Cathe, please help me prepare for sports vacation

G

Golfingirl

Cathlete
Hi Cathe!

In June my husband and I will be spending a week at a golf school in Florida. This will involve six hours of instruction per day, followed by playing actual rounds of golf in the early evening. I know that golf is not a very strenuous activity, but this is a lot per day, and since I am still a novice golfer it takes me more swings to get around the course. :) I am a little concerned that my muscles won't be able to match my enthusiasm! Can you suggest how I might train so that I can get the most out of this experience? My actual golfing time between now and then will be somewhat limited, so I'm hoping my fitness routine can prepare me. I have all of your workouts (except for a few of the oldest ones), and have been using them with great results for about 2 years. I also have access to a gym. Currently I'm avoiding high impact so I'm using the cardio machines in the gym anywhere from 4-6 days per week, followed by or alternated with your weight training workouts. I'm just not sure what routine would be best to follow between now and June. I would really appreciate your advice. Thanks so much!

Martha
 
Hi Martha!

I received my IDEA Personal Trainer magazine in the mail a couple days ago and it contains an article called "Golfing After Total Hip Replacement". Although, I know you have not had a hip replacement, it has an outline on what Golf-Specific Muscles need to be strengthened for both upper body & lower body after surgery. The program also says that they do not recommend high-impact activity. I would be glad to send you the 4 page article and maybe you can see what muscles they feel are important to strengthen for golf??? Let me know.
Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.smilies-world.de/Smilies/Smilies_klein_1/wavey.gif If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!
 
RE: Hi Martha!

Thanks Debbie, that's very kind of you! I would be interested to see the article, if it is not too much trouble. If you send me an e-mail I'll reply to you directly.

I would still love to hear Cathe's suggestions for how to use her workouts to prepare for golf school, so hopefully she'll have a chance to reply as well.

Thanks again Debbie! :)
 
Hi Martha! The best way to get conditioned for a specific sport is to do the motions of that sport to prepare the muscles for the activity (specificity training). I'm not a golf pro by any means, but I would think that you would need good hip and shoulder mobility for your swing, and overall muscular endurance conditioning for the other positions you will assume while practicing alignment and positioning during your 6 hour days of instruction. For example, squats and low back exercises will be great conditioning to help you with your set up stance. Deadlifts will be helpful in preparing your low back for the slight forward hinge position you will find yourself in a lot. Rotator cuff exercises and core exercises will be especially beneficial to help you with your swing. These are just a few things to consider. Again, I am no golf expert so ideally, you would be best off picking up a golf conditioning book at the bookstore. There are actually many of them out there. You may even be able to find some good articles online. I wish you a successful trip, until then happy training.
 
Thanks so much Cathe! I had not even been thinking about it, but that forward hinge position has caused me slight fatigue in the past so I'm grateful for the reminder to condition for that as well. Debbie and Honeybunch were both kind enough to contact me privately with an article and some book suggestions, so I now feel ready to get busy training!

Thanks again to everyone! :)
 
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