The foundation of a good golf swing is strong support. The foundation of the support must be well maintained to ensure stability and transfer power from the lower body through the hips and up to the upper body. The strong foundation protects the joints and supports tissues against torsion, shear, and compression forces experienced during the golf swing. A weak foundation can lead to poor posture and imbalance in the muscles.
We were often stuck at school, hunched over the desk for most of our lives. After finishing school, we start our careers. We find ourselves sitting in our cars all day, or in poorly-designed chairs in front of computers. As we age, our hips become tighter and more relaxed. Bad posture and imbalanced muscles can reduce musculoskeletal efficiency, which in turn affects communication between the neuromuscular systems. The activation threshold of short tight muscles is lower, which means they can fire during times they shouldn’t be active. Increased neural control of opposing muscles is reduced by over activation of dominant muscle. Simply stated: “when one muscle becomes tight and overactive its opposing muscle becomes loose and lazy.”A chain reaction of dysfunction can be started when dominant hip flexors are tightened.
Excessive curvature of your lumbar spine can be caused by tight hipflexors. In this way, the abdominal wall’s muscles are weaker and longer while those of the lumbar spine become shorter and tighter. Also, this can cause disruption to our body’s system for lateral stabilization. The pelvis stabilizes itself during lateral movements by the hip abductors. This lateral stabilization system is inefficient and can hinder proper weight shifting through the golf swing. What we have is a weak hip extension (gluteal muscles), dominant hip flexors not allowing the hips to turn fully, spinal flexors too tight to perform the job of weak hip extendors but they aren’t tight enough to give a complete rotation and an inability to maintain consistent good ball contact. Golfers spend hours driving the range, thereby enhancing and strengthening their dysfunctional patterns. Do you see why the average golf score hasn’t fallen in decades?
We must establish coordinated muscle firing among deep stabilizing abdominal, hip flexors und extensors. Hip abductors are adductors. Spinal flexors (rotators), extensors. This is necessary to end this cycle of dysfunction. It is possible to activate and strengthen weak or inhibited muscle groups, as well as stretch the dominant and tight muscles. These muscles can be re-educated so that coordinated muscle firing is possible. Then, it’s time to work on optimal strength.
It is important to develop deep abdominal and pelvic muscle. Mastering the abdominal brace will help you do this. This abdominal brace is different from traditional abdominal training, which encourages “abdominal hollowing”Also known as: The “draw in” maneuver. The “draw in”We are instructed to draw or pull our stomach buttons toward our spines. Studies have shown that drawing in can actually decrease abdominal activation as well as decrease lumbar-pilic-hip stability. Abdominal brace refers to an isometric contraction, meaning that abs can be pulled in and pushed out. As it provides the base for lumbar, pelvic and hip stability, this maneuver should always be at the beginning of any exercise. This exercise will teach you how to do this move and help to re-educate your lower abdominal wall.
Abdominal Brace
Place your feet on the ground and place your knees in a bent position.
You can brace your abdomens and tighten them as though you are going to punch someone in the stomach.
Retire to your relaxed state and then repeat the process.
These are some tips
Control Movement is key. These exercises should not be performed with your legs extended (hip flexors or gluteals). Instead, contract the abdominals by simply contracting them. To feel the contraction of the abdominal wall, place your hand on the belly button.
o Your neck and shoulders should not be strained.
The abdominal brace should not be limited to exercises. The abdominal brace can be used for all activities (sitting or driving, playing golf, and so on). This will give you the strength your abs require to support your back.
Research presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 51st Annual Meeting showed that those who have strong hip muscles are less handicapped and can drive farther than those who lack them. The reason for this is because the pelvis and hip muscles play an important role in stabilizing the trunk, transferring force from the upper body to the legs and arms and helping with the swing. This allows the body to respond to and counteract rapid rotational forces. As we know, many golfers inhibit their hip extensors, and have tight, dominant lumbarflexors. Our spines are not built to handle a golf club, even under the most favorable of conditions. We compound this problem by forcing our spinal muscles, instead of the hip extensors that power the swing through the club, to handle the work of the spine. Due to their inability to strengthen or grow, the spine extensor muscle is unable perform the task. This leads to a high incidence of lower back injury and overuse injuries. To allow the hip extensors do their work, we must reduce our lumbar extension muscles.
Bird Dog exercises are effective in helping to develop stability, coordination, and strength of spine. This type of exercise can be achieved by learning how to maintain it. “neutral”spine It does not necessarily mean that you should be straight. Instead, neutral means to allow natural curves. This is crucial to enable the spine to work properly and allow movement to take place in an unassisted manner. A cue from the golf club that measures the length of your spine allows you to assess the position and correct any problems. Three points must be within reach of the club shaft: the bottom of the head and middle of the back. You should see concave areas at the neck, lower back and middle of your pelvis.
Dog 1
Place your body on your knees and place a golf ball along your spine.
Begin by bracing your abdominals. Next, slowly lift one hand off the ground and then raise the other. Keep this position for 5-10 seconds.
– Return to the starting position or alternate sides.
These are some tips
o All 3 points of contact must be maintained by the club (head, back and pelvis).
After mastering Dog 1, you are ready to move on to the next step. Dog 2 includes hip extension and shoulderflexion. This is a very efficient exercise to re-establish efficiency in the extensor chain (hip and lumbar extensors)
Dog II
Place your body on your knees and place a golf ball along your spine.
Begin by bracing your abdominals and gradually extending one arm straight in front, (thumb up), and the opposite leg behind.
o Continue holding for 5-10 seconds, then switch sides.
These are some tips
o All 3 points of contact must be maintained by the club (head, back and pelvis).
o Don’t allow your hips or legs to turn.
Dog 2’s key is to not allow your lumbar extensors fire while you are doing this move. The bridge is an exercise that will further test the hip extensors after you have completed Dog 2. This bridge increases the resistance to hip extension movements by adding body weight. It also challenges and strengthens deep stabilizers such as the lumbar-pelvic complex.
The Bridge
Place your hands on the sides of your chest and place your arms at your sides.
Begin by bracing your abdomen and squeezing your gluteals (buttocks). Next, raise your hips to a bridge position. Immediately stop and go back to the starting position.
These are some tips
o Keep your feet flat.
o You should initiate this movement with your hips, not the spinal extensor muscular; there shouldn’t be any pressure on the lower back.
o Ensure that abdominal and gluteal muscles contract throughout your entire movement.
To lengthen your muscles and strengthen your support base, it is essential to use a great stretching program. Apart from the hip flexors mentioned above, the hip flexions and the lumbar extensors are other common tight areas among golfers. These include the neck muscles, shoulder internal rotators, and the upper trapezius (upper trapezius) and levator capulae scapular elevators. An expert strength and conditioning professional or golf fitness specialist can give you a biomechanical and postural analysis to provide more detail about your needs. You can increase your distance and control your game, which will help to prevent and reduce injury and pain related to the golf swing.