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So STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING, stand up and do a squat………

How did go? What did you do?  Most people think a squat is just bending your knees and standing back up.  While fundamentally that is what it looks like, there is a ton of muscle work that goes into that one exercise.   The exercise allows for strengthening and stretching of the power muscles in your body.

So here are some tips to improve your squat.

1)      Keep your knees in line with your ankles, do not let them pass your toes

2)      Contract your stomach the entire exercise

3)      Act as if you are sitting into a chair

So those are simple tips to keep safe while squatting.  To utilize the squat even more do weight less squats and go down as far as you can.  If you cannot keep your feet flat, balanced from standing to a crouch and back up, then there are other issues that you need to work on.  The area that you need to look for is ankle mobility, knee stability, core stability, and hip mobility.

1. The ability to not trip over your own feet
2. Keeping your feet settled through the whole swing
3. Not falling forward or backward in your swing
4. Being able to stand on one foot
5. A good looking checkbook

All of them are correct and there is always a joker in the crowd as well.  So before I explain Hio Golf Fitness definition of balance I want you to think about the question…WHAT IS BALANCE?

Balance is the complete coordination of all the elements of your body performing a particular function in perfect harmony.

Huh?

1. Complete Coordination: Coordination is your body’s ability to perform a task that the brain tells the body to perform in a synchronized manner.
2. All Elements of your Body: From your head to your feet, from your skin to your muscles to all organs of your body.
3. Perfect Harmony: From thought to finish the activity is like a well directed symphony

So balance in the golf world is getting everything from thought of the swing to the follow through on the swing after contact.  This is achieved in hundreds of different ways since the body has millions of different activity going into each swing.

Let’s Start with a simple tip:

1)      Picture your swing and the result of the swing before you do it.

2)      Create breathing pattern for the swing. It should be the same for every swing.

3)      Practice proprioceptive balance: This is knowing where your joints are in space.

1. Brush your teeth with the opposite hand
2. Balance on one leg while waiting in line at the grocery store
3. Tie your shoes with your eyes closed

4)      If you have balancing disc or a bosu ball, practice balance in this proprioceptive enriched environment

5)      HUGE TIP: When on the golf course leave every other than golf off the course (unless of course you are using the golf course as a business meeting or date)

Once you have mastered these tips it is of utmost importance to make sure each of your organs are working harmoniously as well, most importantly the nervous system.  So do your sue diligence and allow balance into your life.

Anyone who has hit a ball wrong knows the feeling of the ping that can run up the shaft of the club into your hands.  After watching this video after the initial awe effect of the ball being deformed I began to run through a list of thoughts I had running through my head.  Some golf related, some injury related, some chiropractic related and some personal training related.

1. If you watch how deformed this ball goes you have to wonder what it looks like coming off of your club right?  If that is this is what occurs to some variety at the point of impact with the club, imagine what it looks like if you do not hit the ball square or if you hit the ball with a spin.  The change in shape of the ball can be projected into how it is going to react during ball flight.
2. What is occurring to your body during the swing and contact with the ball?  If you understand thafor every action there is a reaction, then you see that even though the ball is tiny and weighs very little it transmits a force back up into the club to the body.  Where does that force stop? It stops at the weakest point.  And like a finger print that is individualized to the person swinging the club.
3. The Weakest point can be the hands, wrist, elbow, shoulder, back, knees, articulations/joints between the vertebrae and the skull.  All can be detrimental to the golf after repetitive swings.  Whether it takes one swing or years of swing the force into the body will find a weakness if it is not protect and/or routinely checked.

THE ABSOLUTE BEST PLACE TO START IS GETTING THE SKULL VERTEBRAE ARTICULATIONS CHECKED.  If your weakness is a this critical spot in your body imagine what other effects can occur.

Before you go out and swing the club today make sure to find the most important specialist in your area that can protect you from your weak spots.  www.thespecific.com is a great place to start.

Golfers rarely are told to take a knee while practicing.  In fact most golfers are not worried that their knees will ever be a problem.  We hear about backs, shoulders, but rarely about the knee.  The stress that golf puts on the knee can affect a golfer’s performance when pain is involved.  About 8 to 12 percent of all golf injuries are in fact knee injuries.  The stress put into the golfer’s knee occurs in many ways.  The back swing puts added stress on the back knee, the torsion and backward motion puts stress on both ligaments and meniscus.  The downswing puts added compression stress on both knees.  The forward swing puts stress on the front knee (assuming you are getting up on your back toe).  If your back foot is staying planted throughout the swing you are putting a ton of stress on the back knee.

So what does a golf knee injury look like? It can occur in one poor swing, one perfect swing, or many swings over time.  The more common injuries seem to occur after one swing but it was actually the accumulation of tiny injuries that added up to one dramatic one.

To protect your knee first and foremost strengthen the muscles around the knee.  Second make sure the muscles of the calves, hips, and lower back are flexible and strong through the golf swing.  You do not want to have undue stress on your knees because you have poor ankle mobility.

Most importantly if you feel symptoms in your knee be sure to “take a knee” and reevaluate and rest for a period of time so you do not know yourself out of playing for longer than needed.

ACA – Chiropractic Advice for Moms-to-Be.

Where do you find the tricks and tips to drop your handicap, increase yardage, or just plane feel better about playing?

One Simple answer: THE BRAIN!

If your brain is properly communicating to all its parts you are your great chance to improve and take it to the next level. Your brain has to not only control the thoughts of yardage, wind, club, ball lie, etc it also has to control muscle contraction, rotation, weight shifts, and while doing all that is still has to keep your heart beating, lungs breathing, and more.   The brain is so important so why not make sure it is working at its highest, so you can take your game to the next level.

What is the nervous system?  The nervous system is a dynamic set of cells that carry the carry messages from the brain to the body and messages from the body to the brain.   When I say set

of cells I am talking in the millions of cells.  Each cell have

not only the ability to communicate back a forth to one another but to trillions for cells throughout the entire body.   All this communication can be adapted both for good or t

he bad.

Nervous System

So how do we make changes to the nervous system?

1. 1. Make sure the nervous system is functioning at its highest potential: The nervous system can have altered signals through fixations, leading for poor biomechanics of upper cervical spine, ultimately leading to poor communication back and forth.   Make sure you find a qualified Doctor to be sure that your nervous system is function and properly adaptive.
2. 2. Put the correct adaptive input into the nervous system: There are lots of practitioners that say they can improve golf swing based on x, y and z without ever first checking the nervous system.  And there are people that check the nervous system that do not know the ins and outs of a golf swing.  There are very few practitioners worldwide that do both.   The correct adaptive input isn’t just fixing the muscular imbalances based on simple test, nor is it practicing the golf swing hundreds and hundreds of times.   The correct adaptive input focuses on restoring optimal function as well as working on swing and muscular imbalances.
3. 3. Muscle memory: The concept that muscles have memory is based on the neurological input back and forth from the brain.  In the beginning tasks are difficult and require more over brain power and nervous system energy.  As we practice correctly in an optimal environment less and less over all brain power is needed.  This is muscle memory when your brain basically gives away its attention to the muscle and can focus elsewhere like wind conditions, pin placement, and shutting out distractions. 

When looking to make changes to your golf swing make sure you get your nervous system consciously involved by making sure it is optimally functioning.

I had a day off this weekend and I was excited to hit the greens for the first time in quite awhile but I am a fair weather and did not play because of the rain.  I decided to work on improving my shoulder range of motion.   I tend to notice in myself a lack of external rotation in my shoulders and I do not want to injure myself and I would like more distance…sound familiar.

TOP 3 Shoulder Injuries

1)      Supraspinatous Tendinitis: One of the rotator cuff muscles that helps raise the arm over the head from the side.  This muscle is extremely loaded in the golf swing in both the concentric and eccentric phases.  Since it is a small muscle it has a tendency to get over worked leading to a tendinitis injury.

2)      Labral Tear: The labrum is like a saran wrap tissue that encapsulates the shoulder joint.  This injury is typically seen in a sand trap and/or hitting the ball overly fat.  The shoulder joint gets jarred and the sheath tears. 

3)      Bicep Tendinitis:  Similar to the first injury noted this is an over use injury.  The bicep is a two jointed muscle and this creates great possibility for over stressing the tendons.  This injury typically is symptomatic in the front of the shoulder. 

*Top 5 Exercises

1)      External rotation: With a light weight or band lock your elbow into your side start with your hand at your belly button and move till it slightly passes your body. Repeat 10 to 12 times. 

2)      Sword in and out of opposite pocket

3)      Palm up front raises

4)      Rows

5)      Thumb up 45 degree raises

As you begin to perfect these exercises you can slowly increase the weight.   These exercises are to increase and strengthen your shoulder joint not to bulk you up. 

Hopefully us fair weather players can get on the course soon.