How yoga helped my golf game!

Posted In: Golf May 16th, 2015 divider No Comments »

It shouldn’t be a big surprise to you that I’m a big fan of yoga. And it’s obviously helped me connect with my body and helped me as a runner. Now I’m here to sing its praises for golf folks!

A lot of people think golf is a game of power but I can re-assure you it’s not. It’s mostly about flexibility and stability. Yes you need to move your body around to make the ball go somewhere but I don’t think power lifting will really help the average golfer, in fact it will most likely hinder it.

As a TPI certified fitness professional and ChiRunning instructor, I would venture that I look at biomechanics differently than the average golfer. You soon realize it’s all about getting the right kinetic chain to fire in the right sequence.

Yoga has really helped my game. Flexibility has never been my forte. I’m not sure if it will be but I’m working on it on a weekly basis at least, mostly through yoga. I’m adding a lot of twists and hip exercises to get me to the full range of motion. And I do a lot of work in my den in the dead of winter!

I see a lot of golfers who try to do the right thing but can’t physically do it since they don’t have the flexibility or the full range of motion. The golf pros can make them work on a drill a 1000 times but they will never be able to do it. It doesn’t help that we sit a lot and we tend to get stiffer as we age and golf is a sport mostly practiced by the older quadrant of the population.

Now it’s all about getting my body in the right spot and repeating it time and time again. And being aware of what I’m doing or not doing.

It doesn’t have to hurt, but you should be getting in positions you want to, a bit at a time. Baby steps!