Yes, you think golf is a non-contact sport so you don’t immediately think of injury but 62% of golfers will incur an injury while playing golf. Back injuries were the most common and lack of conditioning and poor mechanics are the main causes.
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.
Sports Specific Training – Golf
David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer
As I mentioned last month, I will be highlighting some popular sports and how strength training can help you improve and prevent injury while doing these sports. This month, I am highlighting golf.
A recent study found that 62% of golfers will be injured while playing golf and that the most common injury is a back injury. This makes sense when you understand the mechanics of golf. Good golf comes not from pure strength but from proper mechanics and the ability to transfer force from your legs and core to the club. Are your mechanics poor? A few sessions with a golf pro will tell you if they are. But regardless of what you have learned, if you lack the strength and flexibility to perform the move correctly, your swing will still be lacking.
That is where a golf-specific strength training program comes in. It is not enough for you to do a general strength training program or to “wing it”. The first step is determining which muscles are weak and tight and how those impact your swing. This can be done with a simple posture alignment test and movement test and takes less than 10 minutes. Any Board Certified Personal Trainer has the ability to do this for you and it is a very important first step when you first start training. It allows the trainer to design your personal training program to be specific for what muscles you need to strengthen and stretch in order to improve.
Many golfers tend to overcompensate for weak and tight muscles in their hips, legs and core by overusing their arms. This results in your shots not going as far. It also puts strain not only on your back but also on your shoulders and elbows (and just like in tennis, there is a condition called golfer’s elbow which is pain normally caused by overuse due to poor mechanics)
Curiously, many golfers also lack basic overall conditioning. This can be seen if your back 9 is much worse than your front 9. Your body is failing you on the back 9 because it is tired. I say curiously because these are people that are out on the golf course walking for several hours (or are they?). If you spend a lot of time in the cart (due to you or the course) you could be not getting the workout that you think you are. So an overall conditioning workout may also be needed. Try to alternate walking and riding if your course allows it.
Don’t get all worried that I am telling you that you need hours in the gym. 2-3 strength training workouts a week which includes moves specific to your needs and to golf should do it for most people. That and a few cardio sessions every week and you will notice dramatic improvements not only in your game but how you feel during the game, after, and the next day (no more sore forearms and achy back).
For more information on Sports Specific Training, call me at 404-514-1896 or visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.
The Douglasville Chamber of Commerce Golf Classic is coming up this week and wow — the thing is already sold out. I have donated a great prize – 2 hours of personal training which is worth around $150 so I am hoping the person who wins it uses this personal training to make a positive health change in their life and really gets into fitness!!!!
I am also offering all players and volunteers for the tournament a free body analysis. That is where I will look at your posture and movement to determine if you have any weak or tight muscles that should be worked on in your fitness or personal training routine in order to improve. Remember group fitness classes are great for cardio but they never do anything that is unique or specialized for you so for that you need personal training.
You can always call me or e-mail me if you are interested in a body analysis or personal training.
Good Luck to everyone is this week’s golf tournament!!!
Are you packing a few more pounds than you should be? Be honest! Is it a few? Like 10. Or is it a small child? I have a favorite story about my wife’s former boss. Every time he golfed, his back hurt for days. If he carried a bag, it hurt. If he played too often, it hurt. If he played too many holes, it hurt. The poor man bent over in the hotel hallway on a business trip (in his underwear) and couldn’t get back up. That is how messed up his back was. Did he learn anything from this? No! It took him more than 5 years of this pain cycle before he decided to lose some weight. Of course the fact that he kept getting bigger and bigger did not help. He probably had a hundred pounds of extra weight hanging on him by the time he did anything about it. He also had high blood pressure and digestive problems by that point too. All this and he is only in his forties. This man was not new to the game of golf. . He had been playing with the pain for years and even with his back pain, he maintained a 12 handicap. But the weight did not make the sport enjoyable.
I don’t tell this story simply because it is so colorful. It points out a paradox that you can see on most golf courses in the U.S. A lot of us could afford to lose a few pounds. A lot of us think we can just bound out onto the course with extra weight and not have it affect us. WRONG.
Not being in shape and being overweight is a terrible combination for golf. You end up putting even more strain on your joints and muscles. This strain can result in injury. Keep playing with the pain and you could be visiting the orthopedic surgeon if you aren’t careful.
Being overweight puts a lot more stress on every part of your body. I know you see some very good players who pack some weight. My father-in-law is one of them. He is chunky and plays well. Of course, he plays a lot and rarely carries his clubs. So, he is probably in better shape than he looks. But, in any case, anyone who is carrying excess weight is putting undue strain on their body.
A study by the American Obesity Association found that people who are overweight have a much higher risk of lower back pain. One reason for this was that extra weight around the mid-section tended to pull their pelvis forward putting additional strain on their lower back. The study also found that being overweight can cause damage to discs and more pain from herniated discs due to the disc compensating for the excess weight.
In conclusion, it would seem to make sense that for better golf, you should consider losing those extra pounds. A good conditioning program can help. If you aren’t sure where to start, give me a call and we can discuss some options. One great option is to leave the cart (if your club allows it) and pull your clubs.
To feel your best and to ensure great play for many years to come, have a good hard look at your body and see if it would help your health and your game to drop a few pounds.
I WISH YOU GOOD HEALTH AND GREAT GOLF!
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