Fitness Friday: The Instruction Blog: Golf Digest

Fitness Friday: Walk this way

Friday, June 14, 2013

Experts say adults should take about 10,000 steps a day to stay healthy. That's child's play for golfers. The average amateur takes roughly 11,000 steps when walking 18 holes. And that doesn't include walking to the range, the clubhouse, back out to the golf course for another nine. Our feet are our lifeblood and it's time many of us take better care of them. One of our editors--Ashley Mayo (@ashleykmayo)--interviewed several experts and compiled a useful guide to foot care for golfers.

Click on the link below to see her article:
Feet First: The Golfer's Foot Guide

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Illustration By Lou Beach )

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: Everything you need to know about interval training

Friday, June 7, 2013

Editor's note: This week we welcome golf-fitness expert Ben Shear to the Golf Digest family. Ben (pictured), who has been a regular contributor to the magazine for several years, recently accepted our invitation to be added to our staff as a Golf Digest Professional Advisor, meaning he'll write golf-fitness articles exclusively for us. If there were a World Golf Fitness Ranking for trainers, Ben would be at the top of list. He is Director of Performance Training at his namesake facility, Ben Shear Golf, in Scotch Plains, NJ and Golf & Body NYC. He trains several players on the PGA Tour, most notably Luke Donald, Jason Day, Webb Simpson and Bo Van Pelt. To give you a taste of Ben's innovative, well-informed knowledge on fitness and biomechanics, I recently asked him for his take on a very popular fitness topic: interval training. Here are his thoughts.
--Ron Kaspriske, Golf Digest Fitness Editor

Q: What is interval training?
A: It's an ambiguous term for any exercise that's performed vigorously for a period of time, followed by a rest or low-intensity cycle, and then another period of intense activity. These alternating cycles are typically 30-60 seconds in duration and the type of activity is usually running, cycling, rowing, etc.

Q: What is the true benefit?
A: It's a very accurate measure of how hard you can work out. You push yourself to the limit and rest for only the amount of time it takes to be able to do the activity again. It's very efficient in that regard.

Q: How about health benefits?
A: One theory behind interval training is that it helps keep your body on "alert status." It prepares you for burst sports such as golf that require an intense amount of activity in a short amount of time. Another theory is that, as opposed to performing an athletic activity at a steady pace, intervals prevent your body from reducing the benefit of the exercise by quickly adapting to the challenge. Another theory is that it raises your resting metabolism and allows you to burn calories and lose weight more efficiently. 'Theory' is the key word here, because fitness experts are still examining the health benefits of interval training. One thing is for sure--you can get a good workout doing intervals in a shorter amount of time than if you were to, say, just run on a treadmill at a steady pace.

Q: Any negatives to intervals?
A: Whenever I hear about people doing them in groups, I just scratch my head. It doesn't make sense if everyone is doing something all out and then resting in the same prescribed amounts of time. One person could be doing these intervals with ease and the next person could be gasping for air with every rep. It's tough to get everyone working as hard as they possibly can, and that's the point of intervals. Another downside is that intervals require a heart-rate monitor. Not necessarily to know when to stop doing whatever you're doing--your body will tell you that--but to know when to start doing it again; when you've rested just enough to do another rep. You need a heart-rate monitor to keep the rest periods from being arbitrary.

Q: If you were running an interval-training class, how would you make sure everyone worked out hard enough?
A: Simple. Instead of setting the reps by time, I'd have them set the duration of reps by their heart rates. No matter who is working out, the person would go all-out for 30 seconds once his or her heart rate rose above 80 percent of its maximum beats per minute. Then I'd have that person rest until the heart rate dropped back down to 65 percent. Then that person would ramp it up again. The duration for each rep simply depends on that person's heartbeat and its capabilities to speed up and slow down.

Q: The 80-65 heart-rate interval makes great sense. Do you use a specific formula to determine a person's heart rate?
A: I like the Karvonen formula instead of the more common age-predicted table you see in a lot of gyms. The difference is that the Karvonen formula takes the varying fitness levels of individuals who are the same age into consideration. It does that by factoring each person's resting heart rate, which is a baseline indicator of physical fitness. The lower it is, the more efficient your heart is, because it's pushing a higher volume of blood with each beat. The formula goes like this: Subtract your age from 220. Then subtract your resting heart rate (beats per minute) from that number. Then multiply that new number by .65 (lowest point of your cardio-training zone) and by .80 (highest point). Finally add the resting-heart-rate number back into the formula to determine the range you want to work with in terms of intervals.

Here's an example: A 50-year-old man subtracts his age by 220 and gets 170. His resting heart rate is 66 so he subtracts that from 170 to get 104. He then multiplies that number by .65 (when rounded up, that number is 68). He then adds his resting heart rate back into the equation so it's 66 added to 68. That equals 134 beats per minute. That's the low end of his cardio-training range. The high end is determined by multiplying .80 to 104. That number, 83, is then added to 66 and the result is 149. So in this example, the 50-year-man would run, swing, cycle, row, etc., as hard as he could for 30 seconds once his heart rate passed 149. He would then rest for however long it took to get his heart rate back down to 134. He then would begin his next high-intensity rep.

The formula looks like this: 220 minus your age; minus your resting heart rate; multiplied by .65 and .80. Then add your resting heart rate to each number.

Look for more from Ben Shear in Golf Digest and also on Fitness Friday.
Follow Ben_Shear

(Photo by iStockphoto)

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: How to avoid lower-back pain

Friday, May 31, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Rickie Fowler is 24 years old, has the flexibility of a rubber band and the hand-eye coordination of a world-class juggler. He also has lower-back pain. Hard to believe someone Fowler's age, with his athletic prowess, could suffer from an ailment that is common for golfers north of 50, but it's true. Some trainers speculate that this issue might be with him his entire career and could keep him from playing a full schedule of events in years to come.

How did Fowler get in this predicament? It's hard to know exactly, though most golfers who suffer from lower-back pain (the lumbar spine region) either swing the golf club in an unusual or awkward manner, or a lack of mobility in the hips and mid-back (thoracic spine region).

Golf Digest fitness advisor Ben Shear (@Ben_Shear), who trains several players on the PGA Tour, says improving mid-back mobility can alleviate any unnecessary torque on the lower back. Same goes for improving hip mobility. When you're in the gym, focus on exercises that improve the range of motion you have in both the mid-back and the hips and you'll help protect yourself against lower-back pain. For the mid-back, something as simple as sitting in a chair with good posture and rotating your trunk in each direction will help. Remember to keep the hips and lower body still. To help your hips, skipping the elevator and taking the stairs will do wonders as will exercises such as lateral squats/lunges and clamshells.

"The lumbar spine does have some ability to rotate," Shear says. "But not nearly as much as the mid-back. That's why it's important to work on mid-back mobility exercises. You ought to be able to rotate your upper body back and forth with minimal rotation of the lumbar spine."

Fowler says he's working hard to correct his issues.

Hear more from him on the subject and how he's trying to fix his problems.

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest.

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photo by Donald Miralle )

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: Warm up to the idea of a warm-up

Friday, May 24, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

Probably the two most frequently asked questions I get when people find out I'm the fitness editor for Golf Digest are: 1. Who are the nicest guys on the PGA Tour? 2. What kind of stretches should I do before I play?

The answer to No. 1 is that there are several really nice guys on tour, and I'd hate to leave anyone off the list who deserves to be on it. The answer to No. 2 is a little more complicated. For starters, I don't believe in doing long-hold stretches. I rarely do them. So when someone asks me what kind of stretches they should do, I almost always reply, "Do you mean what kind of warm-up?"

The difference is subtle but important. What you want are functional, elastic and primed muscles. What you don't want are unresponsive and soft muscles. While no study has ever definitively proven this, it's seems like common sense that the longer you hold a muscle in a stretched position, the more difficult it will be to contract that muscle properly. That's why I've learned over time to use the terms warm-up or movement prep instead of stretching.

If you buy into this theory--and many top fitness experts do--warming up for a round of golf should include activities that incorporate the three planes of movement and focus on key muscle groups needed for a good golf swing. Your body moves in three planes--front to back, side to side and rotationally; and the key muscles used in the golf swing include the hamstrings (back of the thighs), gluteals (butt), quadriceps (front of the thighs), abdominus (stomach, core), scapulae (shoulder blades), supraspinatus/infraspinatus (rotator cuffs) and hip adductors and abductors (inside and outside of thighs and hips). That's a lot to worry about, I know, and it doesn't cover everything.

Rather than worry about all of that, PGA Tour fitness trainer Dave Herman (@athletestrainin) has two dynamic warm-up exercises you can do that will hit many of the muscle groups and also train the body in two of the three planes of movement. Dave, who trains PGA Tour bomber Gary Woodland and former Masters champion Trevor Immelman, is the inventor of SuperFlex resistance bands and equipment (superflexbands.com). If you've never tried his products, I fully endorse them. Not only for their functionality but also their portability. You can stuff a band or two in your golf bag and use them before you play. And one band costs only $5.95.

To see Herman demonstrate his pre-round warm-up, click on the video below. Dave suggests you do 12-20 reps of each exercise before you tee it up.

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

(Illustration by Stuart Bradford )

Keywords:

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.
Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Illustration by Aad Goudappel)

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: Two keys to weight loss

Friday, May 10, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

The sobering reality of weight loss is that you can exercise twice a day, seven days a week and you'll still only have marginal success shedding pounds unless you change your eating habits. Even more sobering is that not all foods and drinks are created equal, so simply eating less of the junk/processed foods you love won't yield the same results as will changing your diet to healthier foods.

That's why, if you're ready to lose weight, you might want consider "subbing." This is not some fad or weight-loss shake. This is the simple craft of substituting foods and drinks you regularly consume with things that are healthier, contain fewer calories and, in some cases, keep the body satiated longer. Obviously, eating less calories will result in weight loss. But how do you overcome your desire for soda, pretzels, bagels, pasta, etc.? You do it by subbing.

Here's a simple example just about anyone can live with: You love hamburgers, right? Who doesn't? Well, instead of the bun, why not eat it wrapped in lettuce? Most hamburger buns are nothing but empty calories you don't need. Shameless plug: At In-N-Out Burger, they call this order "protein style." Try it.

That example is just the start of subs you can make in your normal diet that, once you get used to them, you'll wonder why you didn't make these moves sooner.

Below are a list of common foods and drinks--on the golf course and off--that I've found are great subs for crappy foods and drinks we all get hooked on. Some might seem obvious, and others too tough of a switch, but any subbing is better than none at all. Give it a try and see if, combined with a workout routine, you don't lose weight.

AT HOME
Food --->Sub
Bagels ---> Whole-grain bread (less than 100 calories per slice)
Pasta ---> Beans (cannellini are best)
Soda ---> Sparkling water (flavored or plain)
Ice cream ---> Frozen fruit in low sugar, Greek yogurt
French fries ---> Baked sweet potato fries
Coffee w/ milk and sugar ---> Black coffee or tea
Pretzels ---> Salted edamame
Milk chocolate ---> Dark chocolate (the darker the better)
Ground beef tacos ---> Fish tacos
Sour cream ---> Plain yogurt (Greek is best)
Potato chips ---> Any raw, crunchy vegetables with natural salt
Cereal ---> Oatmeal with fresh fruit
Iceberg lettuce ---> Spinach or mixed greens
Croutons ---> Sunflower or pumpkin seeds
Fried chicken ---> Panko-crusted baked chicken
Ribeye steak ---> Any steak labeled "round"
Vegetable oil ---> Sunflower, canola or olive oil
Salad dressings ---> Olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice
Any sweets ---> Apple with natural peanut butter

AT THE GOLF COURSE
Egg sandwich ---> Egg omelet (veggies)
Pretzels ---> Peanuts (any nuts)
Granola bars ---> Low sugar, nutty nutrition bar
Sports drinks ---> Banana
Hot dog ---> Any non-processed meat sandwich (chicken/fish are best)
Beer ---> Light beer
Diet soda ---> Iced tea (limit sugar as much as possible)

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

(Photos by Getty Images)

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: How To Fix That Aching [Insert Body Part Here]

Friday, May 3, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

I recently spoke with Ralph Simpson, former PGA Tour fitness consultant on the topic of nagging golfer injuries. Ralph's the smartest guy I know when it comes to treating pain without drugs and, in our May issue, he came up with a three-pronged attack to getting rid of common maladies. The dynamics of swinging a club tend to stress specific areas of all golfer's bodies, so it wasn't hard for Ralph to identify at least one problem spot that likely gives you fits.

Whether it's a bad back, sore knees or achy feet, Ralph has a plan for you that will keep you on the course throughout the upcoming summer.

Click here to read his article, "Fix What Ails You."

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Illustration by Brown Bird Design)

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: Mark Wahlberg shares his secrets to staying fit

Friday, April 26, 2013

By Craig Bestrom

Mark Wahlberg pumps more iron than any good golfer I know, but the more important fitness lesson I've learned through playing a few rounds of golf with him is what he eats during a long day on the course.

"Nutrition is 85 percent of getting yourself in shape" says Wahlberg, who maintains the bodybuilder physique you'll see in his new movie "Pain & Gain" (opens today) by eating smart, as well as working out five mornings a week.

Sliced turkey and chicken breasts, veggie wraps, salads, almonds, cashews, pistachios and trail mix were among the tasty treats Wahlberg shared during our back-to-back 10-hour days of golf recently.

"Walking a course like this is definitely good for you," Wahlberg said as a guest for the day at spectacular L.A. (Country Club) North. "Walk when you play and pay attention to what you eat, and any golfer will see fitness benefits."

See my interview with Mark, which appeared in our May issue's "Get Fit" package.

Craig Bestrom is Editorial Development Director for Golf Digest.

Follow @GDCraigeeBee

(Photo by Getty Images)

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: A great exercise to strengthen your knees and eliminate pain

Friday, April 12, 2013

By Stephen Hennessey

Without healthy knees, it's difficult to play as much golf as you want. So what do you do, as you get older in order to keep your knees primed for 18?

Even though you're not jumping or running in this sport, the torque and lower-body rotation necessary to swing the club makes knee health paramount.

We asked Mark Verstegen (@APCoach), founder of Athletes' Performance in Phoenix, for advice for keeping two of the most important joints in your body strong. I caught up with Verstegen this week at the SKLZ & Athletes' Performance event in New York City, as they debuted some new products and discussed the new top-notch training facility they're opening together out in Carlsbad, Calif.

Verstegen stressed the importance of strengthening your knees, even if you're not currently experiencing pain.

Watch the video below to see Mark and AP's Dan Cowan demonstrate a great exercise for all golfers.

Follow @S_HennesseyGD

Interested in purchasing the products seen in this exercise? Click the link here to see the SKLZ Mini Band and the Gold Flex.

Keywords:

Fitness Friday: Train Like Annika

Thursday, April 11, 2013

By Ron Kaspriske

While most people think of Tiger Woods as a leader in golf's fitness movement, he wasn't alone. Annika Sorenstam was hitting the gym just as hard, if not harder, at the turn of the century. Her workouts were legendary including doing things such as dips with a barbell plate hanging from her waist. Yikes.

Annika retired from professional golf at the end of 2008, but she hasn't given up on working out. "I still get to the gym whenever I can," she said. "Use it or lose it."

Annika and her longtime fitness trainer Kai Fusser recently assisted us in providing amateur golfers with a good foundation for a golf workout. Annika demonstrated six exercises that will help train the muscles and nervous system to work in harmony when you swing the club.

Six exercises that will help improve your form

Ron Kaspriske is the fitness editor for Golf Digest

Follow @Ron Kaspriske

(Photos by Stephen Szurlej )

Keywords: