We had some fun at the IHRSA fitness convention in San Francisco last week. As part of the GRAVITY Master Trainer team, I helped debut the new Total Gym equipment and what a reception they got! In honor of Total Gym’s new product launch, I’ve included a famous celebrity in this week’s video …

Today’s golf fitness tip focuses on Increasing Your Range of Motion (ROM). This is the quickest way to increase your club head speed and gain distance. In addition, if you have more ROM in your hips and shoulders, you will have a more compact swing with less arm movement necessary. Thus, you will improve your consistency as it will be easier for you to get the club face back to the ball squarely.

Remember, of all the components of fitness, the one that ALL good golfers have in common is FLEXIBILITY! Although some pros and low handicappers have a resistance training program to increase their strength, I promise that not one of them would trade an ounce of strength if it compromised their ROM! As famous golf instructor and Tiger Woods former swing quote Butch Harmon said, “Tiger hit the ball farther when he was wiry.”

When you watch the upcoming Master’s Tournament, pay close attention to how much ROM the pros attain through their hips and shoulders. This week’s Total Gym exercise will truly help you swing like the pros!

Hit em’ straight,
JayDee

Click the video image below to watch:

JayDee Cutting is a GRAVITY Master Trainer, certified personal trainer, Pilates instructor and creator of the “Core Golf Fitness” program. JayDee’s Core Golf Fitness DVD offers on-course and warm-up exercises proven to help advance your golf game and is available for purchase at http://coregolffitness.com/.

I began my athletic career in grade school playing football and baseball. I competed in both sports through high school. After earning a football scholarship to Oklahoma State University, I dislocated my shoulder and tore an ACL in my second year. I successfully rehabilitated both injuries and played for two more years. In 1976, I started competing as an amateur ballroom dancer but I wasn’t seeing the shape and definition that I wanted.

I didn’t begin using Total Gym until years later. I was getting sedentary and fat. I also added a partially torn rotator cuff to my injury list. I needed help.

That’s when my son convinced me to buy a Total Gym. This was one of the best decisions I ever made.

The Total Gym didn’t aggravate any of my prior injuries. Instead, it helped me gain strength and flexibility; plus, I lost 30 pounds. In 2003, I started ballroom dancing again and have been using Total Gym to gain more strength and flexibility on the dance floor.

Here are my 5 training tips for aspiring ballroom dancers:

1. Get Quality Instruction – As a guideline, if you enjoy watching an instructor’s style and technique when they dance, take a private lesson with them.
2. Have Fun – Ballroom dance lessons can cost $50 to $100 for a private session. Although pricey, you’ll get the value of private instruction and a great workout. Have fun!
3. Use Visualization – I work with Dr. Ann Taylor, a sports psychologist. Dr. Taylor showed me research confirming that during visualization, the brain sends small impulses to the appropriate muscles. Imagine the practice you can log with no errors and no fatigue!
4. Practice – Enough said.
5. Increase Your Strength and Flexibility – Every Total Gym exercise stretches and tones your body. I now use a Total Gym GTS and recommend any Total Gym model for dancers and even athletes. USE IT!

Here are 4 Total Gym exercises that I use to strengthen and stretch my hamstrings for ballroom dancing.

Respectfully,

Lee Stover

Lee is a Personal Trainer for Performance Enhancement Institute, Inc. in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is certified to instruct GRAVITYPersonal Training and GRAVITYPilates on Total Gym. Additionally, Lee has competed as an amateur ballroom dancer since 1976.

My passion in life is fitness, but golf is a close second. I picked up the game at the ripe old age of two!  I started lifting weights for sports performance at age 12, but it took the last 17 years living my passion as a fitness professional to figure out the most important component to improve my golf mechanics – flexibility!

For a lot of us fitness fanatics who love to put our bodies through energizing, blood pumping, heart pounding workouts, stretching is like flossing: we know it is good for us and we should do it consistently, but it’s often forgotten. My opinion about why we don’t stretch enough is the lack of instant gratification, which our society can’t seem to live without. With resistance training, we feel the pump, the effort exerted and we have that sadistic soreness the next day, which tells us we actually worked something. With cardio, we feel the heart instantly pump harder, our breathing picks up and we start sweating within minutes. With stretching, well – it’s just not sexy! But maybe if you and your clients are armed with reasons why it will improve your golf swing, you’ll give it a shot and make it a regular part of your workouts.

Look at the pros. Some are strong and it’s apparent they work out; but the majority is of normal strength. And then there are plenty of guys and gals who can hit the ball 300+ yards who, if not for their golf spikes, might be blown away by a heavy gust of wind! However, they ALL are extremely flexible and have good timing – two components that are highly correlated and essential for solid golf swing mechanics.

Case in point:  Tiger Woods. He has put on 30 pounds of muscles since he left Stanford; however, his previous swing coach, Butch Harmon, stated, “… [Tiger Woods] hit it farther when he was wiry…” In addition, Tiger’s physical therapist, Keith Kleven divulged that Tiger’s golf and workout sessions begin with 40 minutes of stretching and core work. Kleven has also been recommending Pilates to golfers since 1975, before the mind/body practice became mainstream in the fitness world. Good Pilates repertoire usually consists of an equal amount of lengthening and strengthening the muscles, and of course, core work.

So, if you love golf but still like to strength train like I do, just remember the flexibility component. Be sure to use a lengthy rest time between sets to stretch the muscle you just worked. I like to use Total Gym GTS for this purpose. Here are a few stretches I like to do:

As soon as I complete a chest exercise, I stand up and use my own bodyweight to passively open up the chest, breathe and relax.

Or after a pull-up set, I use the Total Gym and the weight of my body to open up the lats.

And finally, I LOVE the leg pulleys for opening up the hamstrings and hips (and as you can see, I can slip in some abs while stretching!). If you don’t own leg pulleys, buy them! It’s an investment your hamstrings, hips AND your golf swing will LOVE.

And for best results on the course, make sure you take some time to stretch your hips, shoulders and spine. You’ll get more distance, improve your accuracy and prevent injury.

Hit em’ straight!

Feel free to contact JayDee at CuttingEdgeWellness@san.rr.com or check out www.NiceDogYoga.com. JayDee’s CoreGolf Fitness DVD, produced by Total Gym’s own Brian Rose, is due out this August.

According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), recent research shows that stretching before a workout when your muscles are cold could be dangerous. And for those of us that only remember stretches that we learned in high school P.E. class could be hurting ourselves with prehistoric, static stretches! In fact, research shows that holding a stretch without movement before exercise could lead to muscle strains and pulls.

Click here for more information about safe stretching from the fitness experts at ACE.

The unique thing about Total Gym is it’s the only machine where you can both stretch AND strengthen muscles while you’re working out. Watch the video below to see sample stretches on Total Gym. Our experience in the rehab market over the past 35 years tells you we know a thing or two about safe stretching:

Cassie is the Communications Manager for efi Sports Medicine/Total Gym and a published fitness writer. Her “Fitness Wisdom Wednesday” posts appear twice a month on Total Gym Inside. Leave a comment below with suggestions for future posts.

About 8 weeks ago, I went to see my doctor for some pain I was having in my leg. It started as a dull pain but progressed to the point that it caused me to start limping. Sure enough, an X-ray showed that I had a broken fibula in my left ankle. Now after surgery – which left me with a 3″ plate and 6 screws in my ankle – and recently out of a cast, I’m ready to start rehabbing my leg. And what else would I use but Total Gym to help strengthen my leg for walking unassisted again.

I want to invite you to follow me on my rehab journey over the next 12 weeks as I take you through a series of full body Total Gym exercises. Whether you are rehabbing or conditioning, anyone can follow these exercises and get a great workout. Be sure to subscribe to our email and RSS feeds to stay updated when new videos are posted every Monday.

About 8 weeks ago, I went to see my doctor for some pain I was having in my leg. It started as a dull pain but progressed to the point that it caused me to start limping. Sure enough, an X-ray showed that I had a broken fibula in my left ankle. Now after surgery – which left me with a 3″ plate and 6 screws in my ankle – and recently out of a cast, I’m ready to start rehabbing my leg. And what else would I use but Total Gym to help strengthen my leg for walking unassisted again.

I want to invite you to follow me on my rehab journey over the next 12 weeks as I take you through a series of full body Total Gym exercises. Whether you are rehabbing or conditioning, anyone can follow these exercises and get a great workout. Be sure to subscribe to our email and RSS feeds to stay updated when new videos are posted every Monday.

Hi again! Total Gym enthusiasts and trainers! I’m Suzanne Sweeney, certified Gravity instructor, Pilates and personal trainer. I’d like to share some tips and exercises that are extremely valuable to improving posture. I have observed that aside from the all too common lower back complaints, the shoulder girdle complex can be a problem area for muscular imbalance and postural pain syndromes. When the muscles of the shoulder girdle are imbalanced, the mid back is weak and the chest and shoulder muscles are often too tight. This creates a lack of ability to draw the shoulders back and down while the neck muscles overwork and can create pain and discomfort.

The Total Gym is an invaluable tool to gain back flexibility and strength in just the right spots. Daily activities that contribute to forward posture like desk work, computing and driving make it difficult to achieve upright or neutral posture. Trying to do any kind of exercise with this type of posture can increase the risk of injury to the muscles and connective tissue. The varied angular resistance of the Total Gym glide board allows us to stretch and strengthen the correct muscles to achieve a more neutral, pain free posture.

I’d like to use 2 specific positions and shoulder movements on the Total Gym to help us find this neutral posture. Shoulder retraction and protraction, elevation and depression. We will focus on feeling isolated movement of the shoulder blades, meaning that the rest of the body is stabilized in neutral posture. For these exercises, set up the Total Gym glide board no higher than level 3 (third hole from bottom). In the first pair of pictures I am sitting backward holding the pulley handles. Notice in the first picture you can read the Gravity logo on my shirt and in the second picture the material has been “pinched” together. To achieve this, sit with a “tall” feeling, abdominals in and arms kept straight. Let the weight pull your arms forward without slouching and dropping the chest. Then pull the shoulder blades toward one another so it feels like you are trying to hold an orange between them. Hold this position strongly and try some rowing and bicep exercises. Avoid lifting the shoulders toward the ears. If this is challenging for you or feels like limited movement is available, it will improve with practice.

SHOULDERS PROTRACTED FORWARD

SHOULDERS RETRACTED BACKWARD

In this next pair of pictures, using the wing attachment, I am lying prone holding the handles with arms once again extended. In this position keep legs slightly apart and externally rotated, lengthen the whole body. Press the hips down engaging the thighs and the butt. Keep the abdominals pulled in. Press forward moving the glide board up and feel the shoulders come toward your ears, then let your body weight take the glide board down and your shoulders away from your ears. Try to hold this position while doing some shoulder presses. Again there may not be a lot of movement at first but add these little exercises in during your workout and you’ll be feeling taller and stronger. Keep up the good work!

SHOULDER BLADES DEPRESSED DOWNWARD

SHOULDER BLADES ELEVATED UPWARD