Ease yourself into upcoming golf season
Waterloo Region golf courses will eventually be open for business, and when they do, stiffness, injuries and other ailments are sure to follow.
That’s where people like Josh Leyes enter the picture.
The Waterloo-based personal trainer, a self-described “avid golfer” who works out of the Dearborn Health and Wellness Centre, encourages people to ease into the season after what has been a long stretch of inactivity for many golfers.
His first piece of advice is to start the season with a leisurely round, preferably walking, as opposed to heading to the range and pounding one ball after another after another.
“When you’re playing, you get a few minutes in between shots, whereas if someone goes to the driving range with a bucket of balls, they’ll often gravitate towards the driver for at least half the bucket with little or no rest in between swings,” said Leyes, who is certified by the Titleist Performance Institute (TPI).
“They’ll violently rotate their bodies in one direction for an hour and they wonder why they’re so sore the next day.”
For golfers who do prefer to hit the range first, Leyes suggests putting no more than 20 balls aside and starting off with pitch and chip shots and easing into the mid-irons. Bring out the long irons, fairway metals and driver at the end of the session.
Leyes, a Wilfrid Laurier University kinesiology graduate, offers golf specific personal training out of his Lexington Road office and is running a sixsession conditioning program that starts by evaluating the participant’s golf fitness.
An exercise plan is then devised to help the participant improve crucial aspects of the golf swing such as flexibility and stability.
There is no charge for the first two session with various pricing options for the remaining four. Call Dearborn Health (519-884— 4848) or text Leyes (226-339-2841) for additional information and program details. Leyes also has a Facebook page — The Fit Golfer — that offers tips, videos, articles and details about his fitness program.
No matter where a golfer finds a fitness program to follow, Leyes said the key is to following it throughout the course of the season, even if it’s for just 10 minutes a day.
“It’s almost like you would brush your teeth or comb your hair, your body needs a little bit of daily maintenance so it’s able to move in a way that you can
swing the golf club, reduce the risk of injury and improve performance and consistency,” he said. Additional fitness tips and suggestions are also easily available online.
Fingers crossed
With a little help from Mother Nature, local courses will be open for business next week.
GolfNorth Properties, which owns or operates eight courses in Waterloo Region, updated its tentative list of opening dates Wednesday and hopes to have all courses up and running by next Friday.
Brookfield opened briefly last week and will reopen when the snow disappears. Conestoga, Foxwood, Rebel Creek, and Grey Silo are slated to open Wednesday, Beaverdale on Thursday and Dundee on Friday.
The two City of Kitchener courses — Doon Valley and Rockway — are slated to open next Friday.