In previous articles (check Part 1 and Part 2) we discussed the fact that while all golfers will do everything possible to change their game (buying new clubs and new balls), many overlook one of the most decisive factors for their physical and mental success – their nutrition; we have identified some of the main reasons why golfers never change and, finally, we have pointed out five important links between golf and proper nutrition. In this article, I will share with you my concerns about the so called “normal diet” and the five most important habits you should create to start nourishing your body better.
The Western Diet
The western diet is generally used to describe popular eating habits in the USA. As these eating habits are still very popular in Europe and other parts of the non-Western world, it will probably be necessary to find a new name for this type of “diet” in the coming years (perhaps the killer diet is a good name!).
But what is the “western diet?” Well, this “diet” can be briefly characterized by a high intake of processed foods, refined carbohydrates, sugar and hydrogenated fats; and a low intake of healthy fruits, vegetables and fats. It is this “western diet” that has been associated with most western diseases or diseases of civilization (examples: cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer, Parkinson). Interestingly, this diet may also be responsible for increased violence and decreased cognitive test scores in school-age children (attention deficit disorder) and adults. Finally, this “western diet” has also been linked to bone loss (osteoporosis) and muscle wasting (sarcopenia) in adult individuals.
Let’s look at an example of a “normal athlete” daily menu before working with me.
Breakfast: Bowl of cereals and milk + Natural orange juice + Coffee with sugar
Snack 1: Mixed toast + Chocolate milk
Lunch: Chicken salad with mayonnaise and ketchup sauce + soda + ice cream
Snack 2: Slice of cake + Juice
Dinner: Grilled fish with vegetables + Baked potatoes + Glass of red wine + Dessert
For most people, this may even be considered a good day (and indeed there are some good things in this menu), but in the long run this type of eating will greatly compromise your health and performance. For this reason, we have to discuss this situation with the person and meet their real physiological and functional needs.
The Habits you must create
Before changing their diet, it is important that people start with a firm and solid foundation, and then make the necessary changes to optimize their health and performance. Most people (athletes included) want to start building a house from the roof down or building walls without paying attention to the quality of the soil. Any of these habits are simple enough, but just like any habit you want to create, it takes time to practice to assimilate the foundations of proper nutrition.
Habit 1 – Drink more water
Sometimes we talk about so much about food and forget about water, the most important element our bodies need to function properly. It is water that regulates all the functions of our body, including the activity of all solutes (the solid materials) dissolved in it. It is water that will actually allow the nutrients we consume to reach our cells and our organs. Aim to consume 1-2 glasses of water after waking up and to drink about 2 liters / day.
Habit 2 – Eat a protein source at every meal
Eating protein at every meal is critical. Of course, some “experts” will make you believe otherwise, suggesting that protein is somehow harmful to the kidneys, unnecessary, etc. However, I want to highlight the fact that what I am looking for my clients / athletes is the best of these three worlds: better health, better body and better performance – it will be very difficult to achieve these three with a suboptimal protein intake. Some examples include: eggs, meat, fish, chicken, turkey and shellfish.
Habit 3 – Eat vegetables at every meal
Your parents and / or grandparents are right – you need to eat vegetables to prevent disease! Evidence has shown that in addition to the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) contained in vegetables, there are also phytochemicals that are essential for optimal physiological functioning. Vegetables will help improve the acid-base balance in the body, so my advice is eating all the vegetables you can!
Habit 4 – Eat a healthy fat sources at every meal
Fat (such as protein) is an essential macronutrient and so we have to ensure proper intake every day through our diet. There has been a lot of misconception about the effects of fat on diet but the truth is that fat can be our best friend when the goal is to lose fat mass, optimize the body’s physiological response and our health. Some examples of healthy fats include: fatty fish, nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil, coconut and avocado.
Habit 5 – Eat more vegetables with main meals and leave the other carbohydrates to the post workout window
Another way of saying this is: if you have fat to lose, you have to earn the right to eat carbohydrates by doing vigorous exercise in the first place! Do you want to keep eating bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, crackers, sugary foods, pizzas, sweets, etc.? You can even eat them – just make sure you do it in the post workout window (1-2 hours after training) because this is the time when your body is most sensitive to insulin. As for the quality of carbohydrates, you will have more benefits if you choose gluten-free foods (rice, quinoa, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes) than highly processed foods or gluten-free junk foods. Also, don’t use exercise as an excuse to treat your body like the garbage truck!
Good strokes!
Pedro Correia
Following up on the topic addressed in the last article, let’s talk today about a common swing characteristic that affects a lot of golfers and that can compromise their swing efficiency and their performance on the golf course: Early Extension.
What is Early Extension?
Early extension can be understood as an integral part of loss of posture, this happens when the player’s hip and spine begin to extend too early in the downswing, i.e. the hips and pelvis move towards the ball in the downswing. In practical terms, if your body is not prepared to perform an efficient golf swing while maintaining good posture throughout the movement, you will end up lifting the upper body (spine) and miss the necessary hip rotation at impact. Your hips play a key role in injury prevention and performance improvement. If you have poor hip mobility, sooner or later your lower back will complain (and you can be sure that this situation will not be very pleasant).
According to studies conducted by the Titleist Performance Institute, 64.3% of amateur golfers early extend
Players who early extend usually refer that they feel trapped during the downswing as if they had to shrug their arms to hit the ball. And it’s normal for that to be so because when you extend your hips too early on the downswing, the space that was supposed to be occupied by your arms and hands was occupied by the lower body. Therefore, the end result will be a blockage of the movement, since your arms and hands can’t get out of the way and will still be needed to hit the ball.
How can I diagnose?
An easy and simple way to check if you do early extension is with your Smart Phone (you probably already have applications that allow you to draw lines and analyze your swing). All you need to do is to ask a friend to film you in the direction of the swing line and capture its full motion from the starting position (setup). After having your swing recorded, compare the position of your pelvis in the initial position with the position of the pelvis in the position of impact, if you notice that it moved towards the direction of the ball is because you extended your hip too early. If this is not possible, you can always ask your golf teacher to help you, I am sure he will be happy to do that.
What are the physical limitations?
“If you’re not assessing, you’re just guessing” – Greg Rose
The physical limitations can be many and to determine the causes that are affecting you, it would be important to make a functional assessment with a professional who understands how your body should move and its relation to the golf swing. According to what I have observed in my practice, I would like to highlight the following:
- Limitations on performing a full squat with the arms extended overhead;
- Limitations in hip mobility (especially in internal rotation of the leading hip and in anterior or posterior pelvic tilt);
- Limitations in the ability to separate / disassociate the thorax from hips (X factor);
- Limitations in the ability to stabilize the pelvis because the glutes and core muscles are inhibited.
What can I do to improve?
Although the causes may vary from person to person, I’m pretty sure that if you do the following exercises, you will improve and increase your body’s functionality to play golf for a longer time. You only need 10 minutes a day.
- Myofascial Release with Roller Stick
Using a roller stick, look for the trigger points of your calf and massage the inner, central and outer sides of the muscle for 30 seconds in each area. The points that hurt you most are those that need more care. Yes, this exercise might be a little uncomfortable but it’s worth it.
- Glute Bridge with Leg Extension
Lying in the supine position, push your heels against the floor, tighten your glutes, and raise your hips to form a glute bridge, with your arms up. Once in this position, extend one leg and form a straight line between the shoulder, hip and heel. Hold this position for 20-30 seconds, always keeping your hips high. Change legs and repeat 5 times on each side.
- Squat with Overhead Arm Reach
In the squat position (with your heels on the floor and your knees out), raise one arm up, lift the other arm (always looking at your hand) and then raise both arms at the same time and return to the standing position. If you can not squat without raising your heels, you can use a rolled up towel or a board to keep your heels high. Do 2-3 sets and repeat 8-10 times.
- Assisted Squat wiht Medicine Ball
In the standing position, with your feet shoulder-width apart and slightly rotated out, hold a medicine ball (or a bucket full of balls) in front of your body, and begin to slowly lower your body into the squat position by keeping your back straight and without lifting your heels off the floor. Do 2-3 sets and repeat 10-12 times.
I believe that these exercises can be helpful to you, but remember: The swing you can do is directly related to what your body is prepared to do.
See you soon!
Pedro Correia
“We don’t believe there is one way to swing a club; we believe there is an infinite number of ways to swing a club. But we do believe there is one efficient way for all golfers to swing a club and it is based on what they can physically do.”
– Titleist Performance Institute
If you’re reading this, you’re probably interested in improving your physical condition to make more birdies, hit longer drives, and increase your longevity as a golfer. Or, perhaps, your goal is to become the best player in your club or win the next Match Play Championship. No matter what your motivation is, the fact is that if your goal is to improve your game, this will require you to prepare yourself a bit better than most golfers I know. And better does not necessarily mean training longer hours!
If you´re still one of those players who spends hours and hours hitting buckets of balls on the driving range hopping that this will help you improve your golf game, you need to change your strategy. Hitting buckets of balls in the driving range and making chips and putts is not enough. If you truly want to improve your performance in this sport, your practice needs to include general athletic development exercises and specific physical training for golf, in a progressive and periodized manner.
This means that what you normally see in the gym has nothing to do with what you need to do to hit farther, straighter and to go through the 18 holes without getting so tired.
First: Is your swing efficient?
The only way to determine whether your golf swing is efficient or not is through a 3D Biomechanical Analysis. What we can see in the traditional video imaging used by most golf professionals / teachers is just the swing style. There are many golfers who do not have a particularly attractive swing (e.g. Raymond Floyd, Jim Furyk or John Daly) but the reason why these players were or are successful is because their swing is efficient. Having an efficient swing for a golfer means transferring energy (without leaks) through the feet, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, arms, wrists down to the club head and ultimately to the ball. With the data obtained through the 3D system, we can check the kinematic sequence of each player, that is, we can measure the speed of rotation of each body segment involved in the execution of the golf swing and determine if each segment is accelerating and decelerating correctly.
When we look at Jim Furyk and Ernie Els swing through video analysis (and through the naked eye), we can see that both swings are quite different from each other, however, when we look at the kinematic sequence of each player, we find that it’s difficult to see a significant difference between the two swings. This means that although Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have completely different swing styles, they both share the same kinematic sequence.
All great players start by generating speed from the hips and transferring that energy through the torso, arms and club. This is the efficient sequence in the downswing.
The golf swing is a complex multi-dimensional movement that involves a highly coordinated action of the entire kinetic chain (feet, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, arms and wrists) and takes less than two seconds. The golf swing is therefore a ballistic movement which, in order to perform efficiently (i.e. with a correct kinematic sequence), it’s necessary that the various body segments are properly prepared to deal with the inherent shear and rotation forces in this movement. Hence the importance of what follows.
Second: The Physical Assessment in Golf
Before we get to the physical training itself, it’s important to know what your physical limitations and asymmetries in terms of movement are (one of the main causes of injury). Because of this, it’s essential that you perform a functional assessment for golf, preferably with a qualified professional that knows what he’s doing. In the same way that you go to the doctor for exams to find out how your health markers are, you should also do an initial assessment with a golf fitness specialist to find out how your body behaves during a golf swing and which are the main limitations / compensations.
The physical evaluation in golf consists of performing several tests in order to measure the functionality of the body movement patterns necessary for golf, that is, the measurement of various indicators of its stability, mobility, balance and various performance parameters such as strength, power and cardiovascular capacity.
This type of assessment is the starting point for playing better and for preventing injuries. If you still think that your body is fine and that you don’t need any intervention at this level, you’re more likely to be wrong. Our body was not designed to lead the way we live today, so you can be pretty sure there are things in your body that need some work. If you still do not believe me, think of golfers you know who have never complained of back pain or pain in another part of the body (wrists, shoulders, elbow).
Your body is the determining piece of equipment in your game. The quality of the clubs, balls, gloves, shoes and the latest drive or putt on the market, are certainly not the most important aspects. I still see many golfers too preoccupied with the new gadgets and the style of clothing, when in fact these are not the most important things to get more birdies. What will, in fact, bring you better results is improving your body’s functional skills to hit the ball more efficiently and safely.
Final Remarks
Many players fail to perform an efficient golf swing not only because the movement itself is complex but also because their bodies are not properly prepared to deal with the forces generated during the movement.
Keep this in mind the next time you hit balls or have a lesson with your golf teacher, maybe that’s why you can’t do what your teacher asks you to do. There is no point constantly insisting on improving technique if there is no synergistic effort in improving physical skills. The swing you can perform is directly related to what your body is prepared to do – think of the golf club as an extension of your body.
In the next articles I will share the most common characteristics in this relationship between the body and the golf swing and suggest some exercises so that you can improve your performance on the golf course.
Stay tuned!
Pedro Correia