Elevate Health and Performance

EARLY EXTENSION AGAIN?!

We are talking about another exercise to help reduce this swing characteristic. It is so important because 70% of average golfers early extend while 99% of PGA players DO NOT.

It’s important to have the ability to separate your upper body from your lower body. Being able to do this helps stabilize the lower body while rotating your upper body through impact.

This exercise is a disassociation plank; if planks aren’t already hard enough.

Start in the plank position. Rotate up to the right, opening the chest as big as you can while trying to keep your belt buckle facing towards the floor. Very similar to the back swing if you’re a right handed golfer.

As soon as you hit your limit rotate back down to the ground. As soon as your hand hits the floor, drive your right knee to the opposite shoulder. This is similar to the initiation of the downswing for a right handed golfer.

Make sure you switch sides. Give this a try. Share or tag a friend! Happy golfing!

PAIN LUNGING or RUNNING

Walking or running is basically the lunge pattern if you were to take a snapshot mid stride. One hip moves forward (flexion) while the other moves backwards (extension).

This is a good warm up or regression exercise to the lunge. By laying on your back it removes the demand of your upper body stabilizers, so we can focus on hip extension and hip flexion on the other side to limit lumbar (low back) spine involvement.

Start on your back with both feet flat on the ground. Try to get the feet below the knees. Bring one knee up towards the chest and grab with both hands.

Then press through the heel on floor, raising the hips up evenly from the floor. There should be a straight line from the knee to the hip to the shoulders.

Once you hold that for a second or two return the hips to the floor. Do this for 10-15 reps each side.

Hope this helps! Tag or share with a friend!

"LIFTING YOUR HEAD IN GOLF"

According to 70% of average golfers will have this happen to them. It’s actually the lower body moving closer to the ball at impact to allow balance while the upper body lifts up.

This swing characteristic is called early extension. states 99% of PGA players don’t have this swing characteristic. By preventing early extension, this has a huge correlation for great ball striking.

Early extension can cause a block to the right or a hook to the left for right handed golfers. It can also cause a shank due to the lower body being closer to the ball at impact, which will affect your hands and swing plane.

Try this drill in the gym or at home to retrain your brain to reduce early extension and learn to stabilize (control) the lower body during the downswing.

Get some sort of resistance band and anchor it in front of you around hip height. Take a step back to add some tension. The band will force you into early extension, but resist by keeping your lower body back into the band. Then perform a couple of golf swings.

The band will give you feedback allowing you to feel what it’s like keeping your lower body neutral during the downing swing.

If you have physical limitations within the body this drill might not help. That’s why a movement screen is important to identify the limitations and weak links. Here at Elevate Health and Performance we can help you with that or any certified professional.

Give this a try or share with a friend who constantly gets frustrated with their golf swing 🙈 Hope this helps!