Exercise for older golfers


Dave Tutelman -- May 30, 2018
I am not an exercise professional. I am sharing these exercises with you because they have done good things for me and may do good things for you. But you do them at your own risk. Ease into them, so you don't do something silly and hurt yourself. Any exercise can aggravate an existing injury, or possibly even cause an injury if you do it wrong.

The safest approach is to be evaluated by a trained exercise specialist (physical therapist, personal trainer, TPI, something like that) before you start a back exercise program. I have been doing these exercises for over 20 years, I was a lot younger and stronger when I started, and I am used to them. They may not be right for you, but an exercise professional can prescribe exercises that are for you.

Update - 2018

When I turned 75 in 2016, sciatica began to get the upper hand on me. Now, two years later, it is keeping me off the golf course. Injections and pills do not help, or at least not enough for me to play golf. It is also interfering with my exercise program.

Yes, I still want to stay in shape; that's a fundamental health goal, in addition to enhancing my golf game. And no, sciatica has not put an end to my exercising, but it has changed the way I exercise certain muscle groups. In fact, the only ones that have changed in the past two years because of my disk are some of the core exercises.

Here are the changes I have had to implement.

Pecs

Even before age 75, I was having back problems with dumbbell flyes for my pectorals. It wasn't so much doing the flyes as getting into and out of position to do them. So I changed over to pushups, which fit well into my core exercises.



Standard pushups exercise both the pecs and the triceps. We already have a triceps exercise in the weights program, so we want the pushups to isolate the pecs. We know they can't be isolated completely. But the further out to the side your hands are, the more work the pectorals are doing and the less the triceps are doing. So I set my hands with the fingers pointing out instead of forward, and I spread my hands as widely as I can and still do pushups.

We could completely isolate the pecs if we could do a pushup with the elbows locked in one position. That would take something that allowed your hands to slide along the floor. They do exist; see here, and here. For many people the only way to be sure the elbows are locked is for them to be fully extended. If you do it this way, it is equivalent to doing flyes with each dumbbell equal to about a third of your body weight. That's a demanding workout.

Hip stretch

While struggling with my sciatica in November 2016, I had a dozen physical therapy sessions. In the process, I learned a new stretch that I incorporated into my core exercises. It stretches the hip joints close to the lower back.



Lying on your back with the left knee bent and well raised, pick up the right leg and rest its ankle high on the left leg's thigh close to the knee. Grab your right knee with your left hand, and pull the right knee across your body. Pull it far enough and you will feel a stretch in your right buttock at the outside of the hip joint. Hold and feel the stretch.

When you have stretched that enough, use the left hand to push the right knee away from your body. This time, you should feel the stretch in your groin, at the inside of the hip joint. Again, hold and feel the stretch. Do not be in a hurry to alternate between pull and push; the animation only does that so you can compare the two positions. It should be done as a "hold and feel" exercise.

Repeat for the other side, with the left ankle over the right knee.

Obliques

Sciatica has made side planks too painful to keep in my core routine. But side leg lifts do not bother my spine, so I do them instead as part of my core exercises.



Lie on your left side with your head resting on your left arm, which is extended over your head. Use the right arm for balance. Now lift your right leg, then return it almost to resting position. (In general, it is a good idea not to return to a position of full extension or full rest during a set of strength exercises.)

One rep of a leg lift does not work the obliques as much as a rep of a side plank. So we will have to do more of them to get as much of a workout. I do 20 of them on each side as opposed to 12 of the side planks, but that is just a guess. Figure out for yourself what is sufficiently fatiguing that you feel you have exercised.

Repeat for the other side, lying on your right side and lifting your left leg.
 

Update - 2022

That sciatica attack cost me all of 2018; I didn't play a single round of golf that year. (There were other factors as well, mainly my wife's health. But the sciatica alone would have kept me off the golf course.) My New Year's resolution for 2019 was to do what was necessary to get back to golf.
  1. My doctor prescribed Lyrica, which helped a little, but not enough to get me onto the golf course.
  2. I signed up for physical therapy.
My physical therapist friend Meryl Freeman found the Shore Wellness Center in Oakhurst NJ (which is now part of the JAG-1 chain). It was well-qualified in the McKenzie method, which Meryl thought was what I needed. Mike Santamaria and especially Angela Colletti (now a Doctor of Physical Therapy) had me working for three one-hour sessions a week, starting in January.

After a little over two months, I was back on the golf course, nearly pain-free, and put the therapy on hold. Angela suggested I save some of the yearly Medicare benefits in case the problem returned. She sent me home with a more extensive set of core exercises, and also made some changes in my weights program. I'm not going to do a complete rundown, because:
  • As I have said before repeatedly, you should see an exercise specialist if you have more than the "standard" problems. I had reached that point, and these exercises are tailored to deal with my problem. The program I have described previously is fine if you don't have special problems. If you do have a special problem, then you should be getting your exercise advice from the professional who is treating you for the problem.
  • These exercises require some special equipment besides a minimal bench and a few dumbbells. I don't want to be responsible for your spending money on specialized exercise equipment that might not be what you need.
The changes to my weights program involves eliminating or modifying those exercises that were putting my back under a load that was excessive or unnecessary. For instance, my exercises for pectorals and rhomboids now involve an elastic band rather than dumbbells and a weight bench.

The changes to my "wakeup" core program were much more extensive and specialized. I now do them every morning, with a short (5-mintue) collection of exercises M-W-F and a longer (12-minute) collection the other four days. Most of those exercises were prescribed by Angela, and are very good at strength and stretching for the spine.

Along the way, I found a minimum set of exercises I am willing to recommend in general. (Angela approved adding them to my routine, and I have.) They are Dr Stuart McGill's "Non-Negotiable Three" exercises.




The moral of the story

The experience of having to change the program as I pick up aches and pains should reinforce my caveats to:
  1. Start slowly. Don't overdo it for your program initially. Build up from easy to hard until you understand your limits.
  2. When in doubt see a professional. They can give you exercises that fit what your body is capable of, and what it needs.


Last modified 9/4/2022