Last month we met with TPI Certified Personal Trainer, Adam Tobias on exercises you can incorporate into your routine to improve your golf game and prevent injury. Since posture is very important to your golf swing, we decided to take this a step further. Bri and I met with Adam to learn more about the TPI Evaluation and how to improve your posture and consistency.
Adam went into more detail on postures and discussed the three different types; C, S, and neutral. “Golfers are at their weakest and it is hard to play in the C and S postures” he explained. “This is where more things can go wrong in your swing and it can lead to many issues later.”
C-Posture
S-Posture
Next, we discussed the neutral posture and how to maintain it. “Research shows the neutral posture is the best stance to keep your golf swing consistent” says Adam.
Neutral Posture
How do we eliminate the C and S posture for good? Learn how to perform the 3 MUST-HAVE movements, Dead Bug, Thoracic Rotation, and Hip Hinge. Incorporate these into you weekly workout routine and you will gain the proper strength and mobility to make a powerful swing.
Golf….a sport I will always struggle with. My degree was in
Sports and Fitness Management; therefore, I had a few fun easy courses (or so I
thought) I got to choose from each semester. One year, I took a golf class. I
thought to myself, “I lift weights, I should be able to hit that ball easily!”
On the first day, I quickly realized I was the only female in my class. We got
to choose who we were paired with and in the beginning, everyone wanted to be
my partner. After a few classes, myself and all my classmates realized I could
hit the ball far, but not in the right direction. By the end of the semester,
when I would arrive to class every guy would run in the opposite direction.
They would quickly pair up with each other, leaving me to be the odd man out
and I had to play with our professor. I knew then, and I know now, golf is not
my sport, but it is my husband’s (Nordy)! Now that it is golf season Nordy
suggested Bare Bodi should do a post on some exercises you can incorporate into
your routine that will generate speed in your swing and prevent injury. I
started to ask him questions for our blog and he suggested we should talk to a
couple of his friends whose profession is in this and could provide better
information. We met with Adam Tobias, who has been working in the golf and
fitness industries for 25 years and is also TPI certified.
When we first started putting this together, we were going
to have a section for legs, core, and flexibility. As I first engaged Adam, I
explained our objective and brought up some info for our first section on the
legs; “Strong hamstrings and glutes lay the groundwork for your golf swing. Tight
hamstrings can make it difficult to maintain your golf posture.” He said. “That
is correct, but let’s stop right there and discuss. We could literally talk on
this portion for hours.”
Adam first discussed the importance of posture. He said,
“Most faults come when a person can’t maintain a neutral spine in their swing.”
He compared it to how a fitness competitor stands; back and glutes are flexed,
and lower back is slightly arched, which is the exact opposite of the correct
golf posture. The hamstrings can cause the most issues for maintaining posture,
especially when they are tight and weak. This will ultimately lead to back pain
for golfers as well.
We then started discussing the best exercises that target
the glutes and hamstrings. I brought up dead lifts, squats, and lunges. Adam
agreed, but added “It is important for golfers to perform exercises one side at
a time. This is due to golfers constantly swinging from the same side of their
body which can lead to lower crossed syndromes, where a muscle on one side of
the body is weak which will lead to another muscle injury on the other side.”
Adam met with Bri to demonstrate some of these exercises for both beginners and skilled golfers.
Single Leg Deadlift It is important to flex the knee to force the hamstring to work.
Beginner
Advanced
Split Squat Use a pole or bands vs. weights to limit hip rotation.
Beginner
Advanced
Lastly,
we discussed how overall flexibility is extremely important for golf athletes.
Adam walked Bri through the correct way to stretch your glutes and hamstrings.
There are 2 steps in this stretch and a lot people skip the first and go
straight to the second.
Toe Touch Stretch
Toe Touch Part I
Toe Touch Part 2
Start incorporating these exercises in your routine to improve your golf swing and prevent injury now that golf season is upon us. Stay tuned for more golf fitness tips through out the summer! If you are interested in learning more about how to improve your golf game tailored to your weaknesses, sign up with Adam to do a TPI assessment. adam.tobias@sbcglobal.net #Fore #19thhole
My husband Jeff and I went to Marco Island, Florida over Thanksgiving this past year. On our first night we took a photo together by the sunset. Jeff looked at the photo on his phone and immediately tried to delete it and then became very quiet. I asked him what was wrong. He confided to me he was disappointed in the amount of weight he gained over the past several months and he needed to make a change. He added, being over 50 makes it even harder. I told him that I thought he looked handsome, but if he wasn’t happy then I could help him lose the extra weight. He agreed and said he wanted to start immediately. Thus the journey from Beefcake to Sweet Cheeks began! The next day he began doing my workouts that he previously claimed were too hard and stupid. Over the last 5 months, Jeff has lost 17 lbs doing my “stupid” workouts. I asked Jeff recently what he thought helped him lose the weight and he said….
1- “Consistency” Every morning he was eager for his workout for the day. Since Thanksgiving, he has worked out 6 days a week and hasn’t missed one. He even secretly told me he looks forward to doing them.
2- “I don’t get bored.” Jeff explained, because every workout is different, he stays motivated and continues to be challenged. He used to do the same workout for every body part and not at a high enough intensity. Now combining the cardio with strength training circuits, he feels more challenged during every workout and the variety occupies his short attention span 😉
3- “The workouts are not time consuming.” He hates to spend hours in a gym and feels like he can get a good workout in less than hour.
4- “Being more aware of what I eat.” Due to Jeff working from home, he got bored eating the food from our fridge. He was eating out for every meal all week long. He agreed to eat dinner at home during the week and only out on the weekends. He also stopped excessive snacking at night. I made sure to have our fridge stocked with healthy snacks he could have when he got that night time craving.
During this process, Jeff let his impatience get the better of him. Although, he stayed committed to his workouts, he was still a sourpuss when he got home. He got extremely frustrated when he wasn’t seeing significant results and I reminded him “Rome was not built in a day.” I told him to stick to the process and you will notice a change. As you can see in his photos, this is exactly what happened. 5 months later he is finally seeing his results. If you are trying to lose weight in a healthy way, remember it won’t happen over night and you must stay committed to the process.
If you are in the market
for a piece of exercise equipment that is inexpensive, user friendly and
effective in so many ways; look no further than RESISTANCE BANDS! Below are 3
simple reasons to add this versatile piece of equipment to your routine, enjoy
the change!
Glute Bridge with Resistance Bands
Convenience: you can use them anywhere! Resistance bands are small, lightweight, and easy to store making them the ultimate travel companion for work trips or vacations. Not every hotel or home has a world class gym on site or near by, so packing resistance bands in your luggage will allow you to have a challenging workout no matter where you go! Use them in your hotel room, hallway or parking lot!
Challenging: resistance bands can provide a change in stimulus to your muscles which helps improve strength, stability, and can even push you pass plateaus. If you are able to perform 20 glute bridges without feeling challenged, try adding a mini resistance band around your thighs right at the top of your knee and push against the band while you bridge…20 reps isn’t such a cake walk anymore! That new burning sensation in the sides of your hips means you are developing those muscles!
Versatile: anybody can use them! Whether you are young, old, a beginner, a seasoned athlete or recovering from an injury, resistance bands are effective for all! You can use them in a dynamic warm ups, stability work before a free weight workout, or as a light/joint friendly form of resistance after an injury before progressing back to free weights. Endurance athletes can use bands to warm up their lower body before long runs or bike rides.
Have you ever heard of Cupping Therapy or seen what someone looks like after having a treatment? Well here ya go…!
This is what my back looks like two days post treatment, no it does not hurt and yes, it is very effective for me! I discovered cupping through my acupuncturist and Chinese herb practitioner, whom I started working with in 2015. Cupping therapy is an ancient form of an alternative medicine in which a trained therapist puts special cups on your skin for a short period of time to create suction. Cupping is used to help with pain, inflammation, blood flow, relaxation, well-being and many other physical, mental and emotional ailments. Cupping, along with acupuncture and Chinese herbs have become a welcomed, regular and integral part of my health and wellness regimen. As a matter of fact, without these practices along with whole food nutrition and STRONG sleeping habits, I would absolutely not have a “regular” fitness routine. These alternative therapies have become the recovery methods that allow my mind and body to heal from regular day to day stress as well as the purposeful stress that exercise puts on my body.
About 10 years ago my body started to rebel against me. I suffered from digestive issues, severe skin problems, extremely painful and irregular cycles, constant pain in my muscles and joints, crazy fatigue, body temperature issues, and of course anxiety and depression came with all of this…because why not… they were like the whip topping on my shit sundae! Up to this point in my life I had been a competitive athlete and exercise enthusiast, it is JUST. WHO. I. WAS. My older brother use to joke that I came out of the womb doing dips and lunged away from my mom 🙂 Now, most days I couldn’t imagine working out because I couldn’t even get out of bed, I was a physical mess and I was scared! So many thoughts went through my mind at this time, but my greatest fear was I would no longer be able to work as a trainer because I could no longer exercise myself. After seeing multiple physicians of different types without resolve I was directed into the unknown world of alternative medicine, THANK GOODNESS!!!
It has taken 3 different practitioners working together, along with a few hospital visits to determine that I have an autoimmune bowel disease that was severely effecting my physical health as well as my mental well-being. At 37 my whole perspective and understanding of health and wellness is drastically different than what it use to be. I still LOVE exercise, as much for my mentality as for my body. Thanks to the discovery and addition of alternative medicine and therapies, I can continue my regular exercise routine that includes strength training, running, yoga and other activities pain free AND still maintain my health! Cupping, acupuncture and Chinese medicine have been used to treat ENDLESS ailments dating all the way back to B.C!!! If you are struggling with physical and/or mental ailments without resolve and are interested in learning more please check out www.ohacu.com, Ohio Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine.
What are BCAAs and why are they important? For starters amino acids are the broken down or “usable” form of protein for our bodies. For example, when you eat a piece of chicken it’s broken down or metabolized into amino acids so our bodies can make use of it. Branched chain amino acids are just a specific type of amino acid that help us increase energy, recover muscle tissue, and stabilize blood sugar amongst other metabolic functions. Translated into layman’s terms if you workout regularly and are looking to build lean muscle, increase energy, reduce soreness and help recovery from exercise, control hunger and cravings, lose excess body fat, and enhance the flavor of your water then BCAA’s are for you! This specific supplement can be used by ANYBODY no matter their age, gender or fitness level in addition to food to support overall health and recovery from exercise or to supplement when food is not readily available. (Certain health conditions require physician approval.)
This is a supplement I have used over the last 20 years of my training career as well as recommended to my clients. Amino acids are available in pill, powder and liquid form, I have found Propello Life’s Rejuvenating Aminos in the last few years and they have quickly become my favorite due to their flavor and the way they are made. Propello’s ingredients are natural; vegan BCAAs’s, non-GMO, and no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners.
I use aminos all day long starting in my water during my morning workout, as well as the water I sip on throughout the day. My favorite new discovery is adding it to my fruit smoothie when I skip the addition of a protein powder. Below is my favorite post workout fruit smoothie made with Propello Life Rejuvenating Aminos;
The letter ‘I’ in our name, Bare Bodi Fitness stands for Individual Accountability. This is SO IMPORTANT when making goals of any kind but especially goals related to your health and fitness.
Change is not easy to achieve, especially when it takes effort on a daily basis to alter old habits into new ones and sustain them. The ONLY life that will or will not change is yours. I promise you are worth the effort, BE ACCOUNTABLE TO YOU!
