Category: Uncategorized

As being overweight or obese can increase the risk of numerous health conditions, such as heart
disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, a healthy body weight is an essential component of overall health
and wellness.

Maintaining a healthy weight depends on a variety of factors, including your age, gender, activity level,
and metabolism. In trying to sustain a healthy body weight, it’s important to develop healthy habits for
life. These habits should focus on sustainable, long-term changes rather than quick fixes or fad diets.

Achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight can be challenging, especially with so many unhealthy
food options and sedentary lifestyles, so here are some general guidelines that can help you:

Eat a balanced diet: Aim to eat a variety of foods from all the food groups, including fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. This will provide your body with the nutrients it needs to
function properly.

Watch your portion sizes: Portion control is important when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight.
Use measuring cups and spoons to measure out serving sizes or use visual cues (such as the size of your
fist or palm) to estimate portion sizes.

Limit your intake of processed foods: Processed foods are often high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy
fats. Try to limit your intake of processed foods, and opt for whole, minimally processed foods instead.

Limit your intake of sugar and unhealthy fats: Sugar and unhealthy fats can contribute to weight gain
and other health problems. Limit your intake of sugary drinks, desserts, and snacks, and choose healthy
fats (such as those found in nuts, seeds, and avocados) instead of unhealthy fats (such as those found in
fried foods and processed snacks).

Stay hydrated: Drinking plenty of water can help you maintain a healthy weight. Aim to drink at least
eight glasses of water per day and limit your intake of sugary drinks.

Be physically active: Regular physical activity is an important part of maintaining a healthy weight. Aim
to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (such as brisk walking or cycling) per week.

In addition to these strategies, it’s important to prioritize sleep and stress management to support
overall health and weight management. Creating healthy habits that can be sustained long-term is
crucial for success. Setting achievable goals and developing a plan for success can help with
accountability and tracking progress. Seeking support from friends, family, or a healthcare professional
can also be helpful.

By following these guidelines, you can maintain a healthy weight and support your overall health and
wellbeing. However, if you have any health concerns or medical conditions, be sure to talk to your
healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet or exercise routine.

One of the primary myths surrounding back pain is that exercise, especially weight training, should be avoided because of back pain.

Your back needs movement to be healthy like any of the other joints in the body. Exercise helps maintain your range of motion and prevents your muscles from weakening, in turn allowing you to heal more quickly. Underworking your back can be equally as detrimental as overworking your back.

The deep muscles that stabilize the spine are small and often inhibited by the body’s response to pain. This guarding response can lead to weakness during reduced activity levels associated with prolonged periods of pain. In turn, allowing these deep stabilizers to be overridden by the larger muscles of the hips and back. This can result in abnormal muscle firing and pain as you begin to resume daily activities.

The MedX Lumbar Extension machine is specifically designed to target and strengthen the muscles of the lower back. It has a unique design that allows for precise and uniform resistance and is the only machine that truly isolate the spine musculature.

Here are some of the most important features:

1. Range of Motion: The MedX Lumbar Extension machine has a unique range of motion that is specifically designed to isolate and target the muscles of the lumbar spine throughout its functional range of muscular movement. 

2. Resistance: The resistance provided by the MedX Lumbar Extension machine is calibrated to match the user’s ability, which allows for gradual increases in resistance as the user’s strength improves. Other machines may have a fixed resistance or limited adjustments, which may not be suitable for all users.

3. Form: The MedX Lumbar Extension machine is designed to ensure proper form during the exercise, which minimizes the risk of injury and maximizes the effectiveness of the exercise. The movement your low back goes through on the MedX Lumbar Machine, increases your range of motion, and promotes an increase in synovial fluid to help lubricate your discs and lumbar muscles.   This fluid helps to reduce friction between the vertebrae and surrounding muscles and tissues, allowing for smooth and efficient movement. Additionally, synovial fluid helps to provide nutrients to the joint and surrounding tissues and remove waste products, promoting overall low back health.

4. The patented restraint system: The lower body restraint systems provides an effective way to isolate the deep spinal muscles by preventing movement in the pelvis and firing of the hip and leg muscles. By isolating them in this manner, the spinal muscles quickly regain lost strength, helping to provide relief from low back pain.

5. Research-based design: The MedX Lumbar Extension machine was developed based on extensive research into the biomechanics of the lumbar spine and lower back muscles. This research led to the creation of a machine that provides an effective and safe exercise for strengthening the muscles of the lower back.

Overall, the MedX Lumbar Extension machine is designed to provide a targeted and effective exercise for strengthening the muscles of the lumbar spine, while minimizing the risk of injury and maximizing the effectiveness of the exercise. In addition, regular use of the MedX Lumbar Extension machine can help improve posture, which can further reduce the risk of developing lower back pain. 

A strong, healthy spine provides a foundation to help prevent injury. It allows individuals to perform their normal daily activities and all the things they love pain-free. 

Getting the right amount of nutrients is essential for overall health and well-being. Nutrients are the building blocks of our bodies and are required for a wide range of physiological processes, including growth and repair, energy production, and immune function. 

Some of the key reasons why getting the right amount of nutrients is important include:

1. Maintaining energy levels: Nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins are essential for energy production. Without these nutrients, the body cannot function properly and energy levels can drop, leading to fatigue and other health problems.

2. Supporting growth and development: Nutrients such as protein, calcium, and iron are critical for growth and development, particularly in children and adolescents. These nutrients are needed to build strong bones, muscles, and tissues, and to support overall physical development.

3. Promoting immune function: Vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc are important for immune function, helping to protect the body against infections and disease.

4. Preventing chronic disease: A diet rich in nutrients has been linked to a reduced risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Nutrients such as fiber, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to have protective effects against these diseases.

5. Supporting mental health: Nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and magnesium are important for mental health, helping to support brain function and reduce the risk of depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.

By providing the body with the nutrients it needs, we can support energy production, growth and development, immune function, and mental health, while reducing the risk of chronic disease and other health problems.

Strength in golf is a complex and multifaceted concept. Golfers can be above average in strength on traditional gym lifts, but if they are not able to transfer that gym strength to golf, it is wasted effort spent on their fitness.  As a golfer, it is necessary to train your body through multiple planes of movement while concentrating on the proper sequence of muscle activation (using the correct muscles in the correct order during each exercise). This is not to say that muscle strength does not matter, but if the individual muscles cannot connect and work with each other, then that strength will be ineffective in your golf swing. For this reason, it is essential to design your fitness routine with exercises that not only improve individual muscle strength but also improve the way muscles work together in all planes of movement. This is what is meant by being “golf strong.”

ARE YOU “GOLF STRONG?” 

To be golf strong, you need to have strength throughout the entire range of motion involved in your golf swing. A weakness in a muscle at any joint through any segment of the motion will create a breakdown in your golf swing.

Lifting weights straight up and down, in one plane of motion may make you strong in that plane and range of motion, it does however, greatly limit the functional strength that you can develop in relation to your swing. This traditional approach to fitness eliminates the need for your body to create and maintain stabilization through multiple planes of motion, yet it is this ability to stabilize that is critical in golf.  When heavily incorporated into your golf fitness training, a multiplanar approach to strength will result in that strength having a much greater carryover to the golf game.

“GOLF STRONG,” and INJURY PREVENTION

In golf there are two main types of injury: soft tissue injury and joints injury.  Although there are no heavy weights lifted during golf, the muscles and joints involved create very high forces in the acceleration of the swing and then in controlling the high forces in slowing the swing down. As muscular strength increases through all planes of motion, so does your ability to tolerate the explosive and ballistic nature of the golf swing, reducing risk of injury. Remember, muscles and soft tissues are your first level of protection and if you lack sufficient strength in the muscles that create and then slow down these forces, the potential for injury is high. Further, when muscle strength isn’t adequate to control the speed and rotation of the swing, the joints will begin to absorb the energy, and although the joints can tolerate some force, they are not designed to be the major contributor to acceleration and deceleration. It is this type of physical weakness that leads to injury and difficulty to creating an efficient swing.

WHAT IS CLEAR!

What is clear, is that players who are “golf strong” perform better in numerous individual fitness categories like balance, body awareness, stability, neuromuscular coordination, power, and endurance. When a golfer is below average in any one of these fundamental skill sets, the resulting weakness becomes apparent in the golf swing.

When thinking about building up your strength for golf its important to focus time on developing strength though every plane of motion doing not only helps increase the power and consistency of your golf swing but also helps ensure you can play more golf more often. 

Here is a short video link of one of our Jrs., Bode Stephen. Bode is demonstrating a few multiplanar strength exercises that we’ve incorporated into his training which are intended to improve his strength and challenge his stability making him “Golf Strong.”