf performance, and that’s why we’re testing them here.  So what if your balance isn’t so hot?  There are a few exercises you can do:

1. Single leg balance golf stance:
Get into golf posture and lift one leg, bending at the knee and letting your raised foot stay behind you.  Try to balance first with your eyes open, then with your eyes closed.  Repeat on the other leg.

2. Single leg balance golf stance, narrow base:
Get into golf posture and lift one leg, similar to the previous exercise.  Once you’re stable, lift your heel up off the ground and try to balance on the ball of your foot.  This will be very challenging.  Try with eyes open and closed, and repeat on the other leg.

This test isn’t easy, and it’s important to realize that everybody is on a continuum of ability here.  Still, developing your balance is essential for great golfers, and it’s also a good way to prevent injury and enhance your quality of life.

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TPI Performance Test 3: Overhead Deep Squat

This is part of a series on the simple movement tests you can do that will enable a TPI golf fitness professional to determine what your golf strengths and weaknesses are.  We’ve looked at a couple of different exercises already: the pelvic tilt and the pelvic rotation.  This week, we’re going to look at the overhead deep squat.

The overhead deep squat is one of the most informative tests you can perform on a golfer.  The deep squat portion of the test is used to test the mobility of your hips, knees, and ankles.  When the overhead reaching portion is included, it also assesses mobility of the shoulders and the thoracic spine.

To do the overhead deep squat:

• Begin by standing with feet shoulder width apart and toes pointing forward.
•  Grasp a club or a dowel with both of your elbows bent 90 degrees.
• Keep your grip, and stretch out your arms directly overhead, keeping the shaft in line with the head and over the feet.
• Next, squat down as far as possible, while keeping the club as high above the head as possible.  Stop the test if you have any pain or discomfort, if you lose your balance, or if you are forced to lift your heels off the ground or move your arms forward.

What we’re looking for are these things when you’re at the bottom of the squat:

• Your upper torso should be parallel with or more vertical than your shinbone.
• Your femur should be below horizontal
• Your knees are aligned over your feet
• Your feet are pointing forward (not flared)
• The club or dowel is aligned with your feet.

If you’re having trouble meeting these criteria, I’ll need to watch you do the exercise to see what the exact cause is.  Meanwhile, there are a few exercises you can do to increase your mobility in a way that should help you with this test:

Self Massage:

Use a massage stick, golf club, or foam roller search the back of your calves for point tenderness.  Rub up and down over the tender spot to break up any trigger points or adhesions in the muscle for up to 30 seconds.  Search for two or three spots.

Butterfly Wings:

Sit butterfly style (bottoms of your feet touching each other) with you back against the wall.  Grab the head of a club with the right hand and the grip with the left. Sitting tall against the wall, try to elevate the right hand diagonally as far as possible, using the left hand and the club to help get the hand up high.  Hold for two full breaths and release.  Repeat on both sides.

Crisscross Deep Squats:

Attach each handle of some exercise tubing to the lower part of a doorway.  You can do this by opening the door and sliding the handle behind the door on the hinge side, and then closing the door and wedging both ends of the tubing between the door and the door frame.  It should be wedged between knee and ankle height.  Flip the slack in the tubing over so that it forms a loop you can step into.  Step with both feet into the loop, so that it stretches around your legs between your knees and your ankles.  Step away from the door, and hold a club or dowel high over your head.  Now try to perform the deep squat.  You still may not be able to, but the resistance will help stabilize you and force your body to move in the way it’s supposed to.

That’s all for this week!  If you’ve found this information useful, please share it with a friend!