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If you want to improve your golf game, you could spend more time on the fairways and greens, but that’s only part of the solution. Train your body and mind off the course, and you’ll have the tools you need to up your game when you’re standing at the tee.

Golf requires physical and mental strength, control, flexibility, and power. The swing itself is extraordinarily demanding, requiring strength and flexibility from the thighs to the wrists. A strong core is crucial. “Golfers often think they have to strengthen their upper body and legs so they can hit the ball harder, but the most important focus is the musculature around the pelvis,” says Lesly Levy, director of Pilates and Pilates programming at APOGEE.  With a strong, flexible center as a base, the spine and limbs can rotate with greater ease, producing a balanced and centered swing. 

Just as important as strength is the ability of the muscles to work together in a coordinated manner. While certain muscles are contracting, others need to lengthen. Specifically, golfers need flexibility in their spine, ribs, shoulder rotators, inner and outer thighs, forearms and wrists. They will also benefit from strength in the posterior deltoids (back of the shoulder), latissimus dorsi, hips and inner and outer thighs.

Pilates training will help prevent soreness, pain and injury. Lower back pain after 18 holes is most often due to weak abdominal and back muscles, tight hamstrings, chest muscles and deltoids and poor flexibility in the entire torso, says Levy. The swing itself can create physical problems. “Although golfers rotate in both directions to produce the swing, the force of the swing is only in one direction,” says Levy. “Over time, a golfer can develop asymmetrical muscles, creating pain and increasing risk of injury.”

Pilates is designed specifically to promote balanced rotation. Some exercises include the Criss-Cross and Saw on the mat; the Short Box, Snake and Twist on the Reformer; and Twist and Side Pull-Ups on the Wunda Chair. Work on the Barrel is a great way to stretch and open up tight areas. “All of these exercises demand that the body function as a whole unit and work all muscles simultaneously during the movements,” says Levy. Address the ball with these strengths and skills, and you’ll see the results when you swing.

Would you like to know more about fitness for golf? Attend one of our Golf From the Inside Out workshops: Monday, April 26 in Bedford Hills and Wednesday, April 28 in White Plains.

By Lesly Levy, APOGEE Director of Pilates and Pilates Programming

If you’re standing for a few minutes—in a line at a store or airport or in your own kitchen—use the time as an opportunity to strengthen your core and energize your body and spirit.  It’s all too easy to become leaden and lethargic when you’re standing and waiting. Here’s a simple exercise that will create length, lift and openness and boost your vitality.

Align your body. Stand with your heels together and toes slightly apart, then draw your legs together, hugging the midline of your body. Adjust your body so that your heels, sacrum, top of your pelvis, bottom of your ribs and the tips of your shoulder blades are aligned as if you were standing against a wall.

Lift and lengthen. Lift your abdominals in and up, starting with the lowest part, as if you were zipping up a tight pair of jeans. Feel your tailbone lengthening toward the floor. As your abdominals lift, allow your ribs to soften, your chest to open and create length in your spine,  through the top of your head.  As your spine aligns, you should feel a lightness through the crown of your head.

Breathe. As you breathe, think about filling the back of your lungs. Allow your lungs to open, and feel the length and width of your spine, from front to back and top to bottom.

Turn. Inhale, and look right, then look left; bring your head to center and exhale. Repeat, looking left first. Do two sets.

Lift, lower and extend. Use your powerhouse (abdominals, thighs and buttocks) to float your heels two inches off the floor as you inhale. Hold for a count of three, then exhale and lower, keeping your head in the space where it was. This should feel as if you are stretching in two directions, up through the crown of your head and down through your heels.

Now relax and enjoy the awareness you’ve brought to your body and mind!

Learn more ways to turn on the calm in your life in our Unwind workshops, starting in January 2011.

Perhaps you’ve noticed APOGEE’s offer for 20%-off three private Pilates sessions* and wondered how one-on-one instruction would help you. We asked Lesly Levy, APOGEE’s new director of Pilates and Pilates programming, how private Pilates sessions benefit students who are currently in mat classes. “Private sessions help students connect to the method in a deeper way than in a class situation,” says Levy.

Levy, a senior-level teacher trainer for Power Pilates, says that working one-on-one with a certified instructor will allow you to build a proper foundation with no chance of error or misinterpretation of the instructor’s cues.  “Because Pilates trains the body through interpretation of the mind, for safe and effective advancement it is crucial that the student perform the method correctly,” says Levy.  “During a private session, the teacher will closely monitor your understanding and ability to internalize the important, often subtle, cues that transform the exercises into an experience, a practice.”

Each student brings unique physical strengths and weaknesses to the studio, says Levy. During a private session, the instructor will also assess your personal needs and use all of Joseph Pilates’ apparatus, including the mat and Tower, to help you progress. “Working with springs and against the pull of gravity in a number of different ways will deepen the effect of the method and allow for transformation of the body,” she says.

*Offer expires Oct. 31, 2009. New private Pilates training clients only. One-time use. Some restrictions apply. Sessions must be activated by 12/31/09 and completed within 30 days of activation.