March 2013: The Instruction Blog: Golf Digest

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Fitness Friday: Sync Your Swing

Friday, March 29, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

To swing a club effectively, you need sufficient strength to stabilize your body, decent flexibility to improve your range of motion, and good coordination to wind and unwind in the correct sequence. This dynamic medicine-ball workout will help give you all three traits, says Trevor Anderson, director of golf performance for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Anderson says that throwing a four- to 10-pound medicine ball against a reinforced wall or to a partner, while performing these exercises helps train the proper order of body movement during the golf swing--known as kinematic sequence. So start with the 1. Wind and Toss. Then move on to 2. Load and Toss, and the 3. Synchronize and Toss. Do 10 throws of each exercise in both directions.

1. Wind and Toss
Simulate your address posture while holding a medicine ball in front of your waist. Wind up to throw the ball by squatting slightly as you shift the weighted object past your right hip (above). Then thrust your hips, straighten your legs and powerfully throw the ball toward the target, making sure not to lose your balance.

2. Load and Toss
Stand perpendicular to your target while holding the medicine ball in front of your waist. Wind your upper body to the right as you move the ball past your right hip. Now load your body weight into your left leg, fire your right hip toward the target and throw the ball powerfully, but not so you're out of control.

3. Synchronize and Toss
Set up in an athletic posture with your back to the target. Wind up by squatting slightly as you move the medicine ball past your right hip. Once you're completely wound, load all your weight onto your left side, powerfully tossing the four- to 10-pound ball over your left shoulder, without neglecting your footing.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photos by Stephen Szurlej)

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Fitness Friday: The Gym: Get In And Get Out

Friday, March 22, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

I know it sounds good to say you just spent an hour or two in the gym, but whenever I hear that, two questions immediately come to mind:
1. Were you working out the entire time?
2. How long do you think you can keep it up and devote that kind of time to an individual workout?

In most cases, the people who say they live in the gym either aren't using their time wisely or they're working out so hard for so long, they'll probably burn out and eventually give up the gym entirely.

If you're doing some strenuous outdoor activity such as kayaking, tennis or 3-on-3 basketball, then devoting an hour isn't such a big deal. The activity takes whatever time the activity takes. But when you're in the gym, you should always put efficiency at the top of your list of goals. Why spend 30 minutes running on a treadmill when you can do sprint intervals in 10 minutes and possibly get more of a benefit? Why do four sets of bench presses followed by four sets of bent-over rows when you can alternate the push/pull sets of benching and rows and complete the eight sets in half the time? Why do a set of lunges and then a set of dumbbell curls when you can combine them into one exercise?

The point is to get in and get out because, and this is a sobering fact, you have to do it again tomorrow or the next day or the day after that and keep doing it for the rest of your life. I realize most people don't think this way, but the only finish line in fitness is the permanent one. That's why I invented the 20-in-20 workout. It's a way to train the entire body for golf in just 20 minutes, plus raise your metabolism, lose weight and avoid injuries. Whether or not you do the 20-in-20, it should serve as a reminder that gym time should be efficient time. Not only will this make exercising more challenging, but it also will keep you from getting burned out from spending too much time working out. Think of exercising like brushing your teeth. It's a daily habit you do your entire life.

To get you started on a more efficient workout, click on the video below to see me demonstrate an exercise that trains several muscle groups.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photo by Dominic Chavez/Getty Images)

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Fitness Friday: Mr. Energy On The Back Nine

Friday, March 15, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

There's a reason your opponent offered you a hot dog and a soda at the turn. He knows you're going to be a sloth by the 16th tee. PGA Tour fitness advisor Chris Noss, who works with players like Rickie Fowler and Zach Johnson, says golf is a bursts-of-energy sport as well as an endurance test. Your muscles are called upon for power, but they also have to keep your body going for hours. Noss offers these tips:

1. EAT SMART
Lean-protein, high-fiber meals before the round will help sustain your energy and prevent crashing, the feeling of fatigue brought on by simple-carbohydrate foods, such as bread, pretzels, sugary snacks, etc.

Related: The 10 Worst Things To Eat Or Drink When You Play

2. DRINK WATER
Lots of it. And if you want to take supplements during a round, any drinks with amino acids can help your energy. But eating a lot of fiber and drinking water will suffice for keeping muscles working properly.

3. DO CARDIO
Add it either before or as part of a strength-training routine. To do it during your routine, reduce the amount of rest between your sets. You want to move at a pace slightly more intense than you feel is comfortable, but you don't want to go so fast that the quality of your form deteriorates. This combined routine will simulate the physical requirements of playing 18 holes, especially if you walk.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.
Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Illustration by Mark Matcho)

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Fitness Friday: Get a jump on your tee shots

Friday, March 8, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

As a kid, you'd jump over sidewalk cracks, puddles, the pile of toys you were too lazy to clean up. So what happened? You're 52 now, and you couldn't clear a deck of cards. Your lack of jumping ability is not only a sign of age, it's the reason you've lost 15 yards.

"Golfers who can jump are not only able to store and deliver power, they also have better synchronicity in their swings," says fitness expert Mark Verstegen, author of Core Performance Golf.

Verstegen doesn't mean learn to dunk. Leaping just six to 24 inches during workouts would improve many golfers' swings. Try this: Get into your setup, and do six jumps onto a short platform, landing on both feet. Remove the platform, and do six more, landing on one leg. Then do six jumps and make a 90-degree turn in the air, landing on both feet. Finally, make six 90-degree turn-jumps landing on one leg. The key is a smooth takeoff and clean landing.

To see three jumps you should add to your workout, click on the video below.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.
Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Illustration by Alison Seiffer)

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Fitness Friday: Be A Multi-Plane Athlete

Friday, March 1, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Walk into any commercial gym in your neighborhood and spend a few minutes watching people exercise. Forget about the people on cardio machines, and pay no attention to sloppy form or unusual grunting sounds. What I want you to observe is how people are exercising. See any common threads?

You might not notice it at first, but almost all gym goers do exercises that move the body up and down or backward and forward. While no one would ever question the validity of doing lunges and push-ups this way, if you aren't moving your body in other planes of motion, then you are really missing key components of total-body fitness. This is especially true if you are training for golf.

Not only does the body move in straight lines back and forth and up and down, but it also moves from side to side and it can rotate. Think of your golf swing and how your body winds and unwinds. How your hips shift. How your trunk turns back and through to the target. How your knees flex and straighten. Knowing this, does it make sense to only exercise in straight lines?

Ben Shear, a rock star of golf fitness, trains his elite-level players on the PGA Tour (Jason Day, Luke Donald, Webb Simpson) to move their bodies in multiple planes. You can take almost any exercise that is done linearly and add other planes of motion. One example would be jumps. You should jump forward, jump up, jump to your side and jump and rotate into another direction all in the same workout.

To see Ben demonstrate another basic exercise that can be beefed up, click on the video below.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photo by Getty Images)

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