Golf Fitness

Creating Super Speed in Golf

Super Speed Golf Swing | Healthy Shoulders | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance
Super Speed Golf Swing | Healthy Shoulders | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance

Creating Super Speed in Golf

What an exciting time in golf as the Masters commence in Augusta this weekend! Who's going to win? Are you placing any bets? Just a little hint... statistically, the longest drivers in the game make up the majority of winners.

You may have noticed some tour players warm-ups have changed recently. Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson have recently added Super Speed Golf Clubs to their bags... and they've added a whole lot of club head speed with it!

Why do we care about speed so much? Well, power is based on force and speed. Increasing power in your swing means increasing distance in your ball flight. Who doesn't want to hit the ball further? The further we hit the ball, the faster we get to the hole.

If you haven't seen Super Speed golf clubs yet, they are pretty cool looking golf shafts that are weighted differently at the end from one to the other. The set I have has three clubs: one is about the same weight as a men's driver (that's what I play), one is a little heavier, and the third is a little lighter than a standard men's driver. The three clubs are swung in specific sets and reps in order to tax the nervous system and fast twitch muscle fibers in a fashion that teaches the body and brain to create more speed over time.

There are many different drills you can do with Super Speed golf clubs too. Some exercises are done from a kneeling position, half kneeling position, and many are done while standing. One of my favorite exercises is the Happy Gilmore running start style swing. It's just funny. Check out Instagram for some cool drills and definitely follow my Instagram and Facebook pages for all kinds of flexibility, mobility, strength, power, and speed drills and exercises.

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist

Best Season To Train For Golf

Best Time For Golf Training | Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance
Best Time For Golf Training | Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

When is the best season to train for golf?

The weather has turned colder over the last few weeks, and we have seen plenty of rain (with flurries in the forecast). I've heard many ask me "when is the best season to train for golf? Is it in the 'off' season?" The better questions is....should there be an off season from training?

He SAID, She SAID

Do the same thing you've always done and it will get you where you've always been. How many places is that applicable in life? Many. It applies to the body too. First, there's the SAID principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Simply stated, it means the body adapts to the forces applied to it. Secondly, a rolling stone gathers no moss. Keep moving so you can keep eating grass, not growing it. Also, if we do the same exercises, the same training, the same cardio, your body will stay basically..the same. That's a good plan for maintenance, but what if you're looking to make gains? Strength, power, and increased swing speed allow for longer drives. The person who hits the ball the longest, wins... 80% of the time in the PGA (and hopefully on your home course too). Distance matters, and it's more fun to hit a long ball too!

Seasons of Training

There are times we can best use training sessions to focus on strength gains while still maintaining mobility and flexibility, and there are times we want to focus on speed training and body control. Fall, winter, and the beginning of spring in WNY is a great time to focus on raw strength in key areas, increase your shoulder turn, and improve your hip turn...all while picking up heavy weights. You're not done. Put them down, pick them up, and keep repeating. In the spring and summer months it's important to maintain body control with good core exercises, anti-rotation or resisted rotation exercises, nervous system training, and speed drills.

There may be an off season from golf if you aren't a snow bird, but there shouldn't be an off season from training if you want to keep moving well and enjoying life. Call Marie today to learn more about the best program for your body based on how you move during this season today!

"Better Body, Better Golf, Better Life"

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist

How Can I Improve My Hip Turn?

How Can I Improve My Hip Turn? | Gold Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance
How Can I Improve My Hip Turn? | Gold Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

How Can I Improve My Hip Turn

Hip, hip, hooray!!! There's always lots of talk about hips in the sports arena. The greatest athletes in the world are strong and move well from their hips to their shoulders. They have lots of motion and they have lots of great body control in these areas. So if hip movement is so important, how do we maintain it or improve it?

A Brief Anatomy Lesson

Let's talk about the muscles surrounding the joint. We have the hip flexors, quadriceps (front of thigh), hip internal and external rotators, adductors or groin muscles (moves your leg towards the midline of your body). We also have gluteus maximus (my favorite!!), which is the great hip extensor, and glute medius which is an abductor (moves the leg away from the midline of the body). Extensibility or flexibility of each of these muscles has an impact on total joint motion. Research studies have indicated groin or adductors are the first group of muscles to tighten, leading to the loss of motion in the hip turn.....meaning that's an area we should pay attention to! Quads and hip flexors are in a shortened state when seated, which most of the population does a whooollee lot of today mainly due to an occupational hazard: the desk job!

Flexibility Comes From Joints Too

Surrounding each joint in the body is a sheath of connective tissue that makes up the joint capsule. This capsule keeps all the synovial fluid inside the joint, which is our bodies own lube (the natural and organic kind of WD-40). Joint capsules can become tighter and thicker and sometimes need to be mobilized. You can think of this tissue similarly to a thin sheet of leather. It can be stretched out if you put the right pressure on it. Joint capsules can be stretched much like leather has the capability to.

Marie's Favorite Hip Stretches

Since adductors, hip flexors, quads, and glute medius are common areas of tightness, we should keep them stretched. Below, you'll see pictures of each. Remember, stretches should be dynamic during pre-participation warm-ups, but they can be held any other time.

For more information on a flexibility or fitness program, contact Marie.

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist

Stretching For Better Golf

Stretching For Better Golf | Leading Edge Performance
Stretching For Better Golf | Leading Edge Performance

One of the fastest ways you can improve comfort in your game and improve your scores today is by adding a warm-up including dynamic stretching to your routine. I love to ask my clients if they would like to be moving well, feeling loose, and in the groove on the fourth tee box or if they would rather feel their best on the first tee box. Hitting well from the first tee absolutely translates to better scores!

How long does my warm-up and stretching last?

Let's first talk about dynamic stretching and why I mentioned that type of movement rather than static stretching. Think about a rubber band. If you stretched a rubber band to its' fullest extent and held it there for a very long time, what would the recoil look like? The rubber band would change in length, but it isn't going to return to its original length quickly and now it has slowed down. What would happen if you took that same rubber band and stretched and shortened it quickly (2-3 second stretches at a time) a number of times? The length and recoil would both improve, and you may notice that band is a little warmer and more pliable now too. Our muscles work in a similar fashion. The human body is much more complex, however, because we are not just stretching tissue, we are involving our entire nervous system.

More on that nervous system... Do you think you can achieve your greatest swing speed immediately after a nap? How's your focus and mental clarity right after waking? Everything has been slowed down. Well, the body responds in a similar fashion to static stretching. We've just slowed the nervous system down and told the body to relax. Hold a stretch 15 seconds or more, and swing speed goes down.

Can I stretch at home?

You know you feel good after warming up with dynamic movements involving your core, glutes, some rotational exercises and then dynamic stretching, but how long do you have before the benefits wear off? Research studies indicate you have about 10 minutes. So, if you live two minutes from the golf course you can probably get ready to play at home. For the rest of us, our routine is best done right at the range. We improve our intimidation factor with that routine before hitting balls at the range too. Anything for an edge on our buddies, right?

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist

Why Does My Back Hurt When I Play Golf?

why does my back hurt when playing golf | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance
why does my back hurt when playing golf | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance

Golf is one of the greatest games ever invented, but it's even better when we are playing great and feeling good. The number one complaint I hear during or after the completion of a tournament is "my low back hurts". Even more note worthy is that for many, the only time their back hurts is when they play golf. Let's dive into this more.

Golf and Mobility

The body is comprised of a bunch of movement patterns. We aren't a just bag of parts and pieces. I say this because you may have pain in your low back, but that doesn't necessarily mean your low back is the problem. The low back is just where breakdown occurred. When taking a good look at movement patterns, you'll see alternating areas of stability and mobility. The areas of the body that need to be stable are the lower neck, shoulder blade, elbow, hand, lower back/lumbar spine, knees, and mid foot. The areas opposite of that need to have good movement or mobility and include: mid neck, shoulder joint, wrist, thoracic spine/mid back (where all the ribs connect), hip joints, and ankles. Often times, after injury or just the fact we get told to sit still all day from the time we are little kids and on through our adult life, compensations occur; areas that should be mobile lose motion, and our body then tries to create motion from areas that should be stable.

Where does the golf turn come from? The two most important areas we need to be able to turn from for golf or any other rotational sport (baseball, hockey, tennis, squash, etc) are the thoracic spine and hips. When we talk about "turning your shoulders" that is motion from your t-spine. Ankle and shoulder mobility are important also, but we will cover those another time. The lower back ends up compensating for the t-spine and/or hips when we ask our body to make a bigger turn in golf than what is available. To put it plainly, if your shoulder turn or hip turn isn't available, you'll end up turning from your low back. The lumbar spine/low back is actually built for forward and backward motion. It will allow some forced rotation though, thereby severely increasing the odds of a disc injury or herniation. Nobody needs that pain in the back!!

Shoulder Turn

How do you know if you have enough "shoulder turn" or thoracic motion? You can try this simple test at home. Sit on the edge of a chair with two sticks crossed on the floor that make an "X", giving you a 45 degree angle to measure by: the amount of shoulder turn needed for golf. To test your shoulder turn to the right, first cross your right foot over the left and keep your knees together. This blocks your hp and low back from turning. Holding another stick or golf club in both hands behind your neck, turn as far as you can to the right. Hopefully your turn is equal or greater than the 45 degree mark on the floor. See pictures. Repeat to the left, but crossing the left foot over the right this time. Is your shoulder turn equal in both directions?

Hip Turn

To test your hip turn, take one of your shoes off and place it in front of your foot as seen in the picture. Keeping two fists between your knees for stability, rotate your leg towards the outside. Make sure your upper body stays upright and you're not leaning, because that would be cheating the turn and wouldn't give a true test. Your foot should clear your shoe. This is testing internal rotation at the hip joint and should be repeated on both sides. Internal rotation needs to be a minimum of 30 degrees but tour players have around 40-45 degrees of rotation available.

When proper motion is available, we feel great and have the ability to play great! Focusing on improving the lack of any motion in these areas can also increase your distance, consistency, swing speed, and longevity in the game!

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist

Improve Your Golf Game Quickly

Improve Your Golf Game Quickly | Glute Strength | Golf Fitness | Leading Edge Performance | Buffalo
Improve Your Golf Game Quickly | Glute Strength | Golf Fitness | Leading Edge Performance | Buffalo

Glute Strength is The Key To Improving Your Golf Game

Everyone wants to know how to improve their golf game quickly. Well, the key to your improving your golf game is having strong glutes. Nope, they aren't just there to hold your pants up! This muscle group is responsible for creating tons of power in your swing, protection for your low back, and consistency in your game. The muscles I'm talking about are gluteus maximus, and gluteus medius. For now we will focus on max...for max potential.

Gluteus maximus is well know in the Titleist Performance Institute golf fitness community as "The King". This is the number one muscle group in the body that needs to be strong and firing. The reason I said "firing" is because for many, these muscles are completely inhibited or shut off. You can test yours right now: Lay down on your back with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle, then lift your hips off the ground until your body is straight from your shoulders to your knees. At that point, straighten out one knee keeping your thighs even. What do you feel? Do you feel your glutes (sides of your butt), your low back, or your hamstrings (back of the thigh) and is your hamstring about to cramp? If it's about to cramp- get out of that position...cramps hurt!! Hopefully you feel the glutes doing more work than your hamstrings. You've passed the test if your glutes are doing at least 70% of the work. If the hamstrings did cramp, well, your glutes are completely shut off. That means you still have distance on your clubs you've been leaving in your bag. If you felt your low back doing the work, there is opportunity to improve your core and glute strength to reduce the chance of injury.

You can use the glute bridge as a test, but it's great as an exercise too. I know many who would rather just start increasing their glute strength by deadlifting, hitting the squat rack, or doing lunges (wait, who really wants to do lunges?), but if your glutes weren't doing more work than your hamstrings when laying on the ground then that's where we need to start: strengthening from the ground. Otherwise, compensation occurs...and you're still not tapping into that full power potential then. Master the glute bridge and then move up from the floor! You'll see increased distance, have more comfort in your game, and hit more fairways pretty quickly by focusing on those glutes!

Marie Hall | Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

Author: Marie L Hall

MS, ATC, TPI CGFI MP3, SFMA, FMSC
Golf Fitness Expert, Performance Coach, Functional Movement Specialist