The post This is the best way to cure jet lag, according to LPGA Tour star Lydia Ko appeared first on Golf.

The post This is the best way to cure jet lag, according to LPGA Tour star Lydia Ko appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Road Rules, a GOLF.com series in which we pick the brains of expert golf travelers, ranging from professional golfers and caddies to globetrotting course raters and teachers. We’ll unlock their must-have travel items, go-to airline tips and more to inform you for your next golf excursion.

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Professional golfers are jet setters by trade. One week, they’re playing stateside and the next they’re competing on the opposite side of the globe. It’s a perk of the job getting to see so many parts of the world, but it can also take a toll on their bodies.

While modern air travel has connected the world more than ever before, it can also present some challenges for athletes trying to compete at the highest level each week. Sitting on a plane for 12+ hours is stressful on the body, and that’s before taking jet lag into consideration.

For the domestic travelers reading his, jet lag is the phenomenon that occurs when traveling across many time zones at a time. While the clocks at your destination might show that it’s the middle of the night, your body clock is still adjusted to your jumping-off point.

Fitness

This lack of synchronization between your body and the clocks might not be a huge deal when the only thing on your daily agenda is shopping and tourist attractions, but for athletes prepping to compete, it can be bothersome.

Luckily for pro athletes — golfers especially — they become somewhat experts on the best ways to combat jet lag in their years crisscrossing the globe. According to LPGA star Lydia Ko, the remedy is simple.

“Just sleep,” Ko said at last week’s Pelican Women’s Championship. “My trick is sometimes — obviously I don’t do it when I have a tournament the week after — but I will not sleep the night before so that I am very, very tired on the plane so I sleep the whole flight.”

Ko said that she’s become quite good at this technique. So good, in fact, that it will sometimes worry the flight attendants on her trans-continental flights.

Split image of lpga pro lydia ko at golf tournament and an airplane flying away”Sometimes the flight attendants ask me if I’m okay because they’re worried I’m sick because I’ve slept through a 15-hour flight,” she said. “To all the flight attendants out there, I’m the most probably low-key, hands-off, hands-free passenger on board.”

If you’ve got a flight around the world soon, take a page out of Ko’s book and pull an all-nighter beforehand. It should allow you to get some Zs on the plane and wake up refreshed and ready to go by the time the plane touches down at your destination.

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The post Home Fitness: Mobility Week 2 appeared first on Golf.

The post Home Fitness: Mobility Week 2 appeared first on Golf.

This 4-week golf program with fitness expert Carolina Romero focuses on performing exercises that are good for the rolling of tight muscles, upper body rotation, lower body rotation, as well as upper and lower body separation.

The post Home Fitness: Mobility Week 2 appeared first on Golf.

The post These 20 healthy eating tips for golfers helped me lose 40 pounds appeared first on Golf.

The post These 20 healthy eating tips for golfers helped me lose 40 pounds appeared first on Golf.

As 2020 comes to a close and we turn the page to 2021, GOLF staffers are taking a minute to reflect on … whatever they want. Welcome to 20 for 20.

Between all the shutdowns, lockdowns and quarantines, most people spent more time than they’d like stuck inside this year, not getting as much exercise as they usually would. Thankfully, the golf course has been a welcome source of exercise for so many golfers. But if you want to play more golf and use 2021 as a year to shed a few pounds, there are a few things I learned during my own weight loss journey that could help you, too…

1. Understand why you’re doing it

This may sound a bit fluffy, but it’s really important to establish why you want to lose weight. You don’t need to go around telling people why you’re doing it, and it doesn’t need to be some high-minded goal. It’s perfectly fine that the reason why you want to lose weight is because you simply want to look better. It doesn’t matter what that reason is, but it does matter that you have one, because that’s what’s going to keep you focused throughout your journey and give you the encouragement to pick yourself up after the bad days.

2. Commit to something sustainable

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they’re trying to lose weight is that they commit to a diet that they’ll never be able to sustain over the long term. I, for instance, could never be a vegan because I simply love meat and dairy too much. Could I do it for a short period of time and lose weight because of it? Sure. But I knew at some point I’d fall off the wagon, and potentially gain it all back.

So keep that in mind when you’re starting out. Personally, I went with WW (formerly known as Weight Watchers) and can’t recommend it highly enough. But there are lots of options out there, so do your research and pick something that you think you could keep up long-term — potentially forever.

3. Don’t rely on working off your calories

Along those lines, some people make the mistake of trying to lose weight by adopting some crazed workout routine rather than changing their eating habits. Eating whatever you want and then working off the calories in the gym might work in the short term, but it’s far more difficult to sustain for the years to come. Plus it violates Gary Player’s 60/40 rule.

4. Work in little bits of exercise

That’s not to say working out isn’t important — it obviously is. And I say this as someone who doesn’t particularly like working out. One way I’ve been able to square that circle is by simply trying to work in little bits of exercise throughout the day. I try to walk more when I play, rather than ride; I try make at least 20 golf swings a day; if I know I’m having a particularly hefty dinner, I may go for a short jog. Small stuff that adds up, which brings me to my next point…

5. Look for small, small gains

Stuff adds up. It’s that simple. You’d be surprised how much weight you can gain from stuff you don’t even think about, but the flip side of that coin is that you’ll be amazed at how much weight you can lose by swapping in some lower-calorie items. A little bit of whole or skim milk in your coffee rather than half and half. Wheat toast instead of white. Light butter instead of full fat. These weren’t painstaking adjustments but yielded big gains.

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6. Don’t drink away your calories

Losing weight is a relatively simple equation: You need more calories going out than calories coming in. With that in mind: Those cans of beer, glasses of wine and snazzy cocktails all have more calories than you might think. If you’re adjusting your eating habits and still not losing weight the way you think you should be, it could be because you’re drinking all your calories.

7. Monitor your portion sizes

Of all the things on the list, this is without doubt the most important. Weigh out how much you’re eating, because you’re almost certainly eating more of it than you think. Invest in a cheap food scale, and make sure you’re hitting the serving sizes of things like pasta, and meat, and the various oils you may be adding to your food. If accidental overeating is the cause, monitoring your portion sizes is the solution.

8. Drink more water

People rarely drink enough water. This is especially true for golfers, who are losing fluids while they play and often replacing them with things like beer. Drinking water helps pretty much everything: It helps your brain and body function better, it speeds up your metabolism, and it keeps you feeling more full.

9. Eat more protein

Speaking of things that make you more full: Protein! You want to make sure the calories you are eating don’t get burned off in a flash and leave you hungry. The key is to look for lean foods. Foods without empty calories, that will keep you full and give you sustained energy throughout the day. Eggs, turkey cold cuts, and chicken breast are some of my go-tos.

10. Throw in some vegetarian days

I love a good steak too much to commit to being a vegetarian over the long term, but meat also carries with it lots of calories, so I try not to go overboard. Everybody’s different, but I generally try to go meatless about two days every week. I treat them as mini-cleanses.

11. Don’t stress over setbacks

Losing weight is like playing golf. Sometimes you’re feeling the flow and play several good holes in a row. Other times it’s difficult and you make some big numbers. Just like in golf, the key to those bad holes is to make sure one bad hole doesn’t become two, or ruin your entire round. Accept the result and move on. Setbacks will happen, and when they do, don’t give up. Start fresh the next day.

12. Eat one sweet treat a day

I have a sweet tooth. I doubt I’ll ever get rid of it  — I don’t even want to — so my goal is to manage it. I do this by allowing myself one sugary treat a day. I know that if I don’t give myself a little outlet, I’d eventually fall off the wagon. It may not be sweets for you, but the advice still applies: Find your guilty pleasure, and figure out how to enjoy it in a healthy, balanced way.

13. You can have everything, but not all at once

Along those lines, I’m a fan of the general approach that Weight Watchers employs: You can have whatever you want, but keep track, and enjoy it in moderation. Pasta might be your favorite food around, and that’s ok! You should not give up pasta if you don’t want to. But instead, enjoy it in moderation. Don’t eat it every night. Don’t binge it. And when you do eat, maybe don’t follow it up with a bunch of bread and a big dessert.

14. Never let yourself get too hungry

Coming into a meal too hungry is a recipe for overeating. As long as you know that, you’ll be able to take steps to ensure that doesn’t happen. And the good news is that’s a problem easily solved: Something as small as eating a banana between lunch and dinner can help satisfy your hunger, and ensure you wont overeat when you do have a full plate of food in front of you.

15. Think and plan ahead

A big part of making all of this work, for me, was to simply plan ahead. Think about what you’re having for dinner. If it’s carb-heavy, maybe don’t eat a hefty sandwich for lunch. If you’re having something fatty for breakfast, plan something more lean for dinner. On Sundays, golfers in contention look at leaderboards and consider their remaining holes as they make decisions. Adopt that same mentality with food by looking ahead at your meals for the day.

16. Don’t rely on outside validation

You may be incredibly proud of losing those first seven pounds (and you should be!) but the people around you may not notice right away. You may, naturally, feel disappointed about that, but this is why it’s so important for you to have established a “why.” Don’t hand control of that over to others; focus on why YOU want to lose weight, because that’s what’s really important. And if you stick to whatever plan you’ve devised to help yourself lose weight, it’s only be a matter of time before people start noticing (and offering compliments!).

17. Be patient

In golf, there are times when you can do all the right things but the scores just don’t come. Often, it simply takes time. The same is true with weight loss. You probably won’t see drastic changes at first. It’ll take some time for your body to adjust, and even then, you won’t wake up one day and find yourself 15 pounds lighter. It just doesn’t work that way. It goes little by little, half-pound by half-pound, so stick with your process. You’ll be happy you did.

18. Set a goal weight

It doesn’t matter what your goal is — it also doesn’t matter if your goal changes along the way. You may achieve your goal and realize you want to keep going (though you should also make sure to keep monitoring your BMI, and listen to your doctor’s advice about maintaining a healthy weight). But giving yourself a target to shoot for will help keep you motivated.

19. Don’t fear the scale

Along those lines, don’t fear the scale. Get used to getting on it, at least once a week. Be honest with yourself, and be transparent about how you’re trending. The same way you keep score and maintain a handicap in golf, the same is true with losing weight.

20. Maintenance is just as important

And finally, if you work hard and stick with it, there’ll be a point where you accomplish your goal. You’ll be pleased with the way you look, you’ll feel better and people will toss compliments your way left and right. Congratulations! But when that does happen, don’t take a victory lap. Clip into maintenance mode. Adopt your new healthy habits for good, and make sure your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

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The post Trying Mel Reid’s Intense Workout appeared first on Golf.

The post Trying Mel Reid’s Intense Workout appeared first on Golf.

LPGA Tour winner Mel Reid is one of the fittest golfers in the world, and she showed it to us by making our own Sean Zak look woefully out of shape during one of her density workouts.

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The post Use this 3-second breathing technique to de-stress on or off the golf course appeared first on Golf.

The post Use this 3-second breathing technique to de-stress on or off the golf course appeared first on Golf.

Things in the world are pretty stressful right now for a number of reasons that I don’t need to expand on here. But that’s partly why it’s so nice to spend some time away from it all, in some solitude on the golf course. That’s only when you’re playing well, though. When your game starts going south, things can get immensely frustrating, and suddenly a round that was supposed to be refreshing has turned annoying.

We all have those days — alas, it’s one of those core things that we love about golf — and the next time it happens to you, remember this simple breathing technique from former professional football player and bestselling author Lewis Howes, which I caught while scrolling through TikTok.

How to de-stress in 3 seconds

All it takes is two steps. Repeat about four times, or however long it takes you to start feeling less stressed.

You can watch for yourself below:

It may sound deceptively simple, but there’s actually some good science backing the technique. The point of the two short breaths following one long exhale, is that it forces a 2-to-1 breathing pattern that has become commonplace in yoga. When your exhalations become short and you don’t utilize your full lung capacity with longer breaths, it can cause increase your blood pressure and cause other toxins to accumulate.

In simple terms, your heart rate goes up the more you inhale and drops the more you exhale, so when you make your exhalations longer than your inhalations, you’re re-balancing your circulatory system and releasing tension as a result. It’s why, as Harvard Business Review reports below, breathing is such an effective way of counteracting stress:

“So what makes breathing so effective? It’s very difficult to talk your way out of strong emotions like stress, anxiety, or anger. Just think about how ineffective it is when a colleague tells you to ‘calm down’ in a moment of extreme stress. When we are in a highly stressed state, our prefrontal cortex — the part of our brain responsible for rational thinking — is impaired, so logic seldom helps to regain control. This can make it hard to think straight or be emotionally intelligent with your team. But with breathing techniques, it is possible to gain some mastery over your mind.“

So whether you’re on the course or having a stressful day in the office, take a few seconds to monitor your breathing. It’s an easy way to shoot lower scores, and be happier even when you’re not!

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The post 1 mistake you’re making that’s causing you to crash on the golf course appeared first on Golf.

The post 1 mistake you’re making that’s causing you to crash on the golf course appeared first on Golf.

Welcome to Play Smart, a new game-improvement column that drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from Managing Editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.

It’s not a stretch to say that often the most important things you do on a golf course have nothing to do with the act of swinging a club. What you’re eating and drinking as you play falls squarely into that catagory.

Like most golfers, I didn’t used to care much about what I was putting into my body when I played. I’d usually reach for the nearest candy bar and gulp down an energy drink whenever I was thirsty. It was only when I started noticing my energy crashing during the latter part of my round that I took a good, hard look at my diet and realized the problem.

Turns out I was making some pretty basic mistakes that were costing me energy and strokes. It’s why this recent video from Dr. Greta Anderson, an LPGA Class A Teaching Professional, caught my eye. She started by sharing a simple rundown of the various things you can drink to hydrate on the golf course.

You can watch the full video here, or check out Greta’s chart below.

As you can see, Greta highlights the sugar, calories and sodium of nine different beverages. It’s easy, looking at this, for your eyes to drift to one column and jump to conclusions, but Greta repeatedly makes an important point: Every one of these products on the list has a purpose, depending on what you want from it. The key is consuming them at the right time and the right quantity — and that’s where I was making my mistake.

Let’s take a look at Gatorade, one of the drinks highlighted above which doubles as one of my personal favorites.

Gatorade was invented by a group of scientists at the University of Florida in the 1960s, who concocted a formula expressly designed to help athletes replenish the various fluids that they lose during physical exercise. It’s why it has some seriously valuable stuff in it, including high amounts of sodium, which helps your body retain water and keep you hydrated, along with higher levels of sugar, which can give you a quick boost of short-term energy when you need it quickly.

Both those ingredients, when used as intended, can have serious benefits. But have you noticed the number of serving sizes in a standard 24-ounce bottle of Gatorade? It has more than two. That means if you were thirsty, picking up a bottle at the turn and downing and entire bottle within a hole or two, you’re effectively hardwiring into your system 48 grams of sugar — almost 100% of your daily recommended amount — and 380 mg of sodium at once.

Over the next hour your blood sugar is going to go through the roof, but as quickly as it came, it’ll disappear. By the time you enter the final stretch of your round, you’ll probably be exhausted and not able to perform at your best.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with the sugar or anything else in Gatorade — that’s the point of it. It’s a powerful formula designed for a specific purpose. The key is consuming it as it’s intended, so rather than guzzling it down all at once, buy a bottle and keep it with you throughout your round. Drink it in small doses, slowly and repeatedly throughout your 4+ hour round. Drink it alongside a bottle of water so you can keep your energy levels at a sustained, stable level. That way you’ll be getting yourself hydrated and avoiding the spike-crash cycle that can ruin your round, and cost your shots.

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The post Golf provides ‘significant health benefits’ to older players, new study reveals appeared first on Golf.

The post Golf provides ‘significant health benefits’ to older players, new study reveals appeared first on Golf.

Non-golfers might respond with eye-rolls to any suggestion that the game of golf provides participants with quality exercise, especially compared to other sports. But according to a new research study supported by the R&A, golf is not only a good form of exercise, it can significantly improve quality of life for older golfers in a host of different ways.

Over the course of two years, duel research teams at the University of Southampton in England and the University of Southern California studied the effects of playing golf on older participants. The result is the “The Strength and Balance Study,” which concluded that golf provides numerous “strength and balance benefits” to older golfers.

Lifestyle

The two research groups went about things slightly differently. Researchers at Southampton studied 152 people 65 and older to “demonstrate the physical and psychosocial benefits associated with playing recreational golf regularly by comparing physical measures between older golfers and sedentary non-golfers.”

Scientists at USC, on the other hand, tracked 15 individuals to find “if non-golfers developed these benefits while undertaking a 10-week instructional golf training programme.”

The results were quite conclusive: golf is good for your health. But let’s get into specifics.

Among the most interesting findings was that golf provided numerous strength and balance benefits to the participants studied when compared to “sedentary non-golfers.” Why is that important? The World Health Organization recommends strength and balance exercises to fight inactivity in older people.

Additionally, the studies demonstrated that “the physical demands recorded during a golf round were equivalent or greater than the demands for other common activities e.g. gym work or yoga.” So that should help quiet those judgy non-golfers.

Finally, the study found evidence that participants received mental health benefits as well from increased access to “green space,” i.e. spending time outdoors in nature, and from the social interaction that comes with playing the game.

Fitness

These are benefits that more and more people have come to appreciate and understand during the Covid-19 pandemic, and no doubt play a major role in the dramatic increase of rounds played in the U.S. this summer, as well as the record number of new players taking up the game. Now we know that if all the new golf addicts they stick with it, they can reap the benefits for years to come.

Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the R&A, agrees:

“We are seeing more and more evidence that golf can provide significant physical and mental health benefits for participants as a moderate intensity activity,” Slumbers said in response to the study. “So we will continue to advocate these in all of our work with golfers, national federations and associations, healthcare professionals and policy makers.”

The post Golf provides ‘significant health benefits’ to older players, new study reveals appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour players, caddies to wear bands to help detect coronavirus appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour players, caddies to wear bands to help detect coronavirus appeared first on Golf.

Amid a handful of recent positive tests for the coronavirus arriving on the PGA Tour, all players and caddies will now wear WHOOP bands on their body to help detect the disease prior to showing obvious symptoms.

In the last week, the Tour has seen two players (Nick Watney and Cameron Champ) and one caddie (Graeme McDowell’s looper, Ken Comboy) test positive for the Covid-19. Watney was first, and according to Rory McIlroy Watney noticed something may have been awry via information from his WHOOP band. That is exactly the kind of information the PGA Tour hopes to add to its system of a controlled, traveling bubble. 

WHOOP is a health-monitoring band that many Tour players already wear — generally on their wrist or upper arm — to manage sleep patterns, exercise, recovery, etc. Apparently Watney’s WHOOP system had shown abnormal breathing activity while he was sleeping. Later that day he received a positive test and was forced to withdraw from the event. 

Fitness

Now, the Tour is using that instance as inspiration. According to Justin Thomas, who spoke with reporters Wednesday at the Travelers Championship, all players and caddies will now wear the bands moving forward. WHOOP’s CEO confirmed that the Tour will have more than 1,000 bands at its disposal.

“Nick Watney was able to figure out that his body and his immune system was getting a little bit weaker and his respiratory rate spiked one night,” Thomas said, “and he never would have been able to know to get tested until potentially later in the week after he’d already played, after he’d already seen somebody, after he’d maybe touched this or done that.”

The Tour promptly sent a memo, user manual and special login code to players Wednesday to help them begin engaging with the system. According to WHOOP, band-wearers who eventually tested positive displayed “sharply elevated respiratory rates” two days prior to feeling ill. Breaths per minute while sleeping is the metric, which according to WHOOP should stay relatively stable overtime. Theoretically, the more information that asymptomatic carriers can get, the better the Tour will be able to control the spread of the virus within its traveling bubble.

It is unclear if this system will be provided to Champions Tour and Korn Ferry Tour players and caddies as well.

The post PGA Tour players, caddies to wear bands to help detect coronavirus appeared first on Golf.

The post Answers to CBD performance benefits you were too afraid to ask appeared first on Golf.

The post Answers to CBD performance benefits you were too afraid to ask appeared first on Golf.

CBD is the next big thing in golf.

A few years ago, few people knew what CBD was. Now CBD has found an unlikely match in the sport. Walk around any PGA Tour event these days and the influence of the CBD industry is apparent. From sponsors on player’s apparel to companies set up in booths touting the benefits, the link between golf and CBD is nearly inextricable.

While CBD is a found in cannabis and hemp plants, it is non psychoactive and therefore does not put you in an altered mental state. The World Anti-Doping Agency removed CBD from its list of prohibited substances in 2018 and in the time since, it has taken off in the world of golf. One of the companies that has looked to capitalize on the golf market is San Diego-based company On the Green CBD.

Founded by Neil Fishenden and his son, Nick, On the Green markets itself as a CBD company specifically developed for golfers.

“We’ve created a product line that is specific to the different needs of the golf,” Nick said. “We have a tincture line that has focus, recovery and sleep specificity. And what we’ve done is we’ve enhanced these tinctures with specific terpenes which are going to produce these different effects.”

Tinctures are essentially concentrated extracts that are administered in small doses via droppers. With these specific tincture lines in mind, there are various benefits for your golf game. The focus tincture can help quell those first-tee jitters, while recovery can be taken post round to keep those aches and pains at bay. And the sleep tincture promotes restfulness that all golfers need to perform at peak performance levels.

The benefits of CBD have not been evaluated by the FDA, but despite that, there are a number of golfers (notably, Bubba Watson) who use CBD products to ease the rigors of professional golf.

“There’s no bad stuff in it, there are no chemicals in there that will mess you up or make you fail a drugs test,” Watson said in an interview with CNN last year.

And while the medical benefits of CBD are not scientifically backed, On the Green uses certain terpenes in their products that studies have shown to have healing benefits as well. These terpenes, such as Myrcene, Humulene, Linalool and Terpinolene, are combined in certain fashions with the cannabinoids which can provide performance benefits.

With this in mind, On the Green looks to expand in the golf space as they market their product to the golfer — from the recreational level all the way up through the professional ranks.

“My whole thing was getting the professional sportsmen a product to be able to use that they could use confidently that was making the product specifically for them,” Nick said.

Want to try CBD yourself?

If you’re curious to test out CBD yourself, On The Green is offering GOLF readers the chance to try. Head over to OnTheGreenCBD.com and use the code GOLF10 at checkout to receive 10% off your order.

The product(s) featured in this article has been independently selected by GOLF.com’s editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn a small commission.

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The post Answers to CBD performance benefits you were too afraid to ask appeared first on Golf.