Improve Your Swing Speed and Your Golf Game

Improve Your Golf Swing | Healthy Shoulders | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance
Improve Your Golf Swing | Healthy Shoulders | Buffalo NY | Leading Edge Performance

Improve Your Swing Speed and Your Game Year After Year

Golf is one of the greatest sports ever created and it's a sport we can enjoy for a lifetime. Often times, we hear swing speed and distance diminish as we age though. At the point you can really dedicate enormous amounts of time to the sport (after retirement) the game continues to gets more challenging. How unfair is that?! So, how is it that Phil Mickelson has been able to increase his swing speed by more than 6 mph this season then?

Who's On Your Team

Phil Mickelson surrounded himself with a team of TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) professionals who are helping him focus on his swing, body movement patterns, flexibility/mobility, and training style. That means he's consistently working with a PGA golf professional, a medical professional (TPI certified), and a fitness professional (also TPI certified).

More Rotation and Greater Separation

Improving your shoulder turn and your hip turn by even 10-20 degrees gives you more room to really create speed and power, especially once you master upper and lower body separation exercises and speed drills. A rolling stone gathers no moss, so keep moving every day and stay focused on exercises that improve your turn.

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

What Goes Into A Great Functional Workout

Functional Training | No Cookie Cutter Clipboard Excercise | Buffalo New York

What Goes Into A Great Functional Workout

Functional Training | No Cookie Cutter Clipboard Excercise | Buffalo New York

There are so many different ways we can build workout programs, but which exercises work best? What are the components of a sound exercise program? How do we track progress? What's the difference between functional training and conventional training? These are all great questions we will answer here.

First, it's important to discuss the brain and how it functions in regards to movement. Our brains don't recognize single muscle movements, rather, it works by engaging slings of muscles and engaging movement in patterns. You will see many people focusing on single muscle exercises (ie using machines, dumbbell tri's and bi's), which can be beneficial when they are trying to create hypertrophy (making muscles bigger). These exercises don't translate to moving better and they can actually increase stress on joints in the body if forces surrounding the joint are not properly balanced though.

What are the actual components of a good functional movement program? Each session includes the following types of exercises: glutes, core, upper body pushing, upper body pulling, hip hinge, rotation, and balance. Many exercises will even hit multiple components previously listed all at one time within a single exercise, such as the Bulgarian deadlift. Since this is a single leg exercise, balance is stressed, there's a hip hinge in the movement, and the primary purpose of the exercise is to strengthen the glutes. Glutes and core work together, so core is engaged in the exercise and often times there will be weights in the hands, which works on grip strength. Gripping heavy objects will also engage rotator cuff muscles and lats. Is this a challenging exercise? Yes, it certainly can be! You get a whole lot of bang for your buck out of it though. Variations for this exercise, such as holding weight in only one hand will add a component of resisted rotation as well (which is great for improving rotation). All of this makes Bulgarian deadlifts a great functional exercise.

How do we track progress and how do we progress programs? One thing you won't see me walking around with is a clipboard filled with exercise sheets. This is because our body movement can be different from day to day and our program needs can vary greatly from one session to the next. Constant program variation can be too confusing for the brain to allow progress in function and in strength, but keeping our programs the same can stall progress and feel stagnant. I use all the warm up exercises to assess movement and I also constantly evaluate body movement throughout each exercise. There's always a plan ahead of time for each session, but the exercises we use may deviate from the plan based on what I'm seeing in your movements and based on how you report that you feel. There's always a plan based on your functional movement assessment, but the plan oftentimes needs to be fluid.

If you're looking to move better, and feel better with a functional movement based training program, reach out to Marie today!

Starting A New Routine In The New Year!

Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance
Golf Fitness Buffalo | Leading Edge Performance

If you are sold on the "New Year, new you" gig, that's awesome. If you decided today is just a brand new day and your ready to get started, that's great too! Certainly, your golf game can benefit from a healthier YOU, so what's the best approach?

Getting Fit In The Gym

The gym is where we make GAINS. We gain strength. We gain power. We gain speed. We gain consistency. We improve cardiovascular fitness. What I didn't mention just now relates to our waistline and our body fat percentage. The amount of calories we burn might attribute to 10-30% of a caloric deficit, but that is easily destroyed with one or two bad meals or snacks in the day. So, what we eat after our workouts really matters.

Shrinking Your Insulation

Who wants to talk about fat? Not me. I prefer to call it insulation. Wink, wink. Although it's cold during the snowy Buffalo winters, we don't need to keep those extra pounds from the holidays; winter coats work wonders. The way most of us make the greatest impact on fat loss is in the kitchen. Making healthy, low carb/low sugar meals has proven to be effective time and time again. I like to follow this rule when cooking or plating my food: protein, fat, fiber. Protein is the first and foremost item to fill our plate with, then we want healthy fats (avocado, avocado oil, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, etc.), then the rest of the meal should be carbs from vegetables grown above the ground.

How Your Fit Body Improves Your Game

If you're looking for a greater swing speed and more distance from your clubs (why the heck not), a strong and lean body will get the job done much easier, not to mention all of our golf clothes look sharper too. A great way to get all new golf clothing for the upcoming season is to make sure none of your old stuff fits...in a good way. Persistent, daily efforts make all of this happen. Go get after it!!

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