Exercizing is killing my muscle memory!

Albatros · June 4, 2006

Swing never feels the same

Just wanted to get some thoughts on my workout experience. I have to due regular core excersizes for a bad back. So I do them every other day and do some running too. But its really killing my swing feel. You know how it just feels like your out of sync? My consistency is way down.

The core exersizes I do are mainly situps, leg lifts and about 5 exercizes using the swiss ball.

I do stretching work as well. I can almost bend over and put my palms on the floor with straight legs and have no problem with rotational flexibility. I'm a 12.2 handicap and for the last few months since starting the excersizes, I haven't scored under 90!!!! Its killing me.

Any thoughts on why this is affecting my swing so much and how to remedy the situation?

taylormadefan · June 4, 2006

If you're just starting your exercising it may take a little while to get used to it.

I really think only positive things can come from working out. Increased muscle and body position awareness, flexibility, all should add up to great consistency and speed.

A lot of the guys on tour work out pretty hard a couple of hours before thier tee times now. Can't see them doing that if it truly hurt their swings. Give it time, I think your body is still getting used to your increased flexibility.

Albatros · June 4, 2006

Which exercises are you doing with the swiss ball? As long as you're balancing out the core work - ensuring that there's no disparity between the muscle you're putting on the front and the backside - the only thing that you'd have to get used to would be that you're stronger there. Are your misses consistent?

My misses seem to be push-slices for the most part.

I don't know the exact names for them....

1. Ball inbetween feet, leg lifts with raising rear off ground at top

2. Ball inbetween feet, lower legs to side and the over to the other side

3. Back arches with pelvis resting on the ball

4. Pelvic raises, with feet on the ball

5. Russian twist with 5lb weight

6. In push up position with knees on ball, twist the lower body side to side.

7. Sit ups on the ball.

littlepoison · June 4, 2006

If you're just starting your exercising it may take a little while to get used to it.

I really think only positive things can come from working out. Increased muscle and body position awareness, flexibility, all should add up to great consistency and speed.

A lot of the guys on tour work out pretty hard a couple of hours before thier tee times now. Can't see them doing that if it truly hurt their swings. Give it time, I think your body is still getting used to your increased flexibility.

Can't argue with TMfan here at all... getting back into working out really goofed my swing when I first started, but now that my body is much more used to it, it's definately paying off

Albatros · June 4, 2006

Thanks for the responses. I'll just keep it up and expect the best.

littlepoison · June 7, 2006

Thanks for the responses. I'll just keep it up and expect the best. :crazy:

Just a thought here... cuz the push slice sounds very familiar to me, as I've had to work VERY hard on fighting my tendency to hang back on the rear foot... make sure that you're not "tired" when you're hitting balls... I only really noticed the benefits of the working out when I actually gave myself an extra couple of days off before going back to the range... oddly enough, taking a little more time off seemed to let me recover a bit more, and feel much, much stronger while hitting balls :yahoo:

GolfFitPro · June 7, 2006

Thanks for the responses. I'll just keep it up and expect the best. :crazy:

Just a thought here... cuz the push slice sounds very familiar to me, as I've had to work VERY hard on fighting my tendency to hang back on the rear foot... make sure that you're not "tired" when you're hitting balls... I only really noticed the benefits of the working out when I actually gave myself an extra couple of days off before going back to the range... oddly enough, taking a little more time off seemed to let me recover a bit more, and feel much, much stronger while hitting balls :yahoo:

Good point Littlepoison.

I see the same thing with my fitness clients. Rest/Recovery is one of the most neglected parts of the fitness equation and I think the same applies to hitting balls. Your body needs to recover.

I actually wrote about the topic in my blog.

Check it out at

http://fitnessforbettergolf.typepad.com/be...ery_from_w.html

Anthony

Albatros · June 8, 2006

Just a thought here... cuz the push slice sounds very familiar to me, as I've had to work VERY hard on fighting my tendency to hang back on the rear foot... make sure that you're not "tired" when you're hitting balls... I only really noticed the benefits of the working out when I actually gave myself an extra couple of days off before going back to the range... oddly enough, taking a little more time off seemed to let me recover a bit more, and feel much, much stronger while hitting balls :crazy:

I agree with the rest factor. I'm just trying to jam in as much excersize and practice I can before a 36 hole tourney I have coming up. If I play close to my handicap and put in one round under my index, I have a shot at the low gross and net.

Regarding hanging back, I'm not sure that's my problem. When I want to draw/hook the ball, I purposely try to keep my right foot on the ground through the ball. Since I have an in to out path, keeping my weight more even causes me to close the face faster. But there can be more than one type of miss from a swing flaw, so I'll check that out on the range, thanks.

littlepoison · June 11, 2006

A little update... hadn't worked out for a while, but doing some work I had to move a rediculous amount of inventory over a few days and felt like I had done a week's worth of dropsets at a gym :crazy: gave it a few days and then hit some balls today... first session didn't go so well, but I actually am quite a glutton for punishment, and had a chance to hit some with dad, so back to the range we went... I was actually able to go almost 100% through the second large bucket before my back started to tire out, and the weak wipes to the right returned. So I'm a much bigger believer in the recovery theory now ;)

BTW GFP, great article :yahoo: