Your phone rings: the all-important first round of the season. You rush from your car to the first tee. (two bends from the waist to your toes, a few practice swings, and a deep breath) You tee off. “By hole 3 or 4 your body has warmed up and you are feeling good, (two pars) but by hole 14 or 15 fatigue starts to set in (slice into the trees) and your body mechanics are no longer as strong. (lost ball, three bunkers, one lake) By 16, 17, 18 you’re fatigued to the point where you may not notice that your body’s definitely struggling.” (dribbling putts) Next morning, you ache. “Or perhaps the fatigue in a muscle will lead to a muscle strain or an overuse injury.” Sound familiar?

“Flexibility is key,” Sports Trainer Tigre Garcia explains. “The more flexible you are, the better your game will be and the more power you will have. Build your core strength, abdominal and lower back muscles.” According to Garcia, the golf season is 12 months per year, and part of that is off-course.

Armed with a B.S. in Athletic Training, Garcia keeps Bellarmine Preparatory School’s 600 student-athletes swinging, hitting, kicking, and running all the way to Washington state 4A Championships for Golf, Cross Country, Tennis, and  Soccer.

Angela Stanford at the Safeway Classic

Injuries

What about the weekend golfer? Garcia responds, “lower back injuries can stem from reaching over and picking up a ball or a club instead of bending at the knees.”

A common injury he sees is “a sprained ankle caused by losing balance or landing on an opponent.” Fortunately not the typical problem we face on the course. Garcia’s take on young athletes, “I like working with students. They have the attitude to get fixed and get back out there.”

Adult golfers seem to avoid help until their injuries are chronic.

Dr. Wendell W. Adams M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon of Rainier Orthopedic adds the shoulder, elbow, and Achilles to the list of most common complaints. “People tend to be very tight. They don’t have elasticity in their muscles. The repetitive overuse of muscles causes injury.”

How can this be avoided? Our bodies respond to stress. The more you do something, the better the body will be at it. “Golfers often don’t realize that if they would strengthen their legs, they would have a stronger swing.”

Curves International Area Directors Tom and Valerie Waitley oversee the 850 fitness clubs from British Columbia to Manitoba, and from Washington to California where more than 250,000 women build flexibility and muscles.

“Increased strength will improve distance on your drives and give more control.” Valerie Waitley says, “but until you are flexible, your swing will be neither natural nor fluid.”

 
Eddie Brewer PT AT of Summit Physical Therapy sees neck, back, and knee injuries. “The knee doesn’t take rotational stresses very well. You plant your foot and all forces are transmitted through your knee. Your knee is not designed to take lateral forces. It’s a straight hinge.” Weeks of rehabilitation and force reduction braces play an integral role in musculoskeletal recovery.

Northwest golfer, Raymond C. Schuler, experienced long rehabilitation. He dislocated his shoulder and tore his humerous in a February 2003 skiing mishap. After surgery, a six month four times daily rehabilitation program carried him through August. Able to swing a club in late April, he played his way into the Championship flight of the May 2003 PNGA Master40, made the cut at the Oregon Open in June, was co-medalist U.S. Mid-Am in September, and returned home to defend his title for the Tacoma Country & Golf Club Championship. Schuler believes that his running schedule of 12 miles per week plus pushups and calisthenics allowed for such a fast recovery.

Strength, Cardio and Stretching
Year-round fitness is the only way to build strength so your lower back supports, shoulders rotate, and knees flex consistently throughout your swing.

What does a strength training type program like Curves do to enhance your golf game? “Our hydraulic resistance circuit includes strength training and cardio in thirty minutes for a symmetrical workout.” Tom Waitley, a former high school golf coach, explains. “Stretching after a strength building activity increases the effectiveness and receptiveness of those muscles by 19%.”

Sorry gentlemen, Curves is women-only but the Waitleys recommend that men working out at a gym should include every major muscle group and “build endurance with cardio so you won’t be out of breath and out of swings by the 18th hole.”
 
To improve your game, off season training is crucial. If you want to be stronger for next year, continue from the fitness level you ended last season and build. “Golf injuries are easy to avoid,” Schuler advises. “Stay in shape and stretch, stretch, stretch.

Adams’ thought now that it is Spring? “Stressing the muscles, then giving them time to recover tends to build and strengthen. Play 3 or 4 times per week.

Doctors orders

So start getting into shape and stretching regularly. When that all-important first round of the season phone call comes, you will be ready to play through.

Follow a routine

Stretch for 20 to 30 minutes every day. Warm up prior to sport. Many amateurs go from completely not warmed up to running at 100%. Tom Watson’s daily 45 minute stretching routine, Tiger’s 90 minute workout and Annika’s 500 daily situps are famous.

 
Build strength, flexibility and cardio at least three times per week

 
Maintain a sport simulation activity year round

If you walk and carry your own bag, take only the necessary items and leave the extra 10 pounds of gear in your car.


Bend at the knees not at the waist

If you hear the sands of time crunching while turning your neck, over the counter supplements like Glucosamine and Chondroitin offer relief for arthritic joints

If you hurt yourself, seek medical care

----
Originally published March 2005
Reprinted with permission by PNGA Media
Golf Northwest, Golf B.C., Golf Oregon, Golf Idaho, Pacific Northwest Golfer Magazines