Golfers can benefit from yoga

Did you know that practicing yoga can actually help out your time spent on the golf green?

Kelly O'Connell, owner of Yoga One , joined The Rhode Show with some great tips.

After hearing recommendations from family and friends, avid golfer Tim Branco decided to give yoga a try.

"Yoga within itself when I first got involved with it, was painful for me because I couldn't move. I had very little mobility. And I realized very quickly in my golf game that I couldn't move at all and that I had no flexibility in my hips where I actually had turning. In doing that, I was swaying. Taking the shortcut in golf," said Branco.

Balance is a fundamental aspect of yoga and can help with your golf swing. Core conditioning will help alleviate fatigue in your putting stance. Focus, meditation and visualization are essential tools that can be practiced in the yoga studio and transferred to the fairway.

Yoga has helped Tim Branco in many ways.

"It's made a huge difference in my mobility, but one thing I didn't think about is that it has improved my overall mental outlook on life," added Branco.

Yoga One said that sometimes clearing the conscious mind and removing all expectations of the end result, willl help you achieve more.

YOGA for GOLF

By building strength, increasing flexibility, improving your posture and balance, yoga can improve your golf game.

FLEXIBILITY

Working to increase flexibility lengthens short, tight muscles. This allows for a greater range of motion in the golf swing, which in turn produces a quicker club head speed.

STRENGTH

We use the force of gravity and your own body weight to build strength. Certain yoga postures are weight bearing which develop long lean muscles, increasing strength without restricting the golf swing.

BALANCE

Balance is a fundamental aspect of yoga practice. In golf, balance in your stance and throughout the entire swing plane is vital for a consistent, reliable golf swing.

CORE CONDITIONING

Core conditioning which involves strengthening the abdominal and back muscles is a critical element for golf success. Working the core not only improves your posture at address, it also reduces fatigue in the golf swing and putting stance and is a direct link to trunk rotation. In addition, developing core abdominal strength has a proven correlation with low-back health. In order to stay balanced and hit the ball longer with less fatigue, you must exercise your core.

BREATH AWARENESS

In yoga, the quality of the breath has a direct connection to the quality of the pose and the calmness of the mind. Correct breathing increases blood flow to the muscles and ups the core body temperature. Deep breathing enhances the ability to hold poses, increasing endurance. On the golf course, in yoga and in life, when the body and mind are stressed, the breathing becomes jerky, rapid and strained.

By practicing long, slow, deep breaths during the yoga practice, breathing awareness becomes second nature. When you learn to incorporate breathing into your pre-shot routine, you will enhance the rhythm, tempo and fluidity of your swing.

YOGA MIND

A strong, stable body that is fluid and flexible creates the foundation for a healthy, injury-free athlete. But more is needed for success on the golf course. The mental hazards of the game have frustrated plenty of golfers and have sidelined many others before they have mastered the sport.

Focus, meditation and visualization are essential tools that can be practiced in the yoga studio and transferred to the fairway.

Yoga teaches us to learn to let go of the outcome of our actions. We practice participating in life through the present moment. By clearing the conscious mind and removing all expectations of the end result, our natural resources can flow through our bodies with great intelligence and allow us to achieve much more than we would by thinking things through.