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The post Tom Brady’s TB12 is bringing a PGA Tour mindset to Average Joes appeared first on Golf.

BOSTON — It’s shortly after 9 a.m. on a cold spring morning in Boston’s Back Bay, and the TB12 Performance and Recovery Center sounds like hell.

The noises ring out from every corner of the large, windowless studio, which is set into the basement of the center’s glistening Boylston Street storefront. Compared to the smoothie-bar-lined spaceship upstairs, it’s duller, darker, and more professional down here. Or maybe that’s just the steady soundtrack of terror carrying from the treatment rooms, which wrap the basement in a large ‘U’. From one corner of the room, there are low grunts. From another, squeals. And from a third corner, there’s something else: unforgivable, uncontrollable, go-home-and-apologize-to-your-mother profanity.

There is some debate as to who is to blame for the noise. TB12 employees plead ignorance on the matter, while those responsible for the groans seem … pleased with the experience.

Eventually, the sound dampens, and a tall man with an athletic build emerges. He introduces himself as Drew and explains that today, he’ll be responsible for beginning the process of building me up as a golfer. But before he can do that, he’s going to have to spend some time tearing me (and my decidedly inflexible muscles) down.

Drew Ryan is very good at his job. His LinkedIn profile features three separate acronyms signifying his training and pedigree, and his biography indicates he’s studying for more.

So when he first makes contact with a muscle in my hip that’s been bothering me on and off for months, I know he’s not going to injure me. But after 30 seconds of working on the muscle with his elbow, I’m fairly certain he is trying to kill me.

“Think of me as a human foam roller,” he says. “I’m introducing blood flow to the area, which is going to make your muscles more pliable. And what does that mean? That you’ll have more mobility in your body to help with the areas of the golf swing where you’re struggling.”

He tries to change the subject, but it’s no use. I’ve already released a string of profanities long and vile enough to make Howard Stern blush. By the time he moves to a different muscle, I’m plotting my next trip to confession.

A registered athletic trainer, Drew has been working as a body coach at TB12 for three years. His job puts him at the center of Tom Brady’s TB12 Method, a five-pillared approach to athletic and training success that now includes a half-dozen brick-and-mortar establishments across the United States.

The TB12 Method is one-part physical treatment, one-part lifestyle, and five-parts Brady. In its purest form, disciples are expected to follow strict regimens about fitness, wellness, and diet. (Brady famously does not eat tomatoes, citing their inflammatory qualities.) For TB12’s pro athlete clients like Justin Thomas, adopting the TB12 Method might mean diving off the deep end. But as Ryan explains to me, TB12 body coaches encourage clients to meet the program where they are.

“We like to preach ‘everything in moderation,'” he says, interrupting an F-bomb while working on my quads. “Tom is an elite athlete. His approach requires him to be insanely committed. If you’re trying to cut a few strokes off your golf game, you can achieve that without going overboard, but by implementing some good strategies.”

It’s helpful to view TB12’s five pillars — pliability, movement, hydration, balanced nutrition and mental fitness — as a road map. Body coaches use the map to draw a route that will take students from where they are to where they’d like to be. In recent years, TB12 has worked with experts to create programs for clients seeking performance and injury-prevention help in specific sports. Brady, an obsessed golfer, ensured his beloved sport was among the first to receive its own program.

Today, TB12’s golf program is six weeks long, featuring eight sessions aimed to improve flexibility, mobility, balance and the biomechanics of the golf swing. The program was designed with Brady’s touch, so of course, there are plenty of applications for pros and high-level junior golfers. But TB12 employees insist the true target audience is the rest of us — the Average Joes.

My session with Drew technically represented just an initial consultation, but we covered a surprising amount of ground. First, there was an evaluation using high-speed cameras to measure my gait, a TrackMan to measure my golf swing, and squats to measure my mobility and strength.

Then came the hard part: pliability work. Using a little leverage and a lot of elbow grease, Drew honed in on the problem areas: my hips, hip flexors, glutes, quads and calves. It hurt.

As Drew explained, that wasn’t just normal, it was the point.

“A lot of people come in here and think they’re coming in for a massage,” he said. “This is not that. This is deep tissue work. It’s supposed to hurt. But that’s how you get better.

“And yes,” he said, interrupting my next question. “I hear a lot of cursing.”

During the course of our pliability work, Drew and I discussed diet, hydration and sleep. I ate well, I told Drew, but I was inconsistent with my hydration, and I was struggling to sleep, particularly as the golf season grew more busy. We discussed strategies for unplugging at night, giving my body a chance to wind down from the day before trying to sleep. As for hydration? The fix was even easier.

“I always tell people, take your body weight and divide it by two,” he said. “That’s how many ounces of water you should be drinking every day.”

These are the sort of life improvements TB12 strives to make, Drew told me: small, easy and meaningful.

After our pliability work was over, we headed back out to the turf field at the center of the studio for strength and recovery work. As a notorious early extender, Drew theorized my issue wasn’t caused by my “tight” hamstrings, but by my glutes, which were locking up every other muscle on the posterior chain.

He showed me a workout involving overhead squats and leg raises to highlight the muscles he thought were weakest (and most likely to cause an injury.) Then, we spotlighted those muscles again during a foam-rolling session.

“Three minutes a day,” Drew said. “That’s all I’m asking for. Three minutes.”

Later, we talked about the biomechanics of my golf swing, and the many ways in which just small improvements to my mobility could unlock a world of difference on the course.

It was the sort of information I thought only came from PGA Tour physios. The average age of Drew’s golf clients?

“Sixty-five,” he says with a laugh.

With smoothies in hand, we left TB12 90 minutes later. My legs were “light and poppy” — just as Drew had predicted — but they were also wobblier than a cheap table.

I was advised to drink plenty of water and do pliability work before bed, but there was a bit of an issue: I still had a tee time for that afternoon.

We headed to George Wright Golf Course — a Boston muni gem — to test the fruits of our labor, and were surprisingly encouraged with what we’d found. Our walk felt tame, our warmup happened quickly, and though my game quickly disintegrated, my swing felt smoother and less gimpy well into the back nine.

In the weeks after our session, I found my legs and hips moving better. I stuck with a strict stretching-and-foam-rolling regimen after my initial consultation and found my range-of-motion improvements to be significant. Where certain movements used to cause my hips to lock and seize, now, I can feel the muscles are more agreeable (or perhaps less disagreeable … but the result is the same).

I’m still nobody’s definition of flexible, and my fellow TB12 guinea pig Claire Rogers can still dance circles around me in the yoga department. But my stride feels better, my body feels better, and when it comes time to walk the course, my game does too.

For $200, that’s well worth the cost of admission.

Just leave the swear jar at home.

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The post Tee to Green with The Miz appeared first on Golf.

The post Tee to Green with The Miz appeared first on Golf.

Take a walk with WWE superstar The Miz as he plays a hole alongside GOLF.com at the 2022 American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe. Find out how wrestling helps his golf game and what he’s learned so far from his golf lessons.

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The post GOLF’s Subpar: Scott Stallings talks the importance of fitness in golf appeared first on Golf.

The post GOLF’s Subpar: Scott Stallings talks the importance of fitness in golf appeared first on Golf.

Subpar’s Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are joined by 3-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings who talks about how important fitness can be to improving your game.

—

This week’s episode is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. If you’ve never tried FanDuel Sportsbook, what are you waiting for? Go to https://www.fanduel.com/subpar or download the FanDuel Sportsbook app to get started. Be sure to sign up with promo code SUBPAR so they know we sent you.

Disclaimer: must be 21+ and present in AZ, CT, NJ, or NY. First online real money wager only. Refund issued as non-withdrawable site credit that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-(888)-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), or 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), or 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY(467369) (NY).

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The post Why good balance can help you live longer — here’s how to improve yours appeared first on Golf.

The post Why good balance can help you live longer — here’s how to improve yours appeared first on Golf.

When you ask lots of the best players about their keys to consistent ball-striking, one of the common answers you’ll get is “balanced.” Pros are hyper-focused on being balanced in two positions, specifically: at address, and at their finish position. If you start and end your swing on the right foot — no pun intended — it has the effect of improving the middle of your swing.

“Good balance throughout the golf swing is so important,” Calvin Peete, the statistically straightest driver in PGA Tour history, said. “Making sure I build a good foundation and maintain that good foundation throughout the golf swing.”

The benefits of good balance don’t start and end with the golf swing, however. Having good balance, it turns out, could be a harbinger of good health overall.

That was a notion I first learned of this week, via a recent article from the BBC’s Dr. Michael Mosley. In it, Mosley points to a 2014 study from the British Medical Journal, which tracked a group of 1,355 men and 1,411 women starting at age 53 and ending when they were 66. They tested the group on three tests: grip strength, chair-rise speed, and standing single-leg balance time. After 13 years, they found that those performing in the lowest 20 percent had a higher mortality rate than those performing in the highest 20 percent.

“There was some evidence that standing balance time was more strongly associated with mortality than the other two measures,” the study says.

How to improve your balance

If you’re reading this and (like me) worried about your own balance, the good news is that you can improve it!

The easiest way to test your starting point is to perform the Titleist performance Institute’s single-leg balance test (which GOLF Top 100 Teacher Dave Phillips cofounded). Simply stand up straight, lift one leg, and hold it for nearly 30 seconds.

“More than 25 seconds is considered normal, so stop the test after 25 seconds,” Phillips says.

Doing this screen every day will help improve your balance, and there are other golf-specific moves you can do to improve your balance, too: Swinging with your legs together, for instance, or making swings on your front leg only.

A little bit of effort every day, and it’ll pay off in the long run.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

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The post LPGA pro reveals the underrated reason golfers should work out regularly appeared first on Golf.

The post LPGA pro reveals the underrated reason golfers should work out regularly appeared first on Golf.

Leona Maguire wakes up in a different bed nearly every week. 

Such is life when you’re a rising star on the LPGA Tour and the MVP of the Solheim Cup, setting a new record for points earned by a rookie in your first appearance on Team Europe.

Despite the constant travel, the 26-year-old Irishwoman from County Cavan always manages to maintain her routine, especially when it comes to working out in the gym. 

“Routine is a big thing for me.” Maguire said in a KPMG video. “No matter where I am in the world, I get into the same routine.” 

A self-professed early riser, Maguire goes on to explain her gym routine in the video, and more importantly the underrated reason she is so consistent when it comes to her workouts. 

Working out helps you avoid injuries

“A typical day when I’m not competing, I usually do a workout in the gym — four times a week in an off-week,” she says. “Yes, to hit the ball further and get the swing speed up, but also to prevent injuries.”

And there it is. One of the most underrated and often ignored benefits of working out regularly. 

We all hear so much about how you should work out so you can build muscle and increase your power so you can swing the club faster and hit the ball farther. It’s become one of the biggest focal points of the modern game in terms of how people think they will get better at golf and shoot lower scores. 

Fitness

The real benefit of working out regularly for most average golfers isn’t that it will help you make remarkable distance gains and transform you into a Tour level golfer. It’s the fact that it will help keep your body in shape so you can play golf as much as your heart desires while staying injury free.

It’s not rocket science — the better you treat your body now, the better you will feel and play later. 

To hear Maguire tell it, her time in the gym is the most important thing she does for her golf game. The best part is your gym routine doesn’t have to be complicated. 

“Even just going for a swim or something light in the gym like stretching to keep the body loose” will do. 

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The post How cupping, an ancient Chinese recovery technique, can seriously help your golf game appeared first on Golf.

The post How cupping, an ancient Chinese recovery technique, can seriously help your golf game appeared first on Golf.

With the Olympics barely two weeks gone, I’m still thinking about those dark circles you so often see on the backs of swimmers and other elite athletes. Those dark circles are usually the result of cupping, a traditional Chinese medicine technique that aids in muscle recovery. 

While I’ve most likely missed my chance to be an Olympian, I’m a fairly active person who works out at least five times per week, plays golf and generally puts her body through the ringer on a daily basis. In other words, I’m no stranger to sore muscles. 

That being said, I’ve also always been curious about cupping. If it’s good enough for Olympians, it has to have some positive effects right? 

Fitness

As fate would have it, I recently got to give the traditional Chinese medicine technique a try at ORA. I went in not sure what to expect and not totally believing that suctioning some cups to my back would help relieve the tightness I’ve been feeling from all the extra time I’ve spent hunched over my computer in my home office setup.

I was pleasantly surprised by the treatment, so I’ve decided to give you a breakdown of what I learned and why I think cupping is a great option for golfers suffering from back pain, soreness, tightness and stress. 

What is cupping? 

I had the pleasure of working with Sian James, DACM, Lac. LMT, RYT a licensed Acupuncturist and Clinical Massage Therapist during my session at ORA. Full disclosure, my session also included some acupuncture and E-Stim, all of which are great for recovery after a tough day on the course. 

Cupping is a form of acupuncture that uses glass jars that suction to your body to promote musculoskeletal health. The cups can be left stationary or slid across your muscles to help break up tension that’s causing your muscles to be tight. 

What are the benefits?

Cupping is typically used as a recovery technique because of what it can do for your body. 

“If you have joint stiffness, muscular pain, swelling, inflammation, decreased blood flow and tension, cupping is effective as a standalone treatment,” James told GOLF.com. “Cupping can help golfers experiencing soreness by promoting healthy blood flow which brings nutrients to muscle tissue.”

Fitness

Essentially, toxins build up in your system triggering your body’s inflammatory response which causes soreness, swelling and stiffness in your muscles. When the cups are applied to the body, they create a vacuum which increases the blood flow to the area. This helps purge your muscles of toxins and lactic acid, as well as activates the lymphatic system, which helps your muscles to heal and leaves soreness and muscle tension in the dust. 

For golfers, this can mean getting back on the course faster post-injury or playing more holes in a given week because you aren’t as sore and your muscles are better prepared to spend hours swinging away. One of the most important effects of cupping is decreasing muscle tension, which leads to a bigger range of motion in the golf swing. The better your range of motion, the better able you will be to turn in your swing and the farther you will launch the ball off the tee.

Does cupping actually work?

I’m a skeptic at heart, so I wasn’t expecting to feel much of a difference after my session with James. However, I was happy to eat my words.

As many golfers do, I have an extremely tight back — both my upper and lower back are affected, which for a golfer is common and bad for my swing. So focusing on this area for the cupping treatment seemed like a no-brainer.

James applied six cups to my back based on where I was tightest and let them sit there for about five minutes. With the cups attached, I felt an intense but enjoyable pressure.

And then came my favorite part — James moved the cups across my back. It sounds mundane, but feeling my muscles pop and crunch as the tension was relieved was one of the most satisfying sensations I’ve experienced in my young life.

Once the treatment was over, I noticed an immediate difference. My shoulders and upper back in particular felt more relaxed and, as evidenced by the perfectly circular bruises left across my back, blood flow to the area was definitely increased. 

Of course everyone is different, but using this technique to help loosen your muscles is a godsend when you go to swing a club. Tight muscles are the enemy of a good golf swing because they prohibit your body from rotating properly, which saps your swing of power. Cupping solved that problem for me, and while I wasn’t able to get in 18 holes (I had already taken a half day for a spa treatment…) I did take a few practice swings out of curiosity. 

My turn in my backswing was a little bigger, but the biggest takeaway was that I simply felt better than I had in ages. And we all know, feeling good on the golf course is just as important as having a good swing, because you can’t play your best if you don’t feel your best.

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The post Why drinking a hot beverage on a hot day will cool you off on the course appeared first on Golf.

The post Why drinking a hot beverage on a hot day will cool you off on the course appeared first on Golf.

It’s capital H-O-T hot in Kawagoe, Japan with the heat index reaching upwards of 100 degrees each day. 

It’s so hot that Lexi Thompson’s caddie had to leave her bag on the 15th hole during her first round and Yuka Saso’s caddie was rushed to the hospital after succumbing to heat exhaustion during a practice round. 

With the temperatures soaring, players have been sharing their secrets to staying cool in the heat. While most of the women have suggested drinking water, replenishing electrolytes and staying in the shade as much as possible, Danielle Kang had a completely different response to the question of staying cool in extreme heat.

Fitness

“I actually keep warm during the heat and I drink hot tee on the golf course,” Kang told reporters. “I don’t like contrasting hot and cold, then I feel like I’m hotter. I feel more of the heat. So I try and feel a bit neutralizing internal and external and just breathe through it.”

Kang’s unique method of staying cool piqued my interest, especially because I’ve heard of this before, but I’ve never heard a professional athlete say they actually do it. So, I decided to look into it. 

Lo and behold, science backs Kang’s method up.

Well, sort of. 

Does drinking a hot beverage on a hot day help you feel cooler?

Yes…and no. 

In a 2012 study, Ollie Jay, a researcher at the University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics at the time, found that consuming hot beverages in hot weather during exercise could actually help lower your body’s overall heat storage.

The way this works is pretty simple: When you drink something warm, receptors on your tongue send signals to your brain that you’re ingesting something hot. Your brain then takes on the responsibility of cooling you off by telling your body to sweat. It’s similar to why experts say taking a lukewarm shower on a hot day can actually help cool you down faster.

However, when it comes to drinking the hot beverage: In order for this response to actually cool you off, your sweat has to be able to completely evaporate. This is because when you sweat, your body uses the excess heat building up internally to help it evaporate. If it’s humid out, that sweat will simply sit on your skin and your body won’t be able to expel the excess heat as effectively.

If you’re in a hot, humid environment like say, Kawagoe, Japan, consuming a hot beverage will definitely make you sweat more, but that moisture won’t evaporate, leaving you hot and sweaty rather than providing relief from the heat.

What about cold beverages? 

Jay also found that drinking cold beverages had a similar, but opposite effect on the body whereby participants in his study who drank cold beverages actually sweat less because the drinks cooled their internal temperatures and their bodies held onto more heat as w result.

When should you drink hot vs. cold beverages on the golf course? 

When it comes to playing golf, there are a lot of factors to consider when prepping for your round. While Danielle Kang’s preference for drinking hot beverages works, you need the right conditions to make sure your sweat can evaporate completely. 

This means you really should be checking the weather before you play a round of golf to determine if grabbing a hot tea or coffee is worth it. If you’re playing in high temps, but low humidity, grab a hot drink.

In hot, humid climates though, you’re better off sticking with ice water and other cold beverages that will help you cool off internally.

Since the goal of any round is to play your best and have fun, do what will keep you cool on the course and under pressure standing over a birdie putt.

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The post 3 simple steps to eliminate back pain at 50 and beyond appeared first on Golf.

The post 3 simple steps to eliminate back pain at 50 and beyond appeared first on Golf.

Editor’s note: This article was published in partnership with GolfForever.

Raise your hand if back pain has ever prevented you from playing your best on the course?

*In this hypothetical situation, there are tons of hands in the air (and we really do care).*

Back pain, and more specifically lower back pain, is one of the most common issues among golfers, especially as they age. In fact, 84% of GolfForever’s subscribers reported that pain had significantly impacted their golf swing, and as a result, their game.

While aging can negatively affect the body in a number of ways, you can do something about it.

GolfForever

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“About 80% of the aches and pains associated with aging are preventable based on your lifestyle and choices you make,” Dr. Jeremy James, co-founder of GolfForever, a personalized golf fitness and pain relief digital program and app, told GOLF.com.

So how exactly can you manage, reduce and ultimately get rid of your back pain so you can play your best golf forever?

Read on for Dr. James’ shared best advice for eliminating pain from your game.

1. Develop mobility in your upper back

Focusing your efforts to develop mobility in your upper back and shoulders is extremely important when it comes to addressing back pain, especially if you’re feeling it in your lower back. That might sound counterintuitive, but by improving your mobility in your thoracic spine and shoulders with the help of a program like GolfForever you will actually help relieve the pain you feel in your lower back when you swing. 

This is because you are better able to rotate back and through your swing, which alleviates the torque on your lumbar spine, eliminating the cause of most lower back pain.

Instruction

2. Develop endurance in your core muscles

Your core plays a vital role in powering your golf swing. It also plays a vital role in stabilizing your back as you swing,. However, your core can’t properly stabilize and support your spine in the golf swing if you don’t work on your core strength.

According to Dr. James, that means more than doing some influencer’s ab workout you saw on Instagram. Rather, you need to develop endurance (the ability to sustain a muscle contraction over a long period of time). This is where GolfForever’s programming comes in: They use exercises like planks, bird dogs and side planks to develop this endurance through isometric holds.

Simply put, GolfForever is designed to strengthen your core in a way that will stand up to the demands of a violent rotational movement like the golf swing, which is exactly what you need to feel and play better on the course.

3. Dial in your warm up routine

The impact a good warm-up routine can have on your golf swing cannot be understated. You wouldn’t walk into a gym and immediately start running on a treadmill or lifting heavy weights without getting your body loose and warmed up first because you’d put yourself at risk for injury. The same applies to playing golf — getting out of the car and heading straight to the range or the 1st tee without prepping your body is a recipe for disaster.

Whether or not you feel pain when you swing a club, a good warm-up can help you play your best golf. In fact, 87% of GolfForever’s users say the program’s warm-up routines significantly help their on-course performance in part because a good warm-up reduces their pain and prevents injury. If that’s not enough to convince you, give the below warm-up routine a try the next time you play. We bet you’ll feel a difference from the 1st tee to the 18th green.

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The post The best kept Tour secret for longevity on the course (and beyond) appeared first on Golf.

The post The best kept Tour secret for longevity on the course (and beyond) appeared first on Golf.

This article was published in partnership with GolfForever.

Father Time takes no prisoners. Eventually, we all feel the effects of aging on our bodies, and as a result, our scorecards.

That is, unless you’re Phil Mickelson, in which case winning majors at 50 isn’t out of the question.

Given that longevity in professional sports is more the exception than the rule, it’s crazy to think that a 50-year-old Mickelson won the PGA Championship just weeks ago. It’s even crazier to consider the trend of older players (no offense, Phil and company) not only winning, but also playing some of the best golf of their careers.

Take Lee Westwood for example, who earlier this year gave Justin Thomas a run for his money at the Players Championship and the very next week nearly beat Bryson DeChambeau at Bay Hill … at 48 years old.

Stewart Cink, also 48, has added 20 yards off the tee and won twice during the 2021 Tour season so far. And then there’s Bernhard Langer, who’s still crushing it on the Champions Tour and at the Masters at 63 years old.

With all that success, it’s hard not to wonder about the secret to such a long career on the course.

The secret to being fit at 50:

If you look at Mickelson, Westwood, Cink, Langer and any number of Tour players between the ages of 40 and 50, there’s one common thread: they’ve figured out the ideal fitness and nutrition routines to keep their bodies in peak physical condition.

It’s not the sexiest solution, and you likely won’t ever see the work these guys put in at the gym on a broadcast, which is precisely why a proper fitness routine one of the best secrets to longevity on the course.

While staying fit at 50 is important for these veteran Tour players, it’s arguably even more important for you, the average golfer. 

Why fitness at 50 is so important:

Mainly because after age 40, our bodies begin to break down, according to Dr. Jeremy James, founder of GolfForever, a custom digital fitness program and app that can help you get and stay fit at 50. We lose muscle mass, flexibility and range of motion. Unless we do something to combat it, we will eventually lose our ability to swing a golf club well enough to make it around 18 holes pain-free.

GolfForever

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That breakdown leads to aches and pains that can significantly impact our ability to play the game we love. In fact, 84% of GolfForever members reported that pain had significantly impacted their golf swing.

How to beat Father Time

The good news is you have a choice in how aging impacts your body, and by proxy your golf game.

“About 80% of the aches and pains associated with aging are mostly preventable based on your lifestyle and choices you make,” Dr. James told GOLF.com.

Everything from leading a sedentary lifestyle (looking at you, 9-5 crowd) to poor diet to failing to exercise regularly can hurt your body as you age. That’s why Mickelson is the perfect example of how a consistent diet and exercise routine are so important at this later stage of his career.

“Yes, you can make all these changes for your body after 50 and dramatically improve your life,” he said. “But fitness programs for 50-year-olds are not the same as they are for 20 and 30-year-olds.” 

That last part is incredibly important because it’s not enough to just jump back into the gym and start lifting heavy weights willy nilly. You need an age-appropriate fitness routine that addresses your flexibility and mobility and then progressively builds your strength.

That’s why GolfForever’s approach to fitness is unique — they customize a plan specifically for you based on where your problem areas are and help you safely build up the flexibility and strength necessary to play your best golf, age be damned.

In the coming weeks, we’re teaming up with the experts at GolfForever to cover a broad range of topics and share expert advice on how to get fit and stay fit at 50.

So here’s to beating back Father Time, and staying on the course longer than ever.

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The post Feel (and play) your best with this LPGA pro’s two-step recovery formula appeared first on Golf.

The post Feel (and play) your best with this LPGA pro’s two-step recovery formula appeared first on Golf.

SAN FRANCISCO — Prior to her 1:40 p.m. practice round on Tuesday, Ally Ewing hadn’t hit a single shot on Olympic Club’s Lake Course ahead of the U.S. Women’s Open. 

“I probably shouldn’t have been out there at all,” Ewing admitted.

Coming off of her second career win at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play, Ewing needed all the rest she could get — understandable given the fact that she played 120+ holes of golf in the Las Vegas desert. 

The most important thing the 28-year-old can do heading into the second major of the year is recover. 

“Monday to Wednesday at a U.S. Open is normally very full with preparation,” Ewing told reporters. “This year, I’m taking it a little bit differently because I think, for me, it’s just going to be more important to be rested by Thursday.” 

After a successful week in the desert at Shadow Creek, Ewing’s emphasis on rest and recovery doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, you can probably learn something from her example.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your typical post-round beer and nap on the couch isn’t exactly what Ewing means when she’s talking about recovery. 

As weekend warriors, we tend to cram our rounds into a rather short 48 hour window. Given that we’re not elite athletes like those playing on Tour, our bodies are typically less prepared for such a physically demanding marathon. What’s more, we typically don’t do much to help our bodies recover, even though we need it more than we think. 

“Walking into an office setting on Monday might be a little bit different than walking into a major championship week,” Ewing said, “But hydration and adequate sleep, letting your mind mentally go into a place of rest rather than being overwhelmed [will help you recover.]”

Hydration is incredibly important to the recovery process, especially given our bodies are about 60% water. Drinking enough water will replace what you’ve lost, sure, but it also helps maximize your performance and improves energy levels. That means whether you’ve got another round of golf or an early morning Zoom call the next day, you’ll be at your best.

Getting as much sleep and rest as you can is the two-time LPGA winner’s second piece of advice for recovering well. While your local course’s tee sheet might be too packed to easily swap your tee time like Ewing was able to do on Tuesday at Olympic, there are other ways to ensure you get enough rest before your round or work.

The simplest way to do this is to make sure you go to bed early enough to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep. Learning to listen to your body when it comes to rest will also go a long way in helping you perform your best on and off the course. 

Regardless of how you do it, being smart about how you recover will not only help you feel fresh the next morning, but also help prepare your body for your next round. After all, you can’t play your best if you don’t feel your best. 

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