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| A walk in the park |
I hope your week has been a good one. It is Fit as a Fiddle Friday and I'm sharing a bit about Kettle Bell Walking. I recently took a couple of fitness classes from a guy named Jonathan Fleming. He is the primary strength and conditioning coach for Bud Norris, the closer for the St. Louis Cardinals. He also is TPI level three, which is as credentialed as you can get for golf fitness. TPI = Titleist Performance Institute. Side note, your mom took a TPI class a number of years ago as part of her professional development training for physical therapy. Cool!
Jonathan convinced me that in order to improve my golf game, I needed to rebuild my body from the center out. In his words, "Most of us over time develop movement asymmetries, deficiencies or dysfunction."
One of Jonathan's favorite sayings is proximal stability leads to distal mobility. That means your core has to be strong so that the rest of your body can function effectively as an athlete. I am sure you can relate to this as a life-long dancer. While important for all sports, it is especially important to have a strong core in rotational sports, like throwing a baseball or hitting a golf ball or a tennis ball.
So Mom and I have spent the past (nearly) three months doing a 20-minute kettlebell walk most mornings. We typically switch between seven positions, using just one 10-pound kettlebell: (1) suitcase carry (right & left); (2) rack position (right & left); (3) waiters carry (right & left); and (4) kettlebell behind the back with two hands. The goal is to walk with a normal stride and to walk as if you were not carrying any weight. In other words, use your core! Note that we are not using a very heavy weight and anybody trying this should certainly start with a small amount of weight in order to avoid injury.
The results have been outstanding. By combining these walks with other plank and core exercises, plus some flexibility and balance training, my golf game has improved and my low back does not have anywhere near the amount of soreness and fatigue that I had prior to this program. I am all in on the kettlebell walking.
Stay fit Lu,
Dad
P.S. Good luck Aggies vs Clemson Tigers and Game Day in College Station! Dawgs play on the road against 24th ranked South Carolina. Heels have ECU. Chaps have a good one tonight vs Cy-Ranch. Yale's opener is not until the 15th.
