Fitness Tip #5: Fitness and Injury Prevention

In considering fitness, young golfers want to remember key areas of the body must be protected to prevent overuse injuries. The primary focal points are shoulders, hip joints, knees, and ankles. If hamstring strains and ankle sprains are two of the most common injury sites, then the focus will be on balance between the muscles of the upper leg called the femur (quadriceps and hamstrings) as well as the lower leg called the tibia (shin and calf muscle).

The principles that affect a young body are a proper warm-up or increasing your workload gradually such as a 20 minute warm up including balance, agility, and strength exercises which can lessen the chances of suffering a lower extremity injury, such as an ACL tear or ankle sprain by almost 50%. The principle of overload applies the theory that the workload should not increase more than 10 percent each week. This includes number of golf holes walked carrying a golf bag with clubs, balls, etc. as well as working out with body weight (pushup pyramid). The principle of specificity would require that the training should be relevant to the sport so rock climbing might not be the pre-requisite activity to golfing but, overall, cross-training prepares a body for unexpected situations and movements.      –Kelly Shobe, Fitness and Nutrition at GNCGA