Loaded Mobility

How to Do It & Why It Will Impact All Parts of Your Game & Life

Mobility is a big word that has been thrown around & stressed in the strength & conditioning community as well as golf in recent years, and for good reason. Having adequate amounts of mobility in all major joints in your body will have a direct effect on how you feel on a day to day basis, how your body responds to imposed demands, and how you move and feel through the golf swing.

We must keep in mind that mobility without stability leads to injury. Well the good thing is that you can knock two birds out with one stone by training mobility with load. What is meant by this? Load being weight, and for example something as simple as performing a barbell or goblet squat but stressing the eccentric phase of the movement (the lower) as slow as you can and holding the end range of motion for a few seconds before proceeding to stand up. What is going on here is when we have weight on our back or hands in this example, as we descend into the squat, our hips will begin to open up into external rotation, and the weight pushes our hips into new ranges of motion easier than what would be achievable with just our body weight. Also, while we are descending into lower depths & taking it slow, the surrounding musculature around the hip joint are being trained and strengthened to stabilize the hip joint as it reaches these new ranges of motion! Hence, two birds with one stone.  

Why we want to continuously work on our mobility is because our bodies do a fantastic job at compensating and taking the path of least resistance to get a result. Therefore, we will stick with the example of the squat, if one hip can externally rotate (open up) better than the other, over time if we keep performing squats, that can lead to muscular imbalance due to a mobility issue, as the individual may favor one side when standing up and as we know imbalance leads to injury. The same thing can be said in the golf swing, if we are more mobile, the swing may feel easier & loose compared to someone who screens below average on all tests. Another example, if we can rotate well to our back swing side, but our thoracic rotation lacks the same amount of motion on the opposite side, then it may be difficult to maintain spine angles through the downswing, which can lead to a variety of impact issues and potential injury! 

So when it comes to training mobility, I would first consult with a SMART Golf trainer first for their opinion on which techniques to use. But as a general rule of thumb, start light, move slowly through FULL ranges of motion, and slowly progress. A little bit goes a long way, however, as with anything, consistency is the most important pillar.