Great responses on all of your posts physioguy. I especially like that you recognize that the body is enormously correctable.
In response to your TGC report I can tell you that it couldn't possibly be more abstract. Working almost exclusively with golfers over the last ten years has gleaned that there is no such thing as a specific generality. I would certainly not say that medial glutes are a man's greatest problem without recognizing that there were other muscle disfunctions that set up the quicker disassociation of the medial glute. In terms of women, I think the biggest problems have more to do with the evolution of the sport than anything.
The truth is that every 'body' has it's own genetic origin, daily life challenges, and lifestyle misalignments. And still, caught early enough, there is no reason that alignment can't be restored and maintained.
I believe that the body is designed to stand, sit, golf, run, and take almost any abuse you can dish out provided it is then given the time and the appropriate movements to recover and correct the impact of the activity.
As golf fitness becomes more mainstream you see and hear of much less injury and treatment in the pro circuit. But do recognize the amount of treatment and training support the pro's afford themselves. Have you ever been on a pro tour bus? It is purely set up to restore the player for the next game.
Instead of focusing on such general expectations of difficulty I think everyone would be better served to look at balancing their fitness efforts with respect to the time they are willing to committ. Many posts have already said this. There is just not a magic bullet that fits everyone. Some people are naturally more flexible and they don't have to spend as much time stretching but usually even in this case one portion of the body needs more attention than another. Sometimes this is predicated by the activity of the day, whether it is sitting in a car all day or being on the golf course or playing with kids. Every day and every workout will have some similarities and some redundancies but no two activities will call for the same recovery; that applies to strength training, aerobics and diet too.
The truth is that every 'body' has it's own genetic origin, daily life challenges, and lifestyle misalignments. And still, caught early enough, there is no reason that alignment can't be restored and maintained.
Here is an abridged extract from Henry Cotton’s book This Game of Golf that may be relevant.
Towards the middle of 1933, after ten years of professional golf, I noticed my spine bent over to the right and tilted forward owing to hours and hours of golf practice and no contra movements whatsoever; in fact, I only had to try to stand still for an instant for my right side to slump down, as can be seen in the photo taken with Walter Hagen that year. Once I realized how deformed I had become, a sort of deformation de métier* as the French say, I began to do corrective exercises.
I had my measurements taken, and started in earnest to get back to the normal position I had so long lost. This meant building up my muscles to hold the tilting spine. I worked hard at my exercises all through the winter of 1933-34, and, by the spring of 1934, I was already much better, I continued with exercises regularly until the war, doing contra movements to build up the muscles which were stretched on one side only.
Hybrid Mode
