Golf Stretches

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