4fitbodies.com

Check my latest Chapel Hill News Article for how to improve your sports game through better alignment.

LATEST CHAPEL HILL NEWS ARTICLE BY DAVE HANSEY (click to see it)

Tags: Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
Comments Off

Core Strength and Sports Performance

David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer

I see many people at the gym on a daily basis that consider their abs solely as a visual item if they consider training them at all. And while that may be nice, the muscles that make up your abs, your core, are a whole lot more important than just as a source of beauty. Your core consists of 29 muscles that surround your middle like a girdle. Its function is not cosmetic. Its primary function is to provide support and protection for your spine and to hold your body upright and to protect many of your internal organs.

In everyday life, a strong core protects you from those injuries where you can’t believe you just got injured. Like the pinching pain in your back when you got out of the car. Or that constant ache from helping your friend move a sofa. It also protects you from much more serious pain such as a herniated disc or a hernia. And as you age, it also helps you prevent slips and falls which are major causes of life changing injuries for seniors.

In sports, a strong core is critical regardless of your sport. It offers basic protection for sudden move changes such as in tennis and soccer. It also offers stability protection from sudden stops such as a football tackle. It also protects you from twisting and forced twisting movements such as hard tennis serves and golf drives.

But it is not just for protection that you should consider core training for your sport. The body is a finely tuned machine and the core functions in almost every movement. Athletic performance with a weak core is like an automobile with a powerful engine and plugged fuel injectors. You don’t get the most efficient amount of power delivered to perform accurately and quickly. Speed is decreased in many sports when the core is weak. Swimming and sprinting are two examples where there is a significant speed difference when core training is done as part of a regular training routine.

Play a game where throwing is important? Like basketball, baseball, football? Well, a strong core with make you throw farther and more accurately. Play tennis? Have trouble going corner to corner and making sudden changes? Guess what, you can run and run and run for training and never make as much difference on those missed balls as you can make by adding core strength training to your routine. Play golf? Want a longer, more accurate drive? Well training your core is scientifically proven to add dozens of yards to the average golfer’s drive.

The examples of how core training can help your sport are endless and there are dramatic scientific studies regardless of sport. If you are training for a sport and ignore your core, you are setting yourself up for injury. So whether you want to prevent injury or increase performance, core training is really a no-brainer to add to your routine.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Douglasville, Fitness, Personal Training, Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
Comments Off

Better Golf Through Strength Training
David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
I train a lot of people for a variety of different sports but golf is one where I get a lot of questions. How to have longer shots? How to have more accurate shots? How to perfect your drive? How to perfect your short game? The list of questions goes on and on. But here is a little secret. Just as one specific exercise will not give you a “six-pack” or a bikini body, there is not one specific exercise that will make you a perfect golfer.
If you are already strength training, then it may just be a tune-up and an adjustment on the exercises you are doing. If you are not strength training, starting a golf specific strength training program will make dramatic changes in your game.
Golfers need to consider a few things when they train. Professional golfers have a combination of strength, flexibility and mechanics that combine in order to make the most amount of force delivered to the golf club head with the proper amount of stability to make the ball go where they want. Sounds complicated but it is really very simple. If you think of your strength as being a water hose, you realize that you get the most amount of water and water pressure when there are no holes or kinks in the line and when the hose is as short as possible.
Well your body is not that different. When you have weak or tight muscles preventing you from performing in the proper way, your strength is tapped, much like a leak in the hose. When you have a big belly, it puts your back in a position to compensate for that weight so it cannot also provide the most accurate transfer of strength and power.
So what do you do to correct your weak and tight muscles and other issues that might be affecting your game? Well the first thing is to look at your overall conditioning. Does your game get worse the longer you play? That is a sign of fatigue and your overall conditioning could be the issue. As for other specific issues, everyone is unique and you really need to have a movement and posture assessment to see what muscles you may have that could be tight or weak and affecting your game.
Some people have tight chest muscles which pulls their body into a position that reduces power from being transferred to their shot. And many try to make up for a weakness like that with arm power which reduces the accuracy of the shot and fatigues your arms very quickly.
Others have weak forearms, which makes it difficult to maneuver your wrists and arms appropriately which can make some players compensate with unnatural movements of the elbows and shoulders leading to potential injury.
There are many more examples of this and many muscles that can be affecting your game like that. And they are all easily corrected for most people once it is identified which muscles it is. It really will not add hours to your workout. It may in fact add no time at all for most people as your workout can just be adjusted to do the correct exercises for you rather than what you are currently doing.
For more information on Sports Specific Training and Personal Training, visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Sports Fitness, golf by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
Comments Off

Back pain is one of the largest medical problems in the United States today and yet most people do not know how to treat it or prevent it. First, go to your doctor — he knows – that is why he spent all those years in medical school. So when he tells you to lose weight, work out, stretch, stop slouching, etc — he knows this works.

One of the things that always works is exercise. Exercising gives you more flexibility and more strength. And stronger muscles, especially in your core, support your spine and prevent pain — that simple.

Now, if you are not sure where to start, it is critical like with ALL PAIN, that you visit your doctor. I cannot stress that enough. And I stress it because I have people ask me on a daily basis in the Douglasville gym where I am a personal trainer about this pain and that pain. And well, only your doctor should be diagnosing pain. So really, go there first and then look at the exercise and training options that are good for your back.

And if you are still unsure how to perform the exercises, then a few personal training sessions are a good place to start!!

Tags: Back Care, Douglasville, Personal Training, Wellness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
Comments Off