Knackered Downunder reports on how to get ahead in golf or tennis with a little help from your behind muscles

Some time ago, this column had a contribution about the Australian swimmer Libby Lenton’s efforts to develop a bigger bum in order to swim faster. Now comes news that Tiger Woods owes his abilities on the golf course to his strong backside.

An analysis in the Washington Post shows that while Woods and other top golfers have trained their gluteal and abdominal muscles to generate power, less fit and less experienced players are loading it onto their lower back. The gluteal muscles, incidentally, comprise the three muscles that make up your bum.

According to the Post, to hit the ball farther, the natural tendency is to swing your arms harder and twist your shoulders more. That creates a horizontal shear force on the spine estimated in amateur golfers at 125 pounds.

As the newspaper says, the physics aren’t exactly the same, but consider how you’d feel after twisting 80 or 90 times while carrying a 125-pound box of books.

Even though pros are hitting much farther, their load on the lower back is anywhere from 40 to 80 percent less. Moving from their hips, they have placed much of the swing’s stress on muscles better suited to handle it — muscles that in many of us have weakened from years of office work and inattention.”

The three gluteal muscles — maximus, medius and minimus – are the body’s workhorses, responsible for lifting and carrying and twisting.

Coupled with the abdominals and other core muscles, they can surround the lower back with strength and allow a golfer or tennis player to generate a whiplike force. Add flexibility to the picture and you get a swing like Woods’s, in which a line drawn from the hip to ear, roughly along the spine, barely changes position through the course of the motion.

Quoting one fitness export, the Post suggests a couple of simple home tests:-

Sit on the edge of a chair — arms crossed, feet on the floor, thighs parallel to the ground — then twist your torso. If you rotate less than 45 degrees, “you’re in trouble” if you are serious about an aggressive golf or tennis game.

Or try a full squat: lower your rear end toward the ground with your feet flat, and see if you can go all the way down without tumbling over. (Careful on that point.) If you can’t, then the strength and flexibility in your lower body probably need work.”

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