The benefits of Pilates and Yoga for Mobility, Stability and Balance in Golfers
Golf is a complex sport which requires coordination, stability, mobility, strength,
balance, and proprioception.
Increased mobility equals increased energy. But we have to remember as we are
increasing our mobility we have to keep eye on stability as we have to be able to
control it without losing any power in the kinetic chain.
As an athlete and massage therapist I know there is nothing more damaging than
an injury.
I love golf and I want to be able to play everyday without pain before,
during or after the game. I have been practicing and teaching Yoga and Pilates for
7 years now and there is no doubt about it these exercises protect your body
from injuries, helping your recovery process along with a host of other benefits.
Let’s look a bit closer into this..
Golf – most injuries accrue from:
-Lack of mobility/stability, flexibility particularly with Men
-Women can often have hyper-mobility
-Bad technique
-Lack of body awareness
-Muscular asymmetries
-Lack of strength in deep our muscles
Let’s look at the lumbar spine and thoracic spine. Our lumbar spine (lower back)
has to stable to allow our Thoracic spine (middle back) to rotate on the up-swing
and down swing. Unfortunately many golfers can’t dissociate these two and they
don’t move independently, instead they move together or in the wrong sequence,
that’s when an injury can occur or loss of power.
Pilates:
-Balances out muscular asymmetries -for better accuracy
-Improves your posture and balance, coordination and breath control – the body
awareness
-Exercises work to simultaneously develop muscular flexibility and strength – for
longer drives
-Focuses on creating an understanding of the body and mind connection
-Activation of deep core muscles and spinal stability – preventing you from
rivers spinal angle
Pilates was created by the athlete Joseph Pilates as a form of rehabilitation and
strengthening before physiotherapy existed.
Yoga:
– Enhance the speed of nerve impulses – for your golf speed and power
– Lubricate your joints
-Increases flexibility
-Increases muscle strength and tone – for increased club speed
-Prevents cartilage and joint breakdown
-Improved respiration, energy and vitality
-Relaxes your nervous system
-Cardio and circulatory health – your fitness levels on the 18th hole should
be like when u were teeing off on the first tee
,,Yoga is shown to have a greater effect on range of motion at the shoulder
and hip than static stretching in a healthy population. With further positive
results, yoga may prove to have an important therapeutic role with joint
restrictions.”
Study done by International Journal of Physical Medicine &
Rehabilitation LINK
Yoga and Pilates can improve your golf performance, prevent you from
injury, achieve greater golf distance and accuracy through improvement in
your body swing connection.
Kasia Ferenczuk is Titleist Performance Institute Certificated Expert TPI
Level 2 Fitness, Yoga Instructor and Educator, Pilates Instructor, Massage
Therapist and Educator, and she is a Golfer.