Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number four hundred and forty nine.
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Speaker 2: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
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Speaker 3: We are a society of sitters. I think the average
Speaker 3: for the American adult is around eight to ten hours
Speaker 3: a day. So what happens in that situation is you
Speaker 3: place muscles in a shortened state, hamstrings being one of them.
Speaker 3: So there's your low back issue. And then you also
Speaker 3: put muscles in an elongated state. They're stretched out, and
Speaker 3: when you elongate a muscle, you weaken a muscle overtime.
Speaker 3: And one of the muscles that does elongate when you
Speaker 3: sit are your quad, your step muscles in the front
Speaker 3: part of your thigh. Now those are important muscles for
Speaker 3: stability of the knee joint. So when you get weak quads,
Speaker 3: that tends to impact the knee.
Speaker 1: How to cope with common golf injuries featuring Bob Foreman.
Speaker 1: This is Golf Smarter welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast. Bob.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate the invite.
Speaker 1: Well that's just great. You've got the invite. Now make
Speaker 1: it worthwhile.
Speaker 3: Always make it worthwhile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so. All right, it's summertime, it's it's camp time.
Speaker 1: So everyone sing along with me. Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
Speaker 1: knees and toes. Golf injuries.
Speaker 3: That takes me back to my kid's childhood.
Speaker 1: Exactly, yeah, exactly so. But golf injuries, it's head to
Speaker 1: toe and it's it's all of us. And I want
Speaker 1: to know some ways we can learn how to what
Speaker 1: the injuries are. What if we're feeling something wrong, what
Speaker 1: is that? And what are the things we can do
Speaker 1: to improve those things? And that's why Golfit Carolina is
Speaker 1: back on the podcast.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, gosh, I mean, you know, it's unfortunately, it
Speaker 3: keeps a lot of people from playing as much golf
Speaker 3: as they'd like to, and in some cases it's kind
Speaker 3: of forcing some golfers to hang up the clubs. I mean,
Speaker 3: injury related to golf or golf related injury is kind
Speaker 3: of a hot topic, you know, given even given the
Speaker 3: the litany of injuries that you hear all these tour
Speaker 3: players have and their swings are good, and that's one
Speaker 3: of the you know, the factors that lead up to
Speaker 3: amateur injury is the fact that our mechanics aren't as
Speaker 3: good in addition, in addition to the fact that you know,
Speaker 3: overuse uh always tends to play a role with injury.
Speaker 3: But you know, it's very prevalent amongst all level golfers.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter if you're a male or a female,
Speaker 3: if you're a junior or a senior.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, it's there and it's a part of the game,
Speaker 3: and it's something that you know, if you know how
Speaker 3: to prevent it, you know you can, you know, you
Speaker 3: can kind of keep those injuries at bay if you
Speaker 3: kind of take the proper steps to keep yourself healthy.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good to know. Yeah, it's amazing because even
Speaker 1: on the first day of the PGA Championship, guys were
Speaker 1: just like walking off the chorus right dropping like flies.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you got a koocher didn't even
Speaker 3: show up because of back spasms, and you got tigers
Speaker 3: on going back issue and.
Speaker 1: The biggest story of the entire tournament, it's like, is
Speaker 1: he gonna play? Is he not going to play? Should he?
Speaker 1: Should he play? Should he not play? Yeah?
Speaker 3: You wonder gush. You know. I remember reading and somebody
Speaker 3: telling me too that once you have a low back injury,
Speaker 3: you are considered cured if you don't have any pain
Speaker 3: for two years.
Speaker 1: And your thought on.
Speaker 3: That, well, I think, you know, I think there's there's
Speaker 3: a lot to that, because I mean, there's there's there's
Speaker 3: a lot of mechanisms in the back area, but it
Speaker 3: is prone to injury. And then when you combine it
Speaker 3: with the explosiveness and the torque of the golf swing, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and then you add to that, as we
Speaker 3: talked about, especially with amateur golfers, the fact that the
Speaker 3: mechanics aren't always as ideal as they should be. In
Speaker 3: addition to the fact that probably ninety five percent of
Speaker 3: us I may even go as far as saying one
Speaker 3: hundred percent of us have the anatomical deficiencies in the
Speaker 3: form of muscle tightness and muscle weakness, and all those
Speaker 3: add up, you know, and make a perfect storm for injuries.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you know, it's once you have low back,
Speaker 3: it's it kind of hangs around for a while and
Speaker 3: you've got to really kind of.
Speaker 1: Treat it gingerly, so you buy or don't buy the
Speaker 1: two year theory.
Speaker 3: Uh, well, two years is kind of a long time.
Speaker 1: I just think that anybody who's going to get away
Speaker 1: from golf for two years is gone.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, oh yeah no. But again I think
Speaker 3: you know, there's ways that there are things that you
Speaker 3: can do to quicken or or hasten the recovery and
Speaker 3: prevent the back injury from coming back. Definitely.
Speaker 1: Wow wow. So is back the most prevalent injury or
Speaker 1: lower back or what part of the back?
Speaker 3: Yeah? For back by far, by far the number one
Speaker 3: in golf. And again that's to everybody, professionals, amateurs, men, women. Uh,
Speaker 3: and there's there's good reason for it. I mean, you know, again,
Speaker 3: it's an explosive type activity. It's a one sided activity,
Speaker 3: so it's repetitive in nature. You know, as they mentioned,
Speaker 3: many of us have muscle deficiencies and imbalances that you know,
Speaker 3: forget about golf would lead up to back injury by itself,
Speaker 3: and then again when you add that that turning and
Speaker 3: twisting an explosive you know, swing, it just adds to
Speaker 3: the incidents and the risk levels.
Speaker 1: You know, when you and I spoke earlier, and you've
Speaker 1: been on the show a couple of times. Actually, if
Speaker 1: people want to go back and listen, it's episodes three
Speaker 1: forty seven, three fifty nine, and three sixty. We talked
Speaker 1: a lot about and I was always trying to focus
Speaker 1: on my lower back issues and I'm happy to say
Speaker 1: that they are not bothering me that much. And there's
Speaker 1: two things that I can track back. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if either of them are why. I'm probably gonna
Speaker 1: add a third. But if why, it's better or I'm
Speaker 1: it's just a coincidence. But I can track a couple
Speaker 1: of things. First of all, my golf swing. I learned
Speaker 1: how to quiet my lower body. I don't have the
Speaker 1: sway that I used to have when I'm swinging the
Speaker 1: golf club. That could be one of them. Secondly, is
Speaker 1: I've become a side sleeper versus a back sleep, a
Speaker 1: stomach sleeper. That could be another one. Yeah, good, thank you.
Speaker 1: A third, I was doing a lot of yoga. I
Speaker 1: don't do it that much, if at all, anymore, because
Speaker 1: I found that there were a couple positions that really
Speaker 1: hurt my lower back.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then actually the last one, which I think maybe
Speaker 1: the biggest contributing factor to my back being better is
Speaker 1: I swim a lot.
Speaker 3: Now, well that's a good one too. Yeah, swimming's great
Speaker 3: for low back discomfort.
Speaker 1: Well, I just what I love about swimming is that
Speaker 1: there it's a high resistance and no impact. And yeah,
Speaker 1: people say, oh, it's so boring. It's like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: love that part of it. When else in my life
Speaker 1: do I get to be bored for twenty minutes to
Speaker 1: a half hour, you know, and get one of.
Speaker 3: Those ear plugs and so you can play music while
Speaker 3: you're swimming.
Speaker 1: No. I love to have my mind go nuts. I mean,
Speaker 1: because you know, like I watch runners, and even a
Speaker 1: runner who's like out on the street, not unnecessarily in
Speaker 1: a treadmill, they have to pay attention to where they're going.
Speaker 1: You know, you really have to pay attention when you're running.
Speaker 1: When you're swimming in a pool, I go, I just
Speaker 1: do laps. But when I'm swimming, I just go to
Speaker 1: the edge and then I turn around and go next
Speaker 1: to the And that's all I have to think about,
Speaker 1: is where am I and I really get into this
Speaker 1: meditative deep state where my mind and the longer I'm
Speaker 1: in the pool, the farther my mind goes and I
Speaker 1: kind of enjoy that. But from my back, for the
Speaker 1: strength of my back and overall conditioning on my core,
Speaker 1: I think that that has been a major factor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, swimming is definitely one of the better exercises for
Speaker 3: individuals that do have you know, chronic lower back discomfort.
Speaker 3: And then when you mentioned the yoga, you know, flexibility
Speaker 3: also plays a big part in injury prevention, and especially
Speaker 3: as it relates to the lower back, and you had
Speaker 3: mentioned about you did a lot of yoga. You know,
Speaker 3: there's definitely a window of flexibility that you want to
Speaker 3: kind of monitor because if you're tight, that increases the
Speaker 3: risk in many cases for injury not just in the back,
Speaker 3: but in other parts of the body. But then again,
Speaker 3: if you're too flex and you don't have the lex
Speaker 3: you know, the the the joint stability, that can also
Speaker 3: lead to injuries in the in the body as well.
Speaker 3: So there's definitely a window. Not too many people are
Speaker 3: hyper flexible, but you know, and those are usually like
Speaker 3: dancers and stuff like that. But again, if you take
Speaker 3: yoga and you do that a lot, you know, you
Speaker 3: could get into that category.
Speaker 1: Well I am I am always have been very flexible,
Speaker 1: even more than my children. Yeah, I've always been. I've
Speaker 1: even had a couple of messuses call me Gumby.
Speaker 3: Really you're a rarity.
Speaker 1: But I do get you know, like the tight hamstrings,
Speaker 1: and I think that that also is a is another
Speaker 1: back problem contributors tight ham strings right.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, gosh, tight hamstrings are probably one of the
Speaker 3: biggest factors that lead up to a low back injury.
Speaker 3: And the ham strings, I mean are in the you know,
Speaker 3: the back of the thigh. And a lot of people
Speaker 3: kind of look puzzled when I mentioned that in some
Speaker 3: of the workshops, you know, because they're like, well, those
Speaker 3: are down you know, in the legs, but my back
Speaker 3: bothers me. What's the relationship? And what happens when the
Speaker 3: ham strings are tight is the hamstrings attached to the
Speaker 3: hip bone and over a number of years they'll they'll
Speaker 3: the tightness will pull that hip bone and rotate it
Speaker 3: backwards sort of, you know, towards the tightness. So what
Speaker 3: happens is the low back muscles which are attached or
Speaker 3: fanned out across the top of the hip bone and
Speaker 3: then all kind of converge into the lower spine. The
Speaker 3: lumbar curve and the lower spine. When the hip bone
Speaker 3: rotates down and back, it takes those low back muscles
Speaker 3: and it stretches them out and it leaves them in
Speaker 3: a taunt position. So early signs and symptoms of that
Speaker 3: occurring are if you sit for a long period of
Speaker 3: time and you get up and your back's a little tight,
Speaker 3: that could be a sign. If you play golf or
Speaker 3: you work in the yard and the next day or
Speaker 3: two your back's a little tight, that could be a sign.
Speaker 3: The more serious consequence is what happens when that hip
Speaker 3: bone rotates and those back muscles get taught. It also
Speaker 3: takes that normal curve in your lower back than normal
Speaker 3: lumbar curve, and it actually straightens it out a little bit. Now,
Speaker 3: you don't want to deviate from that natural curve because
Speaker 3: if you deviate, if you straighten the curve out, or
Speaker 3: if you increase the curve, you start to put more
Speaker 3: pressure on the disks, you know, those jelly doughnuts that
Speaker 3: are in between the bones and the spine, And over
Speaker 3: a period of time, that wears the disc south faster,
Speaker 3: and you get the space between the two bones starts
Speaker 3: to decrease and that can put pressure on the nerve
Speaker 3: that comes out between the two bones, you know, and
Speaker 3: that can cause issues like the you know the sciatica
Speaker 3: of the typical sciatica with the pain radiating down one
Speaker 3: or both legs, numbness in the foot, you know, numbness
Speaker 3: in the foot or weakness in the leg, or you
Speaker 3: could also get you know that that disc to rupture
Speaker 3: or to slip and it actually bulges out into that
Speaker 3: space where the nerve is and that puts pressure on
Speaker 3: the nerve and that causes the same type of discomfort.
Speaker 3: So yeah, so tight hamstrings are number one probably one
Speaker 3: of the bigger factors in muscle and balance that lead
Speaker 3: up to back discomfort.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about other parts of the body you know
Speaker 1: that the golfers are having issues with. Do you see
Speaker 1: more people complaining about like their shoulders or their elbows
Speaker 1: and wrists?
Speaker 3: Yes, elbows probably, second shoulders probably, you know, depend upon
Speaker 3: who you read, third or fourth wrists are in their
Speaker 3: wrists are a lot from more impact type injury, you know,
Speaker 3: hitting the root or yeah, digging into the turf that
Speaker 3: tends to cause more wrist injury.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I noticed that, Like if I, if I like
Speaker 1: try to really dig it out in the bunker or something.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, that's my wrist.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know. And then the computer too. You know,
Speaker 3: the fact that since the computer ages come around, I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously you see a lot of more wrist injuries because
Speaker 3: of the fact that a lot of people are using
Speaker 3: the mouse, and you know, that kind of leads to
Speaker 3: an imbalance in the in the forearm structure. You know,
Speaker 3: we tend to have imbalances in our forearms anyway, because
Speaker 3: the flexer muscles on the underside of the forearm tend
Speaker 3: to be stronger than the muscles on the top part
Speaker 3: of the forearm because we're always gripping things. You know,
Speaker 3: you're constantly gripping things. You don't really do too much
Speaker 3: to strengthen the muscles on the top part of the forearm,
Speaker 3: and that's extending the fingers out. So we're stronger with gripping,
Speaker 3: we're not as strong as we are extending. So that
Speaker 3: imbalance leads to things like carpal tunnel and it can
Speaker 3: also lead to things problems in the elbows and in
Speaker 3: the shoulders. So then when you get into a sport
Speaker 3: like golf, now where again you're gripping the golf club
Speaker 3: and you're putting the wrists through you know, all types
Speaker 3: of range of motion, both extension, inflection, and then also
Speaker 3: what's called adduction and adduction which is kind of like
Speaker 3: a sideways flection of the hand, which is probably more
Speaker 3: prominent in the golf swing than theflection and extension. But
Speaker 3: then again, you know, if you have that imbalance in
Speaker 3: the forearm, that just increases the probability that you're going
Speaker 3: to have some issues in the wrist, elbows, shoulder.
Speaker 1: I should have gone in this order, since this program
Speaker 1: we focus on the mental game so much. We start
Speaker 1: at the top of the head. I should have gone
Speaker 1: to the neck next before I got to the shoulders.
Speaker 1: But do you see a lot of neck injuries and
Speaker 1: issues with golfers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not too many, really, not too many neck injuries. Now,
Speaker 3: shoulders are pretty prevalent. Like I say, elbows tend to
Speaker 3: be probably the second biggest injury in amateur golfers, and
Speaker 3: a lot of that is due to the fact that
Speaker 3: a lot of golfers don't have the range of motion
Speaker 3: in the respective side shoulder, especially what's called external rotation
Speaker 3: of the shoulder. And you can kind of test yourself
Speaker 3: out to see whether or not you have adequate external
Speaker 3: shoulder rotation. If you were to raise your arm up
Speaker 3: so that upper arm is parallel to the floor, and
Speaker 3: then well even your whole arm is parallel to the floor,
Speaker 3: but your elbows bet and ninety degrees and then try
Speaker 3: to rotate the hand up like you're gonna make the
Speaker 3: boy scout or girl scout sign, and keep going and
Speaker 3: see how far you can go. If you can get
Speaker 3: past ninety degrees, then your chances are your external shoulder
Speaker 3: rotation is pretty good. If you are having trouble getting
Speaker 3: to ninety degrees, then you're going to be probably one
Speaker 3: of those individuals that's going to develop some sort of
Speaker 3: elbow problem. Because in the golf swing, as we bring
Speaker 3: the club back, you know, when we'll use a right
Speaker 3: handed golfer, the right hand is going to rotate and
Speaker 3: the right shoulder is going to externally rotate. And if
Speaker 3: you don't have that range of motion in the shoulder,
Speaker 3: what happens is you put a strain on the elbow.
Speaker 3: So again, over time, the repetitiveness of the activity, you know,
Speaker 3: it starts to wear out the you know, the tendons
Speaker 3: and put pressure on the tendons, and golfer's elbow is
Speaker 3: basically classified as an inflammation of the tendon on the
Speaker 3: inside part of the elbow where you tend to see
Speaker 3: a lot of issues, you know, so a lot of
Speaker 3: golfers will go out and buy one of those forearmed
Speaker 3: bands and wrap it around their forearm to take the
Speaker 3: pressure off the muscle, which tends to relieve some of
Speaker 3: the pressure, but you know, it tends to mask the injury,
Speaker 3: and you definitely want to take steps to correct the
Speaker 3: injury and don't rely on that band because it won't
Speaker 3: get any better if you do.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, and there are a lot of products on
Speaker 1: the market that make claims to helping relieve pain reduce injury.
Speaker 1: Do you have favorites or is it all bunk?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it's good, you know, if you're in
Speaker 3: discomfort and you want to get out there and play,
Speaker 3: I mean it's good to to use like in this case,
Speaker 3: you know, those forearm wrist or the I'm sorry, the
Speaker 3: forearm bands, because again it will kind of put take
Speaker 3: pressure away from the muscle as you're kind of bringing
Speaker 3: the club back, and that's usually where most people will
Speaker 3: feel the discomfort when they've got that what's called epic
Speaker 3: und delitis. You don't want to depend on it for
Speaker 3: too long because you know, you're kind of taken away
Speaker 3: from the job of the muscle and so the muscle
Speaker 3: can actually kind of weaken. So in between your rounds
Speaker 3: of golf, you want to make sure well. First of all,
Speaker 3: you want to make sure that your ice the area
Speaker 3: for about fifteen to twenty minutes after you play golf,
Speaker 3: so that you prevent any inflammation, further inflammation of the area,
Speaker 3: because it's the inflammation that causes the discomfort, and the
Speaker 3: more inflammation you have, the longer the rehab period. And
Speaker 3: you never put ice directly on the skin, makes there's
Speaker 3: a little thin layer of cloth in between you and
Speaker 3: the ice. And then in between, you know, you can
Speaker 3: do some mild stretching for the wrist and the forearm
Speaker 3: to help heal the process, and you can also do
Speaker 3: some mild strengthening exercises, and you know, I won't go
Speaker 3: into all of them, but you probably want to contact
Speaker 3: somebody who is knowledgeable about that, a physical therapist or
Speaker 3: even a golf fitness instructor, a certified golf fitness instructor
Speaker 3: who can kind of show you some simple exercises with
Speaker 3: light weight to do to help strengthen the muscles in
Speaker 3: the forearms so that you can alleviate and prevent the
Speaker 3: problem from coming back.
Speaker 1: What about various supplements and liquids and roll ons that
Speaker 1: are saying, you know, you know that there's a product
Speaker 1: golf fuel, right and urgent joint support, and there's roll
Speaker 1: on to relieve pain. Is that just are we should
Speaker 1: be you know, is this just ibuprofen or are there
Speaker 1: supplements that are supposed to help joints? And who knows
Speaker 1: if supplements work? And what about any of these roll
Speaker 1: ones that are supposed to relieve the pain. Is it
Speaker 1: something that's just being marketed with a golf name on it.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, fred, I really haven't run across
Speaker 3: anything a supplement wise that seems to be on the
Speaker 3: market for very long. And you know, to me that
Speaker 3: that's kind of the the you know, the signal that Okay,
Speaker 3: you know, I've read a few articles about this thing.
Speaker 3: There seems to be some consistency as to the you know,
Speaker 3: the product and the fact that it's effective. You know,
Speaker 3: these things kind of come and go, and not no
Speaker 3: one of them seems to hang around for very long.
Speaker 3: So you know, personally, I wouldn't use any of that stuff.
Speaker 3: The anti inflammatories, you know, the the bills and stuff
Speaker 3: like that. If you're not allergic to that stuff is
Speaker 3: good to take to help you know, relieve again the inflammation.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned, anytime you have an injury, definitely the
Speaker 3: first twenty four to forty eight hours you want to
Speaker 3: go with ice because again the idea there is to
Speaker 3: try to reduce the inflammation because that prolongs the rehab process.
Speaker 3: Then once the inflammation has stopped, you know, usually after
Speaker 3: a couple of days, two or three days, you can
Speaker 3: go to moist heat and you know, like a wet towel,
Speaker 3: wet hot, tael tolerable hot. You know, want to burn
Speaker 3: yourself because the moist heat will penetrate into the joint,
Speaker 3: especially going back to the low back. I mean, you've
Speaker 3: got quite a thickness of muscle there and to where
Speaker 3: you know, to use these kind of bombs, you know
Speaker 3: that you know, they tend to pride themselves on the
Speaker 3: fact that it brings least to the area. They pretty
Speaker 3: much just kind of warm up the superficial layer under
Speaker 3: the skin. They don't really penetrate deep into the muscle layer.
Speaker 3: Moist teat. It's free, and it's probably the best thing
Speaker 3: that you can do. You just got to be consistent
Speaker 3: with it for three or four or five days, you know,
Speaker 3: putting it on there once it cools off after about
Speaker 3: eight and seven eight minutes, to do it again, you know,
Speaker 3: for about seventy eight minutes, and you be surprised what
Speaker 3: a difference moist heat can make in terms of helping
Speaker 3: the recovery process.
Speaker 1: Well, I can tell you that you said two words
Speaker 1: that I think the golf smarter audience gets perked up
Speaker 1: every time they hear it free and best, So moist
Speaker 1: heat is going to be high on the list for
Speaker 1: everyone at this point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what I do? You know what I do?
Speaker 3: You know, I get a little lower back tweak every
Speaker 3: once in a while. I'll just take a towel, wet it,
Speaker 3: you know, dunking and water, wring it out, throw it
Speaker 3: in the microwave for a couple of minutes, and again
Speaker 3: microwaves will vary, so you may want to start with
Speaker 3: a minute and a half. You don't want to burn yourself,
Speaker 3: you know. You take it out, you put a piece
Speaker 3: of plastic on the floor so that you don't get
Speaker 3: your carpet wet. You put the wet towel on the
Speaker 3: carpet and then you gingerly lay yourself down onto the
Speaker 3: uh you know, the warm, very warm towel.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And I tell you it's it's it feels great and
Speaker 3: uh you know, after a few days, it does a
Speaker 3: good job at relieving the little spasm.
Speaker 1: One of the things that you said that I'm curious
Speaker 1: for you to expand on it. You said, when you
Speaker 1: have an injury. My question is when do we know
Speaker 1: it's an injury or if we're just sore.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean that's a good question. A storness,
Speaker 3: I mean usually I think you can you can kind
Speaker 3: of feel. It's more of a feel, you know, like
Speaker 3: when you do something in the next day you feel
Speaker 3: a little bit, you feel a little tight, and you
Speaker 3: feel a little stiff, And I think that's more kind
Speaker 3: of a soreness classification. When the injury when you get
Speaker 3: up and you can't move a body part, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that's that's more of kind of an injury
Speaker 3: related to classification.
Speaker 1: No, No, that's that's just aging. When I get up
Speaker 1: in the morning, I'm not injured, I'm just getting older.
Speaker 3: Well, if it doesn't get better as you start to
Speaker 3: move around, then you can probably classify it more as
Speaker 3: an injury. Okay, but yeah, I can relate to that too.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I mean either case, you know, the you know,
Speaker 3: the the the advils always work well to kind of
Speaker 3: alleviate some of that. But you know, anytime you do
Speaker 3: you get into something new, a new activity, you should
Speaker 3: expect a little bit of soreness the next day or two, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, and as you continue to participate in that activity,
Speaker 3: that soreness should go away.
Speaker 1: Excellent, all right, let's move down the body, get back
Speaker 1: on track here, and and so we've now done upper body,
Speaker 1: you know, let's get to the lower body and go
Speaker 1: to the knees. The golfers, uh have knee problems.
Speaker 3: Yeah, really, they're probably in the top five as well
Speaker 3: terms of injury and stuff. And you'll tend to see
Speaker 3: probably more injury on the lead leg than you do
Speaker 3: the target leg because that's usually where all the weight
Speaker 3: ends up in the in the golf swing.
Speaker 1: So for a right handed golfer, that would be the
Speaker 1: left leg.
Speaker 3: Right Okay, yes, yes, the left leg. You know, and
Speaker 3: again it depends on the mechanics of this of the golfer.
Speaker 3: If their mechanics are kind of off, you know, if
Speaker 3: you do have some of that sway and especially some
Speaker 3: of the slide, which is an excessive lateral movement of
Speaker 3: the hips in the downswing and again towards the target.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've seen some golfers where their knees are
Speaker 3: almost ninety degrees laterally bent. I mean, it's just you
Speaker 3: got to wonder, at some point, you know, when are
Speaker 3: they going to start to feel this in their knee,
Speaker 3: because again, you know, it's those things you know, where
Speaker 3: everything in life is chronic, and it's usually you know,
Speaker 3: if you if you maintain this, the these poor mechanics,
Speaker 3: you know, something's going to give at some point. The
Speaker 3: other thing is is again going back to the anatomical deficiencies.
Speaker 3: I mean, we are a society of sitters, and we
Speaker 3: tend to sit. I think the average for the adult
Speaker 3: American adult is around to ten hours a day. So
Speaker 3: what happens in that situation is you place muscles in
Speaker 3: a shortened state, hamstrings being one of them. So there's
Speaker 3: your low back issue, and then you also put muscles
Speaker 3: in in an elongated state, they're stretched out, and when
Speaker 3: you want to elongate a muscle, you weaken a muscle
Speaker 3: over time. And one of the muscles that tends to
Speaker 3: elongate or does elongate when you sit are your quadrcep
Speaker 3: muscles in the front part of your thigh. Now, those
Speaker 3: are important muscles for stability of the knee joint. So
Speaker 3: when you get weak quads, that tends to impact the knee.
Speaker 3: The other thing that I find in a lot of
Speaker 3: golfers is that a lot of golfers will have a
Speaker 3: weak gluteous medius, which is part of the glut group.
Speaker 3: You know, your butt muscles, And the gluteous medius is
Speaker 3: a hip stabilizer. It's on the side part of the
Speaker 3: hip and it's responsible for holding the hip bone still
Speaker 3: so that when the other muscles that are attached to
Speaker 3: the hip bone move, they have a solid foundation to
Speaker 3: move against. So when the gluty's media is the hip
Speaker 3: stabilizer is weak, the hip bone will move when the
Speaker 3: individuals move in the legs, so the injury potential goes
Speaker 3: up a little bit. Plus it will allow the thigh
Speaker 3: bone to kind of internally rotate a little bit, and
Speaker 3: that tends to put pressure on the knee itself. The
Speaker 3: knee cap won't ride up and down the groove as
Speaker 3: nicely as it should, and that can lead to need
Speaker 3: discomfort as well. So, you know, one of the things
Speaker 3: that I always check for in golfers is you know
Speaker 3: the strength of their gluties medius and it's a fairly
Speaker 3: easy assessment to do, but it's an important assessment because
Speaker 3: if they are weak, then you definitely want to do
Speaker 3: some strengthening exercises to strengthen at gluteus media so that
Speaker 3: you and prevent those knee problems from happening.
Speaker 1: And that's different than the so as muscle, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the so as is part of the ilioso as
Speaker 3: is part of the hip flexers, which is kind of
Speaker 3: more it's mainly in the front part of the hip.
Speaker 3: That's one of those muscles that, if tight, can lead
Speaker 3: to back injuries. And that's one of the muscle groups
Speaker 3: that tends to be tighter in women. And what happens
Speaker 3: is instead of the hip bone rotating down and back,
Speaker 3: the tight hip flexer will pull the hip bone forward
Speaker 3: and down. And what that does is it increases the
Speaker 3: arch or the yeah, the arch in the lower back
Speaker 3: and you kind of get that sway back posture with
Speaker 3: the butt sticking out, and that does the same thing
Speaker 3: and puts more pressure on the discs and at least
Speaker 3: the disc problems rupture discs, lip discs s ia attica.
Speaker 3: And that's why a lot of young female golfers, I mean, gosh,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of them that are in the high
Speaker 3: school college ranks that have back issues, and a lot
Speaker 3: of them because they're in that s posture, that sway
Speaker 3: back posture because of tight hip flexors.
Speaker 1: Fascinating, fascinating. Do you see a lot of feet injuries
Speaker 1: from golfers? Is this because of walking or is it
Speaker 1: just other injuries they get involved with golfers.
Speaker 3: Well, with the feet, you know, a lot of it
Speaker 3: is One of the things that people don't really kind
Speaker 3: of check or have checked is their gait. You know,
Speaker 3: the way they walk, and there is a there is
Speaker 3: a normal pattern of walking. It's called pronation. You land
Speaker 3: on the outside part of your heel and then you
Speaker 3: kind of roll a little bit to the inside part
Speaker 3: of your toes so that you kind of push off
Speaker 3: kind of your big toe. You know, there are a
Speaker 3: lot of people who tend to overpronate. So what happens
Speaker 3: is they tend to roll the ankle in a little
Speaker 3: bit too much, and that can lead to some issues
Speaker 3: in the ankle. It actually can lead to a lot
Speaker 3: of issues all the way up the chain, you know,
Speaker 3: from the ankle to the knee, to the hip, to
Speaker 3: the back, to the shoulders and so on. Some people
Speaker 3: tend to stay more on the outer part of their
Speaker 3: foot and they're called supinators, and that does the same thing.
Speaker 3: It tends to put more pressure on the outside part
Speaker 3: of the ankle, the outside part of the knee and
Speaker 3: the hip and stuff like that. So most of the
Speaker 3: foot injuries you know, you see tend to relate to
Speaker 3: gate when people, especially are walking the golf course. So
Speaker 3: that's why it's important that you get, you know, fitted
Speaker 3: properly for shoes. And I remember Callaway a few years back,
Speaker 3: they were coming out with a line, you know, like
Speaker 3: like running shoes. You know that if you did overpronate,
Speaker 3: if you did roll your ankle in too too much,
Speaker 3: they are going to have a shoe that gave you
Speaker 3: a little bit more inside support to prevent you from
Speaker 3: rolling in. And I don't know whatever happened to that line.
Speaker 1: I guess the easiest way to check your pronation is
Speaker 1: take an old pair of running shoes or just you know,
Speaker 1: tennis shoes type of thing, jim shoes, and look at
Speaker 1: the bottoms of them, right, and you can tell where
Speaker 1: they're wearing tear is Yeah, do you get more people
Speaker 1: who more injuries from people who are carrying their bags
Speaker 1: than just like driving in a cart or pushing a
Speaker 1: push cart.
Speaker 3: But still definitely, definitely. And you know why people tend
Speaker 3: to have more problems carrying back because they tend to
Speaker 3: carry the bag on the same side all the time. Well,
Speaker 3: at least back a few years back. Now with the
Speaker 3: you know the straps that they have where you.
Speaker 1: Can pretty much wear it like a backpack.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so that'serated a lot of discomfort. But you know,
Speaker 3: anytime you're you're toting around ten to fifteen pounds on
Speaker 3: your back, I mean that always tends to you know,
Speaker 3: and you're not accustomed to that. I mean that tends
Speaker 3: to wear the body down a little bit. And you know,
Speaker 3: when you're tired, tired as a precursor to injury because
Speaker 3: you know, the body is just not working as efficiently
Speaker 3: as it should. So you know that can lead to
Speaker 3: injury from you know, a golf swing because your body's tired.
Speaker 3: It could lead to you know, stepping in a hole
Speaker 3: or something and twisting your ankle or a sprinkler head
Speaker 3: or something like that. So fatigue is, you know, also
Speaker 3: one of those factors that you you kind of want
Speaker 3: to make sure that you stay in shape so that
Speaker 3: you can push that threshold of fatigue back, especially if
Speaker 3: you do carry your clubs.
Speaker 1: Great. Well, listen, I know you have to get going
Speaker 1: because you're going to be doing more interviews like this, right,
Speaker 1: You're on other other programs. Congratulations, Let's get an update
Speaker 1: of what you're doing these days and how to get
Speaker 1: in touch with you.
Speaker 3: Well, still doing the golf fitness assessment and training mainly
Speaker 3: in the Greensboro, North Carolina area and down in Myrtle Beach.
Speaker 3: I have a website that people can go to. It's
Speaker 3: got a bunch of educational articles on all the stuff
Speaker 3: we talked about more and they can go to golffit
Speaker 3: Carolina dot com and it's just one F and one T,
Speaker 3: so it's g O L F I T Carolina dot com.
Speaker 3: I've got a book that kind of details the more
Speaker 3: common anatomical deficiencies golfers have. You know, from working with
Speaker 3: hundreds of golfers over the years, you definitely see commonalities
Speaker 3: in terms of which deficiencies tend to be more prevalent.
Speaker 3: So I kind of wrote a book about that. So
Speaker 3: what those are, how to do self assessments to determine
Speaker 3: whether or not you're deficient in those areas. They're really
Speaker 3: not that hard to do. How those deficiencies impact the
Speaker 3: golf swing and or injury potential. And then there are
Speaker 3: also over forty exercises and drills, golf specific exercises and
Speaker 3: drills that are in the book that help you correct
Speaker 3: those deficiencies if you should have them, or just good
Speaker 3: exercises to do to help your golf game in general.
Speaker 3: So if people want to get a hold of me,
Speaker 3: they can get a hold of me at Bob at
Speaker 3: golffit Carolina dot com. And again one F and one T.
Speaker 1: And what is the name of the book.
Speaker 3: The book's name is The Functional Golf Fitness Training, and
Speaker 3: it's on Amazon and you can get printed copies at
Speaker 3: the book patch.
Speaker 1: The Functional give me the title again, Functional.
Speaker 3: Golf, Functional Golf Fitness Training.
Speaker 1: Fitness Training. Okay, it's in my notes and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be in the website. Awesome. Hey Bob, it was great
Speaker 1: talking to you again. Thanks so much for your time
Speaker 1: and for this education.
Speaker 3: Thank Fred, my pleasure anytime.