Stretches For Better Golf
 

Golf is a fun and challenging sport that can be enjoyed, and improved upon, over a lifetime if we assume responsibility for our structural health. Flexibility exercise are a primary key to good posture, healthy joints, and superior play.

The modern benchmarks for exercise are sweating, fatigue, getting out of breath, covering a lot of distance, or moving a lot of weight. I propose that a balanced program (and healthy joints) require that you learn the mechanics that allow muscles to stretch and recover. It’s hard to feel satisfied with physical changes that are measured in millimeters so it’s an easy program to neglect. Just remember, stretching improves the quality of the relationship between your muscles and your bones (and your brain) and simply cannot be rushed or forced.

Create a few minutes a day in the privacy of your own home and at your convenience but commit to a specific time. I often suggest that you keep the exercises near a TV and do them while you listen to the evening news. Exercise patience and consistency and over time you will enjoy profound, continual improvement.

Check with your doctor before you execute these or any other exercise movements.


Inner Thigh: Lie on the floor with your feet together. Let your inner thighs relax so your knees open slowly. Hold 30-120 seconds. Don’t worry if one knee is higher. To end; push your legs together with your hands remaining relaxed in the inner thigh. (Follow with a torso twist from some of the earlier posts)

Shoulder Stretch: Lie on floor keeping your back flat, elbows straight and lift one arm off the floor and create 90-120 degree angle.Keep your elbow straight and imagine that you will place the back of your hand on the floor above your head. Allow your arm to move over further as your range of motion improves. Move each arm 3 times and hold for 10-30 seconds each time.

Wall Clock: Place the palm of your hand on a wall above your head and stand erect with your heels touching the baseboad. Draw your shoulders down and keep your elbows straight as if your hands are at 12:00. Stretch your arms open to 1:00 and 11:00 and hold for 10 seconds at each position through 6:00. Reverse. To end; take one step back, bring your arms to your side. Keep your arms stretched out and your back erect. Advance the movement after a couple of weeks by rotating your hand so that the back of your hand is on the wall and your thumb is facing forward. This can be a surprisingly intense exercise so expect improvements to be slow and you may need to wait a couple of weeks to add it into the program.

Merry Christmas, Vickie Lake
 

Thanks for the article and s-t-r-e-t-c-h exercises, Vickie. Merry Christmas!

How long to hold a stretch?
 

Vik,

I notice you advise to hold stretches for extended periods of time.

I've heard many conflicing opinions on how long to hold a stretch. The personal trainer at my club says 15 seconds is optimal. When I was in physical therapy for my back I was told 30 seconds is minimum for the muscle to truly respond to a stretch. I have a good friend who teaches martial arts and he told me I should be holding my stretches for 90 seconds. My nephew who is a gymnast also holds stretches for lengthy periods.

I know from experience that 15 seconds doesn't give me much progress. Holding for 30 seconds certainly has been working better. But now I'm seriously thinking of going to 90 seconds or more.

I'm curious on your thoughts and if there is any science to this?


Thanks!

For the sake of clarification, you're facing the wall, or facing away from the wall? For some reason, I'm drawing a blank as far as visualizing this movement.

Bigwill, I hope when you put your heels agains the baseboard you are facing away from the wall. If you can pull off some other position, I wanna watch.

Trig, The enzymatic activity that responds to exercise information and tells the muscle to let go in a stretch takes up to 20 seconds to reach maximal. So you're right, 15 seconds barely lets the muscle fibers begin to respond. I typically start my people with 30 seconds and build up to 60-90 seconds ( in ten second intervals over a few days or weeks) depending on the number of muscles involved in the stretch. But most important is that as you are in the stretch you allow the muscle to continue to stretch. A compound stretch like a torso twist I would just continue to let my body stretch for a full minute from the very beginning. For more isolated muscle stretches like a hamstring stretch or a shoulder stretch I suggest the first stretch position for 30+ seconds and then try to take yourself into the stretch another milimeter for another 30 seconds and then one more intentional effort for 30 seconds. At the most extreme position you should still not be grimmicing and you should be able to come out of it slow and clean. If you are pulling into the stretch so hard you can barely stand it you are probably at risk for injury and surely at risk for some soreness. Consistency, as in most things in life and exercise, is more important that deep intensity. That's why we suggest you do it everyday. It seems a little conflicting but your intention is more important than large and fast improvements but you must be on the clear edge of your ability always to continue to enjoy the results.

If you find that you have a huge discrepency between your right and left sides then I suggest you stretch the weaker side first, then to the second side and then back to the weaker side for an additional look at the function. I have some permanent disabilities and use this approach every second or third streth day. I also use it in my strength training.

Let me add that breathing is critical. In strength and cardio work you are forced to breathe. But in stretching it's easy to get into shallow breathing or holding your breath. The oxygen delivered to your muscles is still necessary to create the energy to do this work. I'm not talking about short intense HEE-Hee-Hee, like in birthing, but long slow inhales and exhales. Remember I consider stretching to be a part of your strength training. The muscle contracts for power and elongates as it antagonize the contracting muscle to keep the joints open and safe.

Finally let me suggest that the hardest thing about stretching is to get into the position and then let go in the muscle while the rest of your body does the work of keeping you in position. The concept of letting go is harder to implement than you might imagine.

Happy Stretching. Vik

Thanks
 

Thanks Vickie for the stretching tips. I have a lot to do in 2006 regarding my hamstrings. I hate, hate, hate stretching them. I like to make all kinds of excuses for not doing it as well. ;)

Facing Vickie
 

Facing Vickie in cyberspace is one thing.

Facing Vickie in person is...

Well...

Humbling.

Vickie Lake -- an Internet 'Freebie' -- Big Time
 

Check out her many posts in this forum and read:

Vickie Lake in concert.

Today I went to the local Barnes and Noble and flipped through book after exercise book.

Nothing...repeat...nothing...comes close to what Vickie is offering at no cost to our members.

Thanks Yoda for your kind words and acknowledgement of the work I have developed over nearly 25 years of fitness tutoring.The approach I take to training for all applications of fitness is much more commited to specificity and isolation than in most exercise formats. The energy and attention you bring to the work is the real magic, however, and results are more dependent on application and compliance than the information.

Trig, Hamstrings are are probably the most complicated stretch to accomplish because of the condition of the spine which comprises the top of the hip relative to the muscle attachments below the hip. Since the hamstring attaches to the bottom of the hip joint your success is really about balancing the tension above the hip.

If you cannot sit on a bench and stretch your leg out directly in front of your hips and then sit up straight, creating a right angle, then your hamstring work will feel less than exciting. So I recommend this as your first order of business when it comes to hamstring flexibility. Bending over to touch your nose to your knee is a moot point if the right angle is inaccessible.

So sit on a bench, as described above, and place your hands around the bench for support. Keep your leg stretched completely. As you begin to lift your chest and back straight you will feel your knee beginning to want to bend. Don't allow this and only lift as far as you can with your leg straight and, again, with real tension but no great pain or grimmicing. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and then try to lift a little higher, and repeat once more. Now and only now that you've accomplished all you can then round and reach out of your low back to take your hands toward your ankles. Keep your eyes looking at the ankle as well. Remember to breath. Usually people tell me their arms aren't long enough, it really feels this way, but it's not true. Repeat on the other leg and then if you have time do both legs again while they are in a state of compliance. It may take some time before you can create the straight (neutral back) complete with the natural curvatures of your spine including your lordosis, the curve of the low back.

A secondary, yet major, impediment to hamstring alignment is a little muscle called the periformis. The periformis muscle attaches between the sacrum and the top of your leg bone. The least complicated way to get to this muscle is as follows:
After you've finished your hamstring stretch sit up and bend that knee to place the outside of your ankle on the bench in front of you. Your instep will be toward the ceiling. Straighten your back once more and try to lean toward your ankle. This will create a sensation under your buttocks. Hold this position for 30 seconds and then continue to try to enjoy the stretch twice more for 30 second intervals. Another way to get into this muscle, and I have people that do it at their desks, is to put your ankle on the opposite knee in a seated position. Lift your back and lean toward your ankle again.

Don't be afraid to move your torso slowly and in various angles to get your best stretch. Every body is different based on genetics and life experience so let yourself explore your own perfection; ok not so perfect yet.

Remember consistency and patience. Let me know if this is clear enough for you and also how you are progressing.

Vik

All too clear!
 

Thanks Vickie...and you guessed it. I'm the person who cannot sit on a bench with their leg straight. I actually have to lean backwards in that position. Sad but true! Anyway, I'm committed to make this better in '06 and have started already.