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Good Exercises for Bad Lies
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Improving your body’s mobility and stability is key to the game of golf, especially when your plans go awry and you find yourself in the bunker or some deep rough. Apply these strategies for the course and the gym to get out of trouble and back on your game.
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How to Gear Up for a Big Match
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Let's say you have a tennis tournament next week and your usual preparation involves hitting some balls and trying to get a good night sleep the night before. It’s not an awful plan, but it could better. For the week leading up to the event, incorporate the following to bring the extra focus and necessary edge to be a beast on the court:
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A Better Routine for the Practice Green
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It’s a seemingly easy stroke, so simple a five-year-old can do it, but, as any Sunday of a Major shows, putting can be the difference between a shiny trophy and texts of consolation. Even with its importance, this part of the game is grossly under-practiced. More than just rolling out some balls and knocking them around, bring intention to the practice green with these drills:
1. Find your balance.
Assume an athletic position. Putting your weight on the balls of your feet and thighs, rather than your butt and heels, will take the tension out of your shoulders, allowing you to be more relaxed and have more feel for the stroke, says Matt Kilgariff, instructor at the Butch Harmon School of Golf.
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Cheerleading: More Hardcore Than You Think
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Football players may absorb insane amounts of physical harm, but those pom-pom wielding women on the sidelines are also facing a gut-check.
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Best Dogs for Runners
The perfect training partner is hard to find, but man's best friend might be your best bet. We've done the digging, with the help of Lisa Peterson from the American Kennel Club, to find out which breeds can keep up with your pace. Click on the image above to find your running mate.
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5 Tips to Play Your Best Golf in the Heat
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Just because the temperature is rising doesn’t mean your score has to spike as well. Maybe you think you can manage the conditions just fine, but check the score card. Do you start to fade around the 10th hole or do you feel strong, energized and focused till the end? Along with a hat and sunscreen, try the following to withstand the heat and enjoy your game.
1. Hydrate.
It’s a shocking tip, but, more than water, go for a sports drink. With all the sweating, you need to replenish carbohydrates and electrolytes for your energy level, says Amanda Carlson, R.D., director of performance nutrition at Athletes’ Performance.
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Increase Your Court Coverage
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The math is pretty simple: Get to more balls, hit more balls back. The keys include strength, balance, flexibility and awareness. Here’s how to get them:
1. Stay light on your feet.
A lot of movement is getting into the habit of split stepping—the equivalent of ready position, with feet shoulder-width apart, weight on your toes, and knees slightly bent—on every shot. You don’t have to jump up, just stay on your toes and look at when the ball leaves your opponent’s strings. You’ll get a good jump, and, by not being flat footed, you can change direction easily, says Justyn Schelver, co-director at the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy.
2. Get low.
Do more Romanian deadlifts. The single-leg varieties in particular improve balance and build hip strength, which helps you stay low in a loaded position, says Nick Anthony, a performance specialist at Athletes’ Performance.
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"Hitting either slice or topspin will take the pressure off and will force your opponent to have to make decisions about how to handle heavy, high bounces or low, short shots."
—Brad Dancer, University of Illinois men's head tennis coach in "5 Tips to Win a Tiebreaker"
"The biggest determinant of calorie burning is your metabolism. And the biggest factor in that is your lean muscle mass. Build more lean muscle, increase your metabolism. "
— fat loss expert Alwyn Cosgrove in "5 Keys to Fat Loss".
Master the World's Greatest Stretch
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"While alcohol can make you sleepy initially, it should never be used as a sedative because it disrupts your sleep cycles, especially REM. This stage is particularly important to athletes because it’s when you consolidate and commit to long-term memory what you learned during the day."
— from "6 Ways Alcohol Disrupts Performance".
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