Fitness, Food and Focus - Total Golf

Fitness

The golf swing is a highly integrated activity that takes coordination from both sides of the body for movement and maintaining body positions.  The optimal golf swing requires balance, flexibility, coordination, strength, and power in the right quantities within the appropriate muscle groups.

Muscular endurance is required for repeated swings on the practice range. 
Muscular strength helps maintain proper body position and posture during the swing.
Power is essential for club-head speed. 
Cardio-vascular endurance is necessary to complete a full round of golf without fatigue.

A good golf program should incorporate integrated resistance movement patterns to address all these physical conditioning needs.  A high degree of lower extremity weight shifting and body weight transference activity is required.  Stationary stance weight shifting enhances balance, coordination and body awareness.  Proper execution also requires activation of hip, leg, and trunk stabilizer muscles.  Many golfers have under active/weakend glutes and really benefit from activating these.

Simply put:  As already mentioned the ‘Golf Swing’ is a highly integrated movement.  Muscles do not work on there own.  They work in chains.  Some provide movement and some provide stability.  In the gym one of the best pieces of equipment to use are the cable machines that allow resistance to be applied to multiple directions.  This allows you to incorporate rotational movements with your standard gym up, down, forward, backward movements. This allows you to train the body for function, to improve the way it works.  There is none better than the KINESIS ONE, from Technogym.  TFS is one of the first gym’s in the UK to have this piece of kit and we have the trainer’s available to help you utilize it.

Food

Playing golf for 4 hours and more can burn over 1000 kcals, more if you are carrying your clubs, and so if you are not well nourished this can leave you flagging towards the end of a game.

Having a sugary, high carbohydrate drink and snack half way round isn’t going to help you much either.  You may get a surge of energy for about 20 – 30 minutes however this soon dips, and you are left with 4 holes left to play and you’re running on empty.

Carry half a litre of water with you (1 litre on sunny days) and sip this throughout the game to keep you hydrated.  Have a snack bar or two with you that is high in protein as well as carbohydrates to give you sustained energy throughout the game.  Start to eat from the 8th hole, having a bite between each hole.

An ideal snack bar will contain nuts and seeds and have a protein to carbohydrate ratio of 1:4.  These are difficult to find and so get as close as you can.  Steer well clear of those with a ratio of 1:10 or higher – you’ll need a lie down on the 17th green!  If you can’t find a suitable bar, then a bag of mixed dried fruit and nuts will do the job nicely.

PS: Be careful what you do with those balls.  Artificial chemicals used to keep the course in good condition passes onto your balls, and potentially to you.  These are not welcomed by the body, and can put extra strain on the liver as it detoxifies them.  Keep your hands away from your mouth and your food until they have been washed, and keep your balls out of your pockets p the chemicals can seep out of your trousers and onto your skin, where it is absorbed into your body.

Focus

Golf is not only a technical game it is also a mind game. How much have you spent on training your mind to get the best performance and results you can possibly get on your game. Golf is 20% technical and 80% mindful, but how many golfers spend time training their minds? Tiger Woods does, in fact most of his time is spent on mindfulness as well as practice from a technical point of view. So start training hard in the gym, eat the right foods and start working on your mind to get the best possible results for your game. “Get out of your own way to be the best”

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