How to Play Your Best Golf After 40! by Dr. Paul Callaway  Gary Player has been an advocate for
staying fit as a golfer his entire career. But now that he’s well past 40 years
old, he continues to keep his golf body in shape to maximize his performance,
reduce injuries and enjoy the game to the fullest. If you’re a golfer over 40, you too
should understand the benefits of improving your golf-specific fitness. As the
former Director of Physical Therapy and Golf Fitness on the PGA Tour, I have always
believed that our ‘body’ was the most important piece of golf equipment. Without proper golf-specific fitness and body structure, we cannot achieve a
consistent golf swing function – and we are more susceptible to golf-related
injuries … especially as we reach 40 years and older! When evaluating golfers, I have
found that the majority of senior golfers have tremendous losses of posture,
balance, flexibility, and strength which contributes to a significant reduction
in distance, accuracy and consistency. What
the Pro Players are Doing After helping to start the PGA Tour
mobile fitness and treatment center back in the 1980’s, I was also on the
ground floor of launching a similar program for the senior players on the
Champions Tour. Back then, the focus was mostly on treating and rehabbing the players' chronic injuries. But
now, the focus is much more on injury prevention and performance enhancement –
getting the most out of their bodies for optimal and safe golf. There is a lot
of money still to be won by the 'over 50' gang on the Champions Tour so most
every player out there has specific programs addressing their flexibility,
strength and conditioning for golf.  In fact, Tom Kite, a regular client of mine
on the PGA Tour, has done several segments on the Golf Channel demonstrating showing
some of his golf exercises, and 41 year-old, Jim Furyk, can now be seen doing
commercials during regular golf broadcasts promoting the importance of golf
fitness at any age. The
Importance of Physical Training for Golfers Over 40 If you lack, posture, balance,
strength, flexibility or conditioning – any of the essential ‘physical’
performance factors for playing effective golf, then you will lose measureable
performance potential in ball striking consistency, accuracy, and distance –
all key elements for total scoring. A common complaint by many senior
golfers is their loss of strength and distance on the course. Weak muscles don’t
fire as fast which slows down clubhead speed and ultimately your distance. Stronger
golf muscles also protect your body from injury. Moreover, many older golfers experience
pain of some sort when they play or have an injury that prevents them from
playing altogether. Designing a golf-specific
strengthening program can definitely improve driving distance and reduce
injuries, allowing you to play pain-free golf for many years to come.
Right up there with strength,
however, is flexibility. Muscles and connective tissue called ‘fascia’ begin
to lose essential elasticity and can become fragile. When this happens, due to
dehydration, inactivity and/or micro/macro trauma over the years, muscles lose
their ability to stretch. Senior golfers
with this problem can’t complete a full backswing and/or follow through. The resultant
stress forces pull on their spine creating low back and upper back pain and
severely decrease swing power and consistency.
Get Your Fitness Training Program Started the Right Way One of the biggest problems I
address with senior golfers when they start exercising is they get all excited
about starting a fitness program and jump right in without any professional
support and go at it way to hard and fast. Even when they hire a trainer, they
don’t get properly evaluated and often do the wrong things for them, they do too
much, too soon, and get sore – even injured! Discouragement and quitting the
program, almost before it started, often follows. All avoidable!  Simply
put, the sooner a golfer locates a golf-specific fitness specialist and
schedules a comprehensive golf fitness and performance evaluation the better –
especially if they are over 40! Getting evaluated should always be the FIRST
STEP before jumping into a fitness program. Once your individual needs are
identified, then and only then can a golf-specific and customized fitness
training program aimed at helping all facets of your physical conditioning
needs be addresses – safely and effectively! I know many of you might be thinking,
“Do I really need all of that”! Well, let
me answer you with this … In all areas in life, if you want to get better
results, you will have to do something differently than what you are already
doing. And, if you want to get really
improved results, you will want to check out what the ‘best’ in the business
are doing – then do what they are doing! Right? In golf today, every top level senior
golfer has a customized golf fitness training program that fully integrates
with their golf instruction and mental training aspects of their total
performance plan. It’s just the right thing to do! Senior Golfer Bonus Offer! If you’re like most golfers on a
budget these days, you probably feel you can’t afford to hire a private golf fitness
expert. Let me assure you, if you call me right away, I have many ‘special’
programs and packages for ‘senior’ golfers that make ‘safe and effective’
custom golf fitness an affordable possibility – even on a fixed income!
Simply email me at: Paul@CallawayGolfFtness.com or
call me directly at: (630) 567-7572
and take advantage of my FREE 30-minute consultation. Just mention that you read this BLOG posting
and that you are a golfer over 40 to take advantage of this special offer. |
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CategoriesGolf fitness and performanceGolf Injuries Golf Nutrition Health and Wellness Personal Enhancement |
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