How can GYROTONIC® training for golfers help your game? Let's measure.
Many times I've been asked "What's the goal of GYROTONIC® training?" To me, the answer is "The system itself has no goal. What are YOUR goals?" The point of any exercise system should be about helping the client reach their goals, not to have the system itself be a goal.
Gyrotonic training for golfers has been discussed as a way to help golfers improve their game. In this article I outlined seven specific ways Gyrotonic training helps with issues discussed on the Fitness Fridays segment of Golf Digest Magazine. As the actual saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. So let's eat some golf pudding.
Meet Andrew, my golf case study client.
After writing my Fitness Friday article I wanted objective evidence that Gyrotonic training for golfers can help improve their game. I asked around for golfers who were willing to be a case study client for a six week training program exclusively using GYROTONIC® methodology. They'd have to be willing to be poked and prodded, measured and photographed. Andrew heard about my request through a trainer friend we have in common. He embarked on his six week program in November of 2015.
Objective measurements are the best way to know results
How someones "feels" is important. But it's also subjective. You can be in essentially the same physical state (exact same height, weight, body fat percentage, injury history, etc) but "feel" different day to day. How you feel has a great many variables affecting it: what you ate, how much you slept, your emotional state, etc. While it's always important to ask a client how they're feeling, to properly notate physical changes that result from training, objective measurements are obligatory.
Looking back at the Fitness Friday post, there are several joint ranges of motion that are valuable for a golfer to focus on. We specifically focused on the rotation of the hips and shoulders as well as hamstring mobility. All measurements are in degrees of motion and are active ranges of motion, meaning Andrew moved his joints to these ranges of motion while his muscles were actively working.
| Joint | Before | After | ||
| Left | Right | Left | Right | |
| Knee extension (hamstrings) | 58 | 62 | 67 | 67 |
| Hip internal rotation | 13 | 13 | 25 | 29 |
| Hip external rotation | 25 | 22 | 34 | 35 |
| Shoulder internal rotation | 80 | 45 | 95 | 68 |
| Shoulder external rotation | 68 | 80 | 86 | 115 |
As you can see, Andrew made great gains in all the ranges of motion we focused on. He balanced out his hamstrings but definitely has more room to improve with both. Take note of the shoulder rotation numbers. Before starting, his right shoulder had fair external rotation and poor internal rotation. It was reversed for the left arm. This follows the pattern of the body for a back swing. At the top of the back swing, the right arm is in external rotation and the left is in internal rotation. But the ranges of motion reverse for the follow through and his measurements show that little emphasis had been put on increasing his performance in the follow through. While the measurements aren't balanced they are clearly better, meaning his follow through will be more integrated with his back swing.
Improvement in posture
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In this short video, you can see Andrew performing a single leg squat before then after. The increases in his core strength, proprioception and glute strength allow him to remain far more upright when squatting after just 12 sessions.
I'll end this post with a "call to action" to golfers as said by Andrew at the end of his 6 week, 12 session series to improve his game through Gyrotonic training for golfers:
Want to improve your golf game? Get in touch.
GYROTONIC is a registered trademark of Gyrotonic Sales Corp and is used with their permission.
