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Prevention is Better Than Cure – How to Avoid Golf Injuries After Months of Inactivity

Key Points
  • 360-degree Overview of avoiding injuries
  • Improving body strength and diet
  • Stretching – Static vs Dynamic
  • Scientifically backed recommendations

With thousands rushing back out to golf courses after long periods of inactivity, there is undoubtedly going to be an increase in injuries, so the question we’re going to answer today is “How can you best avoid injury after months of inactivity”.

Here’s a 360-degree snapshot of how we can give ourselves the best possible chance of avoiding injuries. Whilst you can never remove the chance of injury completely, you can certainly give yourself a significant advantage by taking the following steps…

Improve Your Strength

It’s no secret that all other things being equal, a strong muscle is more robust than a weaker one. The tissue health, its elasticity and the ability to cope with force production is improved through strength training. There are also the additional benefits of regular strength work in the gym – connective tissues become stronger, more elastic, generally healthier and benefit from an enriched blood supply, further reducing their susceptibility to injury.

What coaches have known for years has also been supported with lab data. A 2018 meta analysis of strength training and injury prevention research showed that improved strength training had a significant effect on reducing sports injuries.

Appropriate strength training will improve your performance and reduce your injury risk significantly.

Improve Your Diet

There’s a lot of discussion about the importance of diet when it comes to injury prevention and post exercise recovery, but much of the research is largely inconclusive – there’s a few points on which the research tends to agree on though, in particular the use of protein and amino acids.

It’s largely accepted that post-exercise protein helps to establish the repair process of the soft tissues, helping to prevent injury occurrence in the future. Given a lot of post-exercise protein is consumed via a dairy-based shake, there’s further research that suggests this could have a beneficial effect on bone health. 

Research carried out by Oxford University concluded that vegans have a higher chance of bone fracture than meat eaters, fish eaters and vegetarians, probably on account of their lower calcium intake.

Ensuring an adequate (5 portions per day) of fruit and vegetables alongside a high protein and adequate carbohydrate diet appears to offer the best injury prevention measure thanks to the varied mineral intake.

STRETCHING

Stretching is vital to your body as it helps improve your muscle mobility, prevents joint stiffness and muscles tightening.

If practiced regularly, stretching can help improve muscle flexibility, range of motion, and decrease the occurrence of cramps.

For the ultimate warm-up, add dynamic stretches to prevent injury and enhance training performance.

Stretching works by increasing blood flow to your muscles. This enables your body to deliver more oxygen where it’s needed to recover.

A commonly asked question is; should you perform dynamic or static stretching?

Like most topics related to health and fitness, there are many opinions on the best stretching techniques for your workouts.

Let’s take a look at the difference between static stretching and dynamic stretching, along with the relevant research data.

STATIC STRETCHING

Static stretching is the most commonly known type of stretch. It involves no movement and should be held in position for between 10-60 seconds each set.

Some examples of static stretching include calf stretches, flamingo stretches, or hamstring stretches.

While static stretching can increase the flexibility of your muscle tissue, research suggests long static stretching should not be done prior to a workout. This is because it may hinder athletic performance as the “relaxed muscle” would not be prepared for the vigorous demand of high-intensity activities.

Due to this, we recommend performing static stretching only after your training sessions.

DYNAMIC STRETCHING

On the other hand, dynamic stretching works your muscles and joints through a range of motion with each repetition. It is therefore ideal for pre-exercise as it activates your muscles, prepares the whole body for movement and increases blood flow through the body.

One study shows that dynamic stretching can help enhance muscles power and strength. Whilst further research shows that dynamic stretching can help to prevent severe injury and improves neuromuscular control during the active movements.

So performing your dynamic stretches before mounting the tee box will increase blood flow to the muscles, improve strength and power and reduce the risk of injury.

Aim for 10-15 minutes of dynamic stretching before each session for maximum benefit.

SUPPORT FROM KYMIRA INFRARED PRODUCTS

Our KYMIRA infrared clothing can be worn during your round, and after for recovery, to reduce the likelihood of injury occurrence. Nitric oxide is produced in the KYMIRA wearers body, and the chemical reaction to the infrared emitted waves from the KYMIRA KYnergy fabric, can stimulate injury protective mechanisms. Infrared rays and nitric oxide prime the body to exercise by improving joint motion and muscle elasticity. Nitric oxide is a natural pain reliever, stimulating the same chemical pathways as opiates naturally, meaning reduced likelihood of compensatory injuries from existing or old injuries.

KYMIRA products can also reduce fatigue based injuries with its support to muscle soreness and increased cellular oxidation, metabolism and energy production. 

Our elite athletes that use KYMIRA products for training and recovery, have reported an 80% reduction in injuries over a measured period when compared to previously wearing standard clothing training kit.

Furthermore, if an injury does occur, KYMIRA products can speed up recovery. The infrared within KYMIRA supports the repair of soft tissues such as muscles and other connective tissues by stimulating the cellular processes for their repair. This is increased blood circulationtissue oxygenation and cellular metabolism with support to reduce the consequent inflammation and pain.

How to Avoid Injury

We can never completely avoid injuries – the chances are just too high. What we can do is by training, eating and recovering wisely, reduce our chances significantly. Follow these steps and you too will help to protect yourself against injuries in sport.

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