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Improve Your Golf Game With Yoga

By Gwen Linden-Bruzek

Whether it is your driving, putting, or patience with yourself, yoga can help you improve all three!

Time and again I have heard my yoga students say that an unexpected positive side effect of their practice has been improvement in their golf game.

Flexibility, strength, focus and letting go of self-judgment are keys to yoga that translate brilliantly to the game of golf.

The flexibility gained through a gentle yoga practice improves the mobility through the hips and shoulders, two main focal points of a great golf swing. The spinal alignment is also key! Everything rotates around that strong center fulcrum of the core. Many think of the core as the stomach and back, but the shoulders and hips are also a part of this commonly used term. If the muscles are loose, balanced and strong, the swing will have more power and also be more balanced.

Strength is also a part of golf and yoga. Many people do not think that yoga generates much strength; this is not true. In order to hold various poses, the muscles are asked to secure and hold the body to allow for time under tension, thus creating strength. The entire body gains strength as well as flexibility!

The mental part of golf is also so important! Let’s face it, golf is as much a mental game as it is a physical one! Yoga teaches the practitioner to not focus on the outcome of an action, as much as being in the moment of what you are doing.

Avid golfers know how glorious it feels to connect with a ball perfectly; You are in the zone, at one with the ball, all of those Zen-type things. This is called meditation at work! When the mind is quieted to focused concentration, this, in yogic terms, is called Dyana. Yoga has different words for the same thing that golfers experience when they hit a great ball.

The ability to play the game if golf without wanting to throw your clubs after a poor shot is also a wonderful skill to improve your game, lower your blood pressure and improve your relationship with fellow golfers. Yoga, like golf, should be fun and not taken too seriously! Have you noticed that the harder you try to hit well, the less desirable the outcome?

Yoga increases strength and flexibility in key muscle groups, creates balance and also helps to focus the mind. Try a yoga class and see how it can improve your game!

About the Author:

Gwen Linden-Bruzek is a ertified personal trainer and yoga instructor who work out of the Life Wellness Center in Lakeville Minnesota Her website is www.empowerypt.com