It’s no secret that I advocate for fitness solutions with real-world applications. I emphasize the importance of the body as a holistic system that demands maintenance and movement in a natural context. There are lots of ways to train the body within these guidelines, but today I’m going to talk about what may be the easiest (and easiest to neglect) way to ensure that your musculoskeletal system stays healthy. I’m talking about posture.

Most of the time, people don’t notice their own posture. You have to call it to their attention. In today’s world, this problem is even more pronounced–we have a whole host of screens and devices that both keep us hunched over, and make us distracted so that we forget to be mindful of our body’s position in space.

The hunched-over, rounded-shoulder “texting position” can lead to what’s called “Upper Crossed Syndrome.” The term was coined by Dr. Vladimir Janda when he noticed many people showing up with certain sets of muscles in the upper-anterior part of the body–like the pecs and upper traps–were actually abnormally shortened, and their counterpart muscle groups in the back were abnormally weak. Obviously, this isn’t what you want if you’re trying to develop a great golf swing. Heck, it’s not what you want if you want to be able to throw a ball, pick up a basket of laundry, or age gracefully either.

The best way to prevent upper crossed syndrome is to be mindful of your body. You want to stand confidently, shoulders back, chest out. Click the video link below to check out some more tips on maintaining good posture.

Client Spotlight:

Louise H. of Menands says: “The program is well thought-out and gradually allows for better and more precise performance. I enjoy and look forward to working out every week.” Louise was voted most improved golfer at Wolfert’s Roost.

I always stress the importance of preparing for physical activity by stretching.  Golf is no exception.  Most people think of pectoralis muscles as something gym rats use to show off, but they are an important interface between your arms and your core.  As such, they are crucial to a good golf swing.

I’m going to outline a few stretches you can use to ensure that you have your pecs’ full range of motion.

This stretch works both your pectoralis minor muscle and the medial rotators in your shoulder:

• Stand in a doorway, next to a tree, or next to a golf cart, and place your arm in the same position as you would if you were about to throw a ball.
• Place your forearm and hand against your support (i.e. the doorjamb or similar) with the palm toward the support and your forearm vertical.
• Gently rotate your trunk forward around your arm as though your arm were a stationary object.
• Once you have reached a position in which you feel a stretch on the medial rotators of your shoulder (the front area), take a deep breath and press your hand into the doorjamb.
• Hold about one pound of pressure on the doorjamb for five seconds.
• Exhale and rotate the trunk around the arm, increasing the stretch.
• This should be repeated three to five times.

 This image is an example.

To stretch your pectoralis major, you can use a swiss ball (commonly known as a yoga or exercise ball.)

• With the forearm on the ball, keep the shoulders parallel to the ground as you allow the arm to be stretched back by dropping the body forward.
• Upon reaching the point of a comfortable stretch, inhale and press the forearm into the ball for five seconds.
• After five seconds, exhale as you relax and move immediately into a new stretch position.
• Perform this sequence three to five times on each side.

Example photo:

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Most people don’t consider golf a very fitness-intensive sport, and indeed it’s not very intense in the cardiovascular sense, but it does require a level of control over the body that can only be achieved through athletic training and functional fitness techniques.

The five pillars of golf’s kinetic chain–flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power—are at the heart of functional fitness training. What is functional fitness training? It’s athletic training with a focus on movements that emulate the natural motion of the body during sports and day-to-day activities. Our muscles and nervous systems are so delicately coordinated that training with the mechanical, one-dimensional motion provided by machines cannot prepare your body for real motion in space. It’s vital that your muscles learn to work all at once, supporting one another as they would in natural motion. Otherwise, it’s possible to develop a muscle imbalance and potentially set yourself up for an injury. Imagine a bridge built with heavy-weight, highly developed steel cable, but made with small, poorly-made bolts. That’s the kind of body you can get from limiting your training to gym machinery. Your kinetic chain will have weak links, and you won’t know they’re there until you get hurt.

That’s why I focus on training for stability, mobility, and quality of movement before I even introduce strength training. Stability training is so important that I recommend doing 5-10 minutes of it before any workout.

Bodyweight training is an excellent choice for strength training because it incorporates in itself aspects of stability training. It also allows me to assess a client’s imbalances, compensations, weaknesses, and symmetries. When you do bodyweight training, you’re engaging the whole of your body all the time, even if you’re only intending to work on a specific muscle group. This way, you develop better balance, and you also become more mindful of your body’s location in space; both of these are great skills to have whether you’re golfing or just leaning over to get something out of the fridge.

For cardiovascular performance, I recommend athletic training as opposed to steady-state cardio training, like you would get on a treadmill or exercise bike. Athletic training means any exercise where you move like an athlete—fast, agile, and powerful. It increases your cardiovascular fitness and your total-body balance, and it’s also much more fun than traditional cardio.

After your workout, it’s important to be able to return to a positive baseline state. Stretching, massage, foam rolling, and trigger-point techniques are tools that I can use to help my clients wind down and recuperate from the positive stress of exercise.

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I’ve talked about the five physical pillars of a good golf swing before: flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power. In previous weeks, I’ve talked about strength, balance, and flexibility, and this week I’ll address endurance, and what you can do to improve yours.

A thorough pre-golf warm-up is something many people ignore, being more interested in getting out on the course as quickly as possible. A golf-specific warm-up will lubricate your joints, warm your muscles and connective tissue, activate your nervous system, and sharpen your senses. All in all, it will help improve your golf game.

You can’t achieve great results using a muscle endurance warm-up routine. The golfer’s body will respond better to this type of exercise with people over 40, since the aging process produces degenerative change in joints, which decreases mobility.

Walking 18 holes can be up to a five mile walk on uneven terrain. So what endurance exercise movements can you do in between rounds? All successful golfers will make the time for this. Don’t invest as much time in TV, reading, or even the driving range, and spend more time on rhythmic walking: twenty minutes a day, five days a week, NOT on a treadmill or elliptical, as this doesn’t mimic life or golf movements. During the rhythmic walk, change directions. Walk backwards one minute, then walk sideways thirty seconds each leg. This will ensure proper balance in the legs and core to improve performance and decrease injuries. You can also add skipping in your walk for fifteen seconds.

Remember, to be better in golf endurance, you must be committed and be consistent. If you found this information helpful, please share it with a friend; it’s as easy as clicking the Facebook share button on this page!

Member Spotlight:

Tony C. of Albany separated his shoulder after a hard fall on ice.  He could barely move his arm and was in a lot of pain.  I taught him some exercises that he could use to help himself heal, and here’s what he says: “From following Jeff’s program, my range of motion and strength has increased.  As I continue to do the exercises, I keep seeing improvement and look forwards to regaining the full use of my arm.  I am very grateful for Jeff’s knowledge and expertise in helping me.”

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.

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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.