Percussive therapy can transform your golf game - and your physical wellbeing. Here's how...
Percussive Therapy: How It Can Help Golfers Before, During And After A Round
We’d do anything to shoot lower scores, wouldn’t we? Whatever it takes: a course of lessons, a change of equipment, or even a new fitness programme - but what about percussive therapy?
What Is Percussive Therapy?
This massage technique is perhaps not something golfers are too familiar with, yet there’s a fair chance it could transform your performance on the course, as well as your overall physical wellbeing.
It’s used during warm-up and recovery, by coaches, physical therapists, trainers and athletes - elite and recreational - around the world, to treat muscle tension and pain, and as an injury prevention tool.
Massage guns might not sound too appealing, but they’re extremely effective in helping to increase blood flow by ‘pummelling’ the muscles and loosening tight spots.
Don’t worry, they don’t inflict pain - they relieve it.
The golf swing employs involves a number of large muscle groups, so it’s not surprising that these percussive therapy massage guns are finding their way onto the golf circuit.
Dr Jason Wersland is regarded as one of the pioneers of percussive therapy.
After suffering a bad injury in a motorcycle accident in 2007, he created something to deal with the pain - and his passion with percussive therapy was born, as was Theragun.
Wersland may not have been thinking solely about golfers at this time, but percussive therapy devices are becoming more popular in the game.
“Percussive therapy relieves the tension in our body, and as you’re golfing you build up tension swinging at specific ranges, at specific speeds for your specific distances,” says Wersland, Founder and Chief Wellness Officer of the recently rebranded Therabody.
“These massage guns relieve tension in a short period of time. It only takes about 15 seconds, whether you’re warming up, during the play or at the end for recovery.”
The Benefits For Golfers
There are benefits to be had for anyone using one of the devices, not just those performing at an elite level, or athletes who do a lot of strength and conditioning work.
As well as proving effective across a range of sports and activities, they’re also helping the weekend golfer and older players with mobility issues.
However, in US PGA champion Collin Morikawa, a health and wellness advocate, Therabody has the perfect brand ambassador.
The 23-year-old American describes Therabody products as his “secret weapon”, and he credits them for increasing his range of motion and swing speed, as well as assisting faster recovery and injury prevention.
And there’s another huge benefit of percussive therapy.
Golf is a great example of proprioception at work, which the body’s ability to sense its location and actions.
This ability to understand your positioning without consciously thinking about it can be essential to hitting a golf ball.
In order to keep your proprioception functioning properly and muscles loose, it can help to relieve built-up tension, and Wersland says percussive therapy can be an effective tool to quickly soothe these issues either before or after golfing, as well as in between holes.
This is what makes the Theragun mini so popular with golfers - it’s the perfect device for taking in your golf bag.
Morikawa is frequently spotted using the mini, as well as the PRO, which is the described as the ‘advanced, professional-grade recovery tool of choice for professionals and everyday people worldwide.’
The Theragun Range
The Therabody Theragun collection also includes the Prime and Elite, and they all feature QuietForce Technology, which means you won’t distract your fellow golfers when you need to give your muscles a quick pummel, or anyone at home when you open up the Therabody app for a guided routine.
It’s all clever stuff. Who knows, one of these devices may prove more of a game-changer than the latest all-singing, all-dancing driver.
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