Fitness: The Instruction Blog: Golf Digest

Fitness Friday: A Golfer's Guide To Massages (Not That Kind)

Friday, May 17, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Most amateur golfers think of massages as a way to relax or to put the cherry on top of a great vacation. PGA Tour pros think of massages as a necessity to play golf. Craig Knight, a therapist who gives massages to players such as Luke Donald, Rickie Fowler and Justin Rose, says soft-tissue manipulation allows golfers to utilize the body's full range of motion.

Without a massage, your swing can be restricted, your rhythm and timing might be off and there's an increased chance of pulling or tearing a muscle. Knight spoke to Golf Digest for an article on the do's and don'ts of massages that appears in our June issue.

Read Knight's advice, and also some tips from Golf Digest fitness advisor Ralph Simpson

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.
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(Illustration by Aad Goudappel)

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Fitness Friday: The importance of a well-balanced workout

Friday, April 5, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Muscular imbalance is always an issue for those who play "one-sided" sports. By that, I mean any sport that recruits the muscles on one side of the body far more than the other. Golf falls into this category. It's played asymmetrically and, over time, that imbalance could lead to pain and injury unless compensations are made.

I had a recent discussion with Ben Shear on this topic. Ben (@Ben_Shear) trains several players on the PGA Tour and has to deal with the fact that his clients are much more susceptible to these kind of muscular-imbalance issues simply because of the amount of golf swings they make every week. It reminds me of former PGA Tour player Shingo Katayama (above), who used to warm up on the range before tournaments by hitting right-handed and left-handed shots. He knew that the repetitive motion in only one direction would only make certain muscles a lot stronger than their counterparts on the other side of his body. So he tried to fix that.

Shear says balance in muscle groups not only applies from side to side, but also front to back. Think about your quadriceps (thigh muscles). They need to be strong, but the hamstring muscles on the back of the thighs also need to be strong. With that in mind, doing complimentary "push/pull" exercises where you alternate sets between the two movements is always a good idea. If you are training your chest, you also want to train your back.

To hear Ben explain this concept, click on the video below:

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

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(Photo by Getty Images)

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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

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(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

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(Photo by Dominic Chavez/Getty Images)

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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.
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(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.

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(Photo by Getty Images)

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Fitness Friday: Hitting the gym with Lee Westwood

Friday, February 22, 2013

You don't need to take Lee Westwood's word for it when he says he has made a real commitment to fitness and living healthier. Just look at the difference in photographs of Westwood from early in his career (above left) and now (right). The transformation is noticeable and impressive.

I've been wanting to talk to Westwood about his fitness regime for some time and finally caught up with him earlier this week near Tucson at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. For nearly seven years, he says he has been eating better and exercising more often under the guidance of British fitness expert Stephen McGregor, a Ph.D., in exercise physiology. Here's more of what Lee had to say:

WHAT WAS THE CATALYST FOR YOUR TRANSFORMATION?
When I hit 30 [he's 39 now] I thought maybe I should start doing something. I saw some of the guys getting stronger, hitting it farther. So I wanted to hit it farther, too. Plus I wanted to play this game for a while. It helps when you're fit.

WHAT'S THE MOST YOU'VE EVER WEIGHED?
I've changed my body--replacing fat with muscle. I probably dropped about 12 to 15 percent of my body fat. The heaviest I ever was was about 110 kilos (243 pounds) and I got down to 89 kilos (196). I weigh 93 kilos (205) now.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU WORK OUT?
On an off week, I'll work out five times. On a tournament week, two or three. When I do work out, it's usually for about two hours a session.

WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS?
Shoulders and legs. You get lots of shoulder problems in golf and I've also had a leg injury in the past. I think it's important to strengthen as much as possible in the areas you use the most. We work on everything, though.

DO YOU DO CARDIO?
I do a lot. I do seven miles, five times a week ... on the golf course. I don't tend to do any cardio other than that. I mainly stick to weights, although I might do a 10-minute warm-up of cardio.

DO YOU USE SUPPLEMENTS?
My trainer tries to keep me on a pretty good diet so I get all I need from food. I have a milk shake or smoothie after I work out to try and get some protein in my body--mainly fruit, ice cream or milk, but low fat.

WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO BE THE BIGGEST BENEFIT OF WORKING OUT IN TERMS OF YOUR GOLF GAME?
I can change my swing a little easier if I need to. My swing also is a little tighter through working out in the gym. I also use my legs to power my swing and strengthening them has helped a lot. I feel I'm very strong in the shoulders, legs and core and that helps provide stability when I swing.

ANY INJURIES OR ISSUES RIGHT NOW?
Nothing.

WHAT DO YOU EAT/DRINK ON THE GOLF COURSE?
I eat nutrition bars, drink water and Gatorade.

FINAL QUESTION, WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON DEER-ANTLER SPRAY?
I don't have a take on it. I have no idea what it is or what it does.

(Photos by Getty Images)

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Fitness Friday: How to Avoid a Back Attack

Friday, February 8, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

If you're an orthopedic doc and just put an addition on your beach house, thank the nearest golfer. The back, particularly the lumbar spine, is a problem for many of us. Golf Digest fitness advisor Ralph Simpson says try these exercises:

Stand with the heels of your hands on top of your buttocks, fingers pointing down, and arch your back until you feel tension. Hold for two seconds, repeat 10 to 15 times.

Sit cross-legged with the ankle of one leg resting on the knee of the other. Grab the knee of the resting leg and pull it toward your opposite shoulder until you feel a stretch. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, then push the knee down until you feel tension in the hip. Hold 30 to 60 seconds, switch legs.

Cross your arms so your fingers touch the opposite shoulder. Turn your torso until the elbow of one arm passes over the opposite thigh. Turn the other direction. Do 10 to 15 rotations.

Lie face down supported by your forearms and toes. Keeping your pelvis higher than your lower back, tighten your abdominals, and hold. Relax and repeat.
Here's a bonus exercise you can do at home or in the office to protect your lower back (watch video below):

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.
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(Illustration by Chris Gash)

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Fitness Friday: Six Exercises To Raise Your Game

Friday, February 1, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

As one of professional golf's top fitness consultants, Ben Shear (@Ben_shear) works often with elite-level athletes. In fact, Jason Day, Luke Donald, Bo Van Pelt and Webb Simpson are among his current clients. But the great thing about Ben is that he never strays away from preaching--and teaching--the fundamentals of golf fitness.

I visited with Ben on Thursday at his new part-time location in midtown Manhattan called Golf & Body. Tom Schiff, CEO and owner of this new, gorgeous, private workout facility, brought Shear in because of his ability to train both rank beginners in fitness and also pro athletes. Schiff knows what I've learned in my workings with Ben--he's not going to have you doing P90x type exercises or box jumps or Olympic lifts until your body can handle the basics.

With that in mind, Shear was the perfect person to ask for six basic exercises that all golfers should be doing. Shear believes that the key to a better golf swing is to first build a more stable body. The more stable you are, the more flexible you can become. These exercises hit the hot spots for golfers--most notably the hips, glutes, shoulders, hamstrings, abs, etc.

See these exercises and get a tutorial on how to perform them >

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.
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(Illustration by Kagan McLeod)

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Fitness Friday: You need strength and power

Friday, January 18, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Picture two boxers. One is a mountain of a man. All muscle. Tall, too. The other is muscular, but much smaller in stature. He looks fit, but you can't help but fear for his life as he steps into the ring. Then the bell goes off. The two meet in the middle and the mountain doesn't waste any time. He winds up his right fist, getting ready to deliver a crushing blow to his smaller opponent. But before he can swing, the smaller fighter reels off three fast, but powerful punches and down goes the big guy.

What just happened? The big guy had all the strength in the world but didn't have the pliability to use that strength to his advantage. And while the little guy didn't have nearly the amount of strength as his opponent, he did have the capability to effectively use what strength he possessed. That's the difference between strength and power--and golfers need both.

You need strength to stabilize your body when you swing. Otherwise, you'd fall off balance often and leave your frame susceptible to injury. But you also need power to deliver the club with enough energy to launch it off the tee, or cut through a swath of sand, or escape deep rough.

Your body has more than one type of muscle fiber. Some contract and expand faster than others. Just look at the lower bodies of sprinters and compare them to marathon runners. If all you ever do is train slow-twitch muscles, as many distance runners do, you'll never be able to explode out of the blocks the way a sprinter can.

So when you hit the gym, you should be thinking in terms of strength training and power training, says Golf Digest fitness advisor Randy Myers, who works with several PGA Tour players. Myers spoke to me about this topic and offered up six exercises that help develop strength and power in our February issue (Read: Fitness: Strength vs. Power).

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

(Illustration by Christian Northeast)

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