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Lots of the top touring professionals realize that winning on the tour today takes much higher than a great game of golf. The field is far too competitive to leave any of the key contributing elements to chance. Preparing their health for play is a critical element of a golfer’s success underneath the most competitive conditions.

The manner in which you structure your golf fitness program is essential to your overall performance on and off the course. To improve your physical fitness, you should consult with a Coquitlam Personal Trainer. Below are a few ways you are able to ensure you’re getting the most out of training program while utilizing the effectiveness of your core as a building block for success.

Specific to golf – Eliminate the standard gym machines which give attention to isolating specific muscle groups and require no stabilization work by additional muscle groups. Integrate some old and new fitness tools which allow you to move your body in a more functional setting. These include cable machines, fitness balls, medicine balls, balance disks, traditional dumbbells and don’t overlook the power of making use of your own bodyweight.

Increase Core Stability – More efficient movement creates better power. Golfers maintain an athletic posture over long periods of time and require both trunk and core stabilization and endurance. By increasing your strength and endurance in the core region of your body, you provide both a good base of support for rotation as well as the correct transfer of power through the body.

Vary your Planes of Motion – A tennis fitness program could have varying planes of motion included in your weekly strength routine. Planes of movement include front to back motions, left to right and rotational exercises. Some good examples include multi-directional lunges and medicine ball wood chops.

Integrate Multiple Elements into Each Exercise – Each weekly workout should address all the important elements for golf including flexibility, core development, balance, strength and power. Integrated training techniques will develop your skills in each one of these areas and create a whole new degree of play. Examples of integration include a 5 minute dynamic warm up, roughly 30 minute strength routine, followed by 10 to 15 minutes of stretches. Each workout could be broken on to strength development for many weeks, core stabilization for many weeks, and power development as you transfer to peak season.

Progress from An Easy task to Complex – Begin your exercise program by mastering the simplest kinds of exercises first. Progress your golf training design to boost in complexity as your body grows and develops and as you learn proper stabilization of your core region. An example of progression for the legs may be to perform two leg ball squats just before performing the main one leg version.

Before any golfer, pro or elsewhere, picks up a team, they look at the physical fitness of the individual, and also recommendations of professionals like a Coquitlam Personal Trainer.

Meet Sarah.
About this past year, Sarah saw an infomercial about a “multiunit” workout machine. The announcer called it a “revolutionary” piece of equipment, claiming that people would see results in “just 2-4 weeks “.It exercised all major body parts and the female model shown using the machine said it “was safer and more effective than free weights.” 
Intimidated by gyms her whole life, Sarah knew having her own home gym will be the key to her finally getting into shape. She had heard that machines were safer than free weights. Besides, the machine came with “easy to follow video instructions “.The price was steep, but as Sarah imagined changing her body, she got her credit called and grabbed the phone.
On the day of delivery, Sarah was surprised to see it took up twice the space she was told it would, limiting space in her already cramped den. Excited to begin with, she popped in the video, and hopped on the machine. Sarah soon found that she, at 5’3″, was too small to fit on the machine for a few of the exercises. She continued on anyway, trying to ignore the fact her lower back and knees were starting to hurt a little.
Sarah used her new revolutionary machine exactly three more times. For the last six months, it has been her unofficial clothes hanger.
What happened? Sarah thought she was buying a machine that could be very easy to operate and be a safe alternative to free-weights. Unfortunately, Sarah and many others are misguided by heavily marketed hype by machine developers. As it pertains to effectiveness, particularly for the beginning exerciser, free-weights (i.e., dumbbells) rate much higher than expensive machines in terms of:

1. 
   Cost. Three or four sets of dumbbells would have cost Sarah less than 10 times the amount she spent on her machine. As she gets stronger, she would have to buy more, though even a full set would not set her back nearly as much as the machine did.
2. 
   Space. Dumbbells take up far less space than a lot of the exercise equipment sold on infomercials. You can easily place them in a closet, out of sight under the bed, or in a corner. There are even dumbbells you can adjust (i.e., PowerBlock) that allow you to adjust the poundage on one set, eliminating the need for single-poundage dumbbells.
3. 
   Variety. Most machines are designed as one-dimensional. Even the most extensive multi-unit machines will allow exercisers to perform only a limited number of movements in a restricted range of motion. Free-weights can be used in ranges of motion based on the exerciser, not a machine. Use free weights along with benches or Swiss Balls and you have multitude of exercise options.
4. 
   Suitability. Sarah couldn’t use her “multi-usage” machine for certain exercises because the machine was too big. This isn’t an uncommon problem. Even though most machines have adjustable seats, arm pads, and lever arms, there are limitations to their range and some may not fit the very small or very large person. However, if you’re able to grab a dumbbell, you can use it.
5. 
   Functionality. Exercising with free-weights increases the likelihood that the effects of the exercise will cross over into real-world situations. Think about it. How often during the day do you lie in a diagonal supine position and push weight up like you would on a machine leg press? Probably never. But how often are you required to do activities that are biomechanically identical to the squat? Sitting, getting in and out of a car, crouching down to pick something up…all the time! Properly using free weights will increase the functionality of an exercise to real-world situations.

6. Safety. It seems counterintuitive to consider free-weights as safer than machines. The majority of us have heard (somewhere) that we could get hurt with dumbbells and that machines were “safer.” Maybe just the notion of someone doing a huge bench press lends itself to imagining the likelihood that one might lose control of the same amount of weight if they ever attempted it. 

With so much “diet advice” around today it is little wonder if you feel somewhat confused. Whether you want to lose weight, maintain your weight or help your loved ones eat more healthfully….these six, simple ideas will help you to eat more healthfully.

1. 
   Avoid the interior aisles
   Once you grocery shop, refill your trolley from the aisles around the outside the perimeter of the store. This is where in fact the fresh fruit, vegetables and fresh foods are kept. 
2. 
   Eat small amounts frequently
   Don’t allow yourself to get hungry. Keep your appetite in control with smaller meals and healthy snacks in between.
3. 
   Keep near nature
   Fresh is best and generally much better for you than pre-packaged. As an example, a fresh potato baked in its jacket is more healthy than pre-packaged “potato au gratin “.
4. 
   Experiment and use spices
   Become accustomed to cooking with a wide selection of spices. It’s possible to get fabulous flavor with spices without adding high calorie fats and oils. 

5. Read “fat free” labels carefully.

Many “fat free” items contain additional carbohydrates in the shape of sugar or fructose to compensate for reduced flavor and can do more to add to your weight compared to “full strength” product. 

6. 
   Use zero fat dairy food

For adults, zero fat dairy food have the nutrients without the additional fat.

7. Regular workout

While workout is extremely important, it’s equally important to know what to do and for how much time. There comes the role of a Coquitlam Personal Trainer, who can guide you in choosing and doing exercises effectively.

Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The same principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.

These basic principles of exercise must be followed.

• Regularity

To achieve a training effect, you must exercise often. You should exercise all the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a sensible diet.

• Progression

The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.

• Balance

To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others. To understand balance, it’s better to consult a Coquitlam Personal Trainer who can guide you into a program that is ideally balanced!

• Variety

Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.

• Specificity

Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, people become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it generally does not improve a 2-mile-run time around a running program does.

• Recovery

A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.

• Overload

The workload of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body to be able to bring about a training effect.

Suppose you’re on a diet and you have a banquet or a holiday party coming up. You’re expecting a big meal to be served for dinner, and you will have open bar with lots and lots of “party snacks.” You’re not sure if you will have any healthy food there, but you are sure that you’re going to be in a festive, partying mood! What should you do? Should you reduce your food earlier in the day to make room for the big feast?

What I’ve just described is commonly known as “banking calories,” which is analogous to saving calories like money because you’re going to consume more later, and it’s a very common practice among dieters. If you’re really serious about your diet and fitness goals however, then the answer is no, you should NOT “bank calories”!

Here’s why and here’s what you should do instead:

First of all, if you’re being really honest with yourself, you have to agree that there’s almost always something healthy to eat at any gathering. You know those tables you see at holiday parties that are covered with yards of chips, dips, pretzels, cookies, salami, candies, cheese, punch, liquor, and a seemingly endless assortment of other goodies? Well, did you also notice that there’s usually a tray full of carrot sticks, cauliflower, celery, fruit, turkey breast and other healthy snacks too?
No matter what your location is, you always have options, so make your best option you can based on whatever your options are. If nothing else, you can choose to eat a small portion of “party foods” rather than a huge portion.
If you skip meals or eat less earlier in the day to bank calories for a big feast at night, you are thinking only with regards to calories, but you’re depriving yourself of the valuable nutrition you need all day long with regards to protein (amino acids), carbohydrates, essential fats, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that come from healthy food, in addition to the small frequent meals required to stoke the furnace of your metabolism.
Not just that, but eating less early in the day in anticipation for overeating later is more likely to increase your appetite, causing you to binge or eat much more than you thought you would at night when the banquet does arrive.

Eating healthy food earlier in the day is likely to fill you up and you’ll be less inclined to overeat in the evening. High fiber foods, healthy fats and especially lean protein, tend to suppress your appetite the most.
I don’t like the thought of “banking calories.” Your body just doesn’t work that way – it tends to seek equilibrium by adjusting your appetite to the level where you consume the same total amount of calories ultimately anyway.
Even if it worked the manner in which you wanted it to, why would you eat less (starve) in an attempt to burn more fat, then overeat (binge) and put the fat right back on? Why allow yourself to put up fat in the first place?
A starving and bingeing pattern will almost certainly cause more damage than an occasional oversize meal. Some dieticians might even say that this kind of behavior borders on disordered eating.

A better approach is to stay on your regular menu of healthy foods and small meals through the entire day – business as usual – and then go ahead and treat yourself to a “cheat meal,” but sure to keep your portions small.
It ought to be a big relief to know that on special occasions, whether it’s a party, restaurant meal, banquet or holiday dinner, you can eat whatever you want with minimum ill effect on body composition, provided that you respect the law of calorie balance. However, you CANNOT starve and binge and expect not to reap negative consequences.

To burn fat and be healthy, you don’t have to become a “party pooper” or completely deny yourself of foods you enjoy, but you do must have the discipline to stick with your regular meal plan all of the time and control your portion sizes every one of the time. Alternatively you can consult with a Coquitlam Personal Trainer to get more information about diet and workout plans.