By Pam Owens, Special Contributor
Everyone knows that golf and stretching go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Stretching efforts are often done in one of these two times: 1) in response to feeling tight in a specific area or 2) to address areas that need more range in your golf swing. Despite stretching just before a round, golfers often still feel stiff or tight during and after the round. Golfers who practice yoga for years may still see a decrease in backswing width season after season.
Dare I say it… stretching alone doesn’t work! Let me be more specific and state that passive stretching doesn’t help your performance. With passive stretching we don’t get a lasting or significant performance benefit. In today’s lesson we’ll cover how to turn passive stretching into active stretching to ensure your efforts help your performance.
Stretching that’s only passive does not use loading and is not likely to increase new usable ranges needed for greater backswing width. Passive stretching is relaxing and feels good but is only a display of our flexibility not our mobility. These efforts don’t load the muscles, ligaments/tendons/fascia, or nervous system enough to build usable range for powerful golf movements.
Use this stretching formula to turn any passive stretch into an active stretch. Active stretching creates active, usable range of motion also known as mobility, not just display flexibility. Active stretching inputs use loads or force that then creates adaptations in specific tissue to become stronger and gain more control. Tissue gets stronger with force or load.
This stretching formula involves these three steps:
1) Move into your passive stretch finding the safest, greatest range. Most efforts stop here. Add steps 2 & 3 to create more mobility for a lasting usable range.
2) Load the stretched or open tissue isometrically while not allowing other joints to move.
3) Load the closed or short side of the stretch without compensatory movement from other areas of the body.
Now let’s use this formula for the goals of greater external hip rotation and torso rotation.
Torso Rotation
1) Start in kneeling or standing golf posture with hip against a block on the wall. With a golf club, twist your torso into the greatest rotation using the club to go deeper into the stretch. Hold this stretch for 2 minutes being mindful to separate the upper body from a stable lower body.
2) Gradually start loading the stick down onto the floor while maintaining the position. Load as if you want to un-rotate or move out of rotation. Contract in this position for 8-15 seconds.
3) Quickly reverse the direction to twist deeper to lift the club off the ground. You will need to maintain your lower body position as you add more rotation to the torso which is the goal of the exercise.
Hip Figure 4
1) Cross your leg to form a figure 4. Open the hip as far as possible as you lean forward with a long spine. Hold this stretch for 2 minutes being mindful to continue to bow the stretch in the back of the hip.
2) Gradually open the knee of the crossed leg to put an external force load on an externally positioned hip. Continually add more intensity for about 8-15 seconds.
3) Quickly reverse the loading by attempting to lift the ankle off the other leg while maintaining the forward fold at the hip. You’ll be adding more external loading to the external hip as it lifts. This is the desired goal of the exercise.
Both exercises load the nervous system, muscles, and connective tissue at the end range at the desired position. Loading creates the adaptation in those tissues.
Use this mobility formula for most stretches to gain strength, control, and mind/body awareness at your end range positions. You will have greater stability and stronger, more resilient tissue at those end ranges to mitigate against injury and poor performance.
Pam Owens is the Director of Fitness for Royal Oaks Country Club in Houston and the owner of Pam Owens Fitness. A three-time Golf Digest Top 50 Fitness Professional, Pam helps golfers all over the world get lean, bendy and powerful with online or in person coaching. For the free Golf Roll-Volution Routines and more resources, click here.
