Revitalize Your Golf with Pilates Improvements
Pilate's emphasizes building strength, flexibility, posture, balance, and coordination. These are all strengths that any golfer requires in order to increase his level of golfing success, plus Pilate's golf stretching exercises add energy and stamina. Stretching exercises are the key.
Injuries are part of the game and a professional golfer needs to be physically fit to keep up with the competition. Most golfers at one time or another experience lower back pain and stiffness due to the amount of force they need to make a full swing with their club. Golf stretching exercises are the key to avoiding lower back pain injuries especially if you are a weekend golfer and may be a little de-conditioned.
Here are five key principles of Pilates and how they relate to your game.
- BREATH awareness is an integral factor in performance improvement. In golf, each movement “rides” on the breath. By learning to fully inhale and exhale as you do in Pilates, you will facilitate breathing in the golf swing. When you exhale fully, your core muscles are activated. Proper breathing also aids in controlling the movements.
- CENTERING in Pilates means that the core activates before the extremities. In golf, the movement is also initiated from the core and you swing through the ball from the centre before you use your limbs.
- FLUIDITY in movement translates into rhythm, tempo, and grace. Every Pilates exercise has a flow to it. This is true of the golf swing which adheres to another Pilate’s concept of appropriate effort. “Use as much as necessary, as little as possible.”
- CONCENTRATION is necessary in golf as well as in Pilates. By performing Pilate’s movements with concentration and focus, you learn to pay attention which is essential in the game of golf. Pilates trains attentive movement.
- ALIGNMENT. In Pilates we work towards our best alignment in every exercise. In golf correct alignment facilitates the swing motion, reduces joint stress, and prevents injury. Many golf instructors refer to proper alignment at address the number one factor that determines your entire swing.
Benefits of Pilates for Golf:
- Increased Strength - particularly back and abdominals
- Increased Flexibility
- Improved Posture
- Increased Body Tone & Bone Density (which reduces health risks)
- Improved Balance & Control
- Improved Ease & Co-ordination of Movement
- Heightened sense of well being and body awareness
Common Golf Stretching Exercises
- Wall Roll Down: Stand with your lower back firmly against a wall, your feet a foot away from the wall, knees slightly bent. Good for stretching hamstrings and spine.
- The Saw: Find a bench. Sit with your legs extended in front of you, just wider than hips width apart. Arms are lifted shoulder height to the side. Inhale and twist your body to the right; Exhale and round forward reaching the back. Warms up hamstrings and spinal rotation.
- Mermaid Stretch: Find a bench and sit on the front edge with your feet firmly on the ground and hips width apart. Inhale raises your right arm straight up to the sky, exhale and bend to the left, reaching out of the fingertips. Stretches the sides of your waist and ribcage.
- Golf Swing Stretch: Stand with your feet in a wide stance. Lean forward and with straight arms place your hands together in a prayer position, fingertips facing the ground. Inhale to swing the arms up and to the right as if you were going to hit the ball, exhale and swing them all the way up and to the left. Warms up spinal rotation and legs.
- Club Rotation: Stand with your golf club resting over across the back of your shoulders and your hands holding either end.
So next weekend when you're out on the course playing you're 18 holes of golf, Pilate's golf stretching exercises just might be the perfect match play.
Summary:
Pilates for Golf is built upon the established and very successful Pilates method of fitness, which is a contemporary, anatomically-based approach to the mind-body exercise regime developed by Joseph Pilates. Designed to develop optimal strength, flexibility, endurance and posture without building bulk or stressing your joints.
