Harmonising Gym and Golf – Back Exercises
In order to obtain, and maintain, a good posture we must train and strengthen the back muscles. You know the whole, ‘chest out stomach in’ thing, well this comes with a healthy back. And to achieve a healthy back, you need to try some of these great back exercises brought to you by the H2G Coach Richard Gaugeler.
However, having a healthy back extends past just standing up-right, it also prevents slouching, which can affect a golf swing.
Several things are happening when you slouch. Firstly as your shoulders roll forward out of an imaginary vertical plane which extends from your feet to the top of your head, your neck is pulled down, with the result that you’re always tilting your head upwards when speaking to people or just simply looking forwards. This then leads to neck pains, which can interfere with your game, especially when lining up over a putt, a time when your head should be directly over the ball with your neck supporting the full weight of your head.
Secondly, as your shoulders roll forward they compress the lungs, the lungs in turn, in an attempt to create some space, press downwards on your diaphragm. Your diaphragm, which controls your breathing, becomes compressed. As a result your body starts to take shorter breaths more frequently. These short brisk breaths tire your body out, which cause fatigue and can adversely affect your concentration on the course.
Thirdly, slouching shoulders close off your chest by reducing your chest’s breadth. As a result this hampers your freedom of movement when striking a ball. Remember, when swinging a club it is helpful to ‘free your arms’ and you can’t free your arms if they’re tucked in under your chest and rolled shoulders.
To address these problems ‘back’ will be divided into two articles. This week we will be dealing with the latissimus dorsi, or ‘lats’ as they are more commonly known.
Lats are those muscles which run down the side of your body, starting just under you arms and disappearing somewhere near your waist. Strongs lats have the effect of pulling your upper body upright, and dragging those shoulders back, additionally your lats are responsible for an increase in your compression strength.
Compression strength is that force with which you can bring your hands together, i.e. imaging holding a ball in your hands with your palms facing one another, the amount of force you can impose on diametrically opposed sides of the ball is your compression strength. This strength relates directly to holding a club firmly, avoiding slipping or twisting of the club during a shot and maintaining a good swing arch.
Training your lats is tough. The only exercise I would recommend for this is pull-ups! Wide grip, anti-gravity pull-ups! Don’t use assistance machines, don’t use pull down machines, they don’t work nearly as well. Anytime an anti-gravity exercise is first attempted it’s going to be tough.
Grip the bar with palms facing forward, wider than shoulder width apart. Once in position pull yourself upwards towards the bar, you can position your head in front of the bar or behind at the top of the exercise. All the time whilst pulling yourself up, imaging squeezing your lats and pressing your chest out to welcome the bar, always remember to pull your elbows back during the exercise and try not to let your body swing at all.
This exercise is a tough one, but that means is a good one! This will hurt and you will struggle, especially if you’re doing it right. Feel the burn, enjoy the pain, and yield the results!
Mulligan
An anti gravity exercise is one in which you lift, raise or push up your own body weight (with or without additional weights) against the downward or opposing force of gravity. Most of, if not all, the good back exercises are anti-gravity, and if they aren’t, attempt finding ones that are.