Golfers: 6 Minutes to More Years in Your Game through Brain-Based Exercise

Learn a 6-minute routine you only need to perform for 5 days to improve your golf longevity. The next post will cover a similar routine to increase distance.

Summer’s here, which means one thing for a lot of my network: golf season. Hopefully that’s many months of golf season, which depends on both your physical and mental health. If your back goes into spasm and you're hitting the ball so short that you bear the crushing mental weight of your third shot being everyone else’s second, your season might not last long. And that won't help the business deal you’re working on at the course with your partner, client, or prospect.

I can’t count the number of times people have asked me for an exercise to fix their hip or back (or swing), so it was time to write this two-part series for golf health.

If you’re like most of us golf-obsessed amateurs, you’re spending far too much time digesting online “swing fixes” and not enough time improving how your body works to be able to swing long-term. Instead of your next hour on another technique tip that’s of course going to revolutionize your game, take six minutes to improve your golf longevity.

In this post, part 1 of 2, we’re going to cover two exercises that take a total of six minutes. You will only need to do these exercises for five days out of seven in order for them to have an effect on your game. From there you’ll want to do them at least once a month to keep the effect. That’s it.?

Software vs. Hardware: HealthJoy’s Proprietary Approach

You may be surprised at how quickly these exercises will work and that you’d never seen them before. The reason is that they are part of HealthJoy’s proprietary exercises developed by Jeremy Baber, PT (Rekinetics, The Baber Method) that upgrade the body’s software. Whereas standard exercises can be frustrating in how long you need to do them before they help, our exercises work immediately with no pain, all gain.

The reason our exercises work so quickly is that our programming addresses the body like a Tesla: it’s as much software (e.g. brain) as it is hardware (e.g. bones, muscles). Other exercises address the body like it’s a Ford Model T: primarily hardware. Just like with a car or phone software update, our exercises work in minutes.

You can experience a very simple, 5-minute software demo to see the change in flexibility before and after in this Hip Demo or Shoulder Demo.

Focus of these Exercises: Rotational Stability from your Hands to your Feet

These exercises focus on a key aspect of physical health for your golf game: connecting your body’s synchronization from your fingertips through your hips and pelvis down to your feet. That will enable you to more efficiently and safely drive power through rotation.?

That synchronization is essential because you hold the golf club in your hands - and that’s your connection to your club and therefore the ball at impact - but all of your rotational force and power comes from pushing against the ground to drive your hip rotation. If that concept of power sounds strange, sit in a chair with your feet off the ground and try to swing. You can’t generate any power without your connection to the ground.

Below are written instructions and videos walking you through how to do these exercises. One key point to remember for these exercises is there should be no pain. If you experience any pain, stop. Note that these are for informational purposes only and you would be doing any exercise at your own risk.

Exercise 1 - The Butterfly

This first exercise, The Butterfly, is designed to improve the activation of your deepest core muscles when both your upper and lower extremities are working. The upshot is more properly stabilizing your pelvis and torso, especially when you have to initiate or stop rotation like you do at the beginning and end of your golf swing. The next exercise will then apply that full body synchronization to your connection with the ground.

You can view a video walkthrough here - The Butterfly

1. Lie flat on your back with your knees bent at a comfortable angle and feet flat on the floor. Bring your knees together and feet together in midline.
2. Keeping your elbows straight and palms facing one another, lift your arms until they are in line with your chest. Make sure you are not shrugging your shoulders.
3. Keeping your feet together, separate your knees until they are 4-6 inches wider than your waistline on each side.
4. Separate your hands until your elbows match the width of your knees.
5. Perform a partial posterior pelvic tilt and maintain this tilt during the entire exercise. (For the posterior tilt, imagine you are wearing a big belt buckle and wanting to tilt that buckle towards your head to see it better)
6. Gently engage your pelvic floor muscles and perform an active abdominal brace (bracing your abs like someone is about to punch you, but not holding your breath) while you slowly and smoothly bring the hands and knees together until they touch. Your hands and knees should move together like there is a pole connecting them on each side.
7. Return to the start position while maintaining your posterior pelvic tilt, gentle pelvic floor contraction and active abdominal brace to the best of your ability. Complete 10 repetitions opening and closing the arms and legs. Then relax completely for 10-15 seconds.
8. Repeat the steps listed above until you complete 6 sets of 10 reps.

Note: You can modify this exercise to complete it while seated.

Exercise 2 - The Cowboy

This second exercise, The Cowboy, will connect that pelvic and rotational force stability from your fingertips down to the ground, particularly for when you are in a somewhat athletic position like your golf stance.

You can view a video walkthrough here - The Cowboy

1. Stand facing a wall with arms extended and palms flat on the wall. Feet should be positioned directly under your torso, 6-8 inches apart.
2. Separate the hands so they are slightly wider than your shoulders.
3. Lengthen your spine by getting into a tall posture. Imagine your head is actively moving away from your feet making you taller. Do not allow the low back to sway forward towards the wall.
4. Shift your heels back 4-6 inches and then shift your palms up the wall 4-6 inches. Look down and make sure your toes are pointing straight ahead.
5. Allow your knees to bend slightly. Look down at your knees - at no point during this exercise should your kneecaps move past the end of your shoelaces.
6. Raise your heels 1-2 inches off the floor without allowing the knees to move towards the wall. Your heels should rise like they’re in an elevator.
7. Perform a partial posterior tilt of the pelvis, engage your pelvic floor muscles, and actively brace your abdominal muscles (see The Butterfly for more on these details).
8. Actively press the balls of your feet into the floor without changing the position of your heels, knees and pelvis. It is important to feel pressure in the ball of each foot rather than feeling like you are doing a “calf raise” exercise.
9. Maintain all components of this pattern for 20 seconds. Relax for 10-15 seconds and repeat for a total of 6 repetitions.

Once you’ve learned them, these exercises will only take six minutes total. You do them for five days out of seven, before you hit the course that day, and then just once a month to maintain the improvement.

We’ll have a second post on a 6-minute routine that will help add yardage.

A Note about HealthJoy's Back and Joint Pain Solution

These are just two of HealthJoy’s hundreds of proprietary exercises, developed by Jeremy Baber, PT (Rekinetics, The Baber Method) that upgrade the body’s software. The upshot for our hundreds of employer clients is that their members have reported dramatically better pain reduction and function improvement than any other solution for musculoskeletal health. That drives improvement to the bottomline in the form of reduced healthcare spend, reduced workers compensation costs, and higher productivity (and employee retention where pain drives people out of the workforce).

You can contact Sales at [email protected] to learn more about our Virtual Programs for Back and Joint Pain, or send me an InMail message and I’ll get you to the right person.

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-Brian Astrachan and Jeremy Baber

Brian Astrachan is the General Manager of MSK at HealthJoy. Brian has been a founding member helping grow two businesses to 8- and 9-figure valuations, including as the co-founder of Rekinetics (acquired 2021). He has worked across sales, operations, and product management building products used by hundreds of thousands of people every week. Brian is driven by the passion to ultimately help people avoid injury from a young age - and to stay healthy long-term - due to his experience with tennis-related injuries starting at age 10.

Jeremy Baber, PT is the Programming Manager of MSK at HealthJoy. Jeremy has spent nearly 15 years developing a proprietary approach to chronic pain that addresses pain and function at the source: the brain. Jeremy’s unique exercises are the key to member-reported 82% pain reduction versus the status quo in the 50-60% range for the chronic pain population. Jeremy previously worked with professional dancers, athletes and movie stars, but his passion is helping everyone live a healthy, pain-free life. Jeremy particularly enjoys educating other professionals on the power of addressing the body’s software in addition to the hardware.