“Tree Pose is a balance pose. It can also help us build concentration, strengthen the hips, open the hips and strengthen the core,” McMillin says.

To do the pose, start by standing on your right leg and place your left foot on your right ankle. You can use a golf club to help you balance. Keep your left toes on the ground.

“This helps us get used to standing on one leg, finding a strong, stable foundation before we move further into the pose,” McMillin says.

For the next phase of the pose, feel like you’re pushing down through all parts of your right foot as you bring the left foot up to rest on your right calf. Keep your right knee flexed throughout this move.

“Keeping a bend in the standing leg makes sure the muscles in the standing leg are activated and you’re not locking out the knee joint,” McMillin says.

For some golfers, this is the right place to stop and hold the pose for a few breaths before switching sides.

But if you’re feeling good with your left foot at your right calf and think you can do more, McMillin says to engage your core as you slide your foot up to the right knee. If your hip flexibility allows it, you can take the pose a step farther and bring your foot up to your right inner thigh.

Hold for a few breaths and then switch sides.

Lauren McMillin, Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer, Tree Pose

As you build proficiency, you could be able to take the golf club you were using for balance, and lift it above your head, like McMillin is doing in the photo.

The balance, strength and concentration required to do Tree Pose mirrors what you need to remain in control throughout your golf swing. McMillin says to hold this pose for 30 second to one minute on each side and to do this five times per week. You’ll start to feel more stable in your golf swing.

The post Try this yoga pose for improved stability in your golf swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The World No. 2 has played five times since his victory at the Masters in April, jumping from southeast to Mexico to New York, then from Ohio to California, and now to Connecticut this week.

For anyone’s body — let alone an elite professional athlete like Jon Rahm — it’s a lot of miles to put on the clock. But Rahm has learned how to manage it. And speaking this week at the Travelers Championship, shared some good advice for the rest of us to help our body recover, too.

“It goes back to basics,” Rahm says.

1. Get hydrated

You may have heard this one before, but probably because it’s important. Airplane cabins have lower air pressure and lower humidity levels. It draws more moisture out of your body, and can leave you feeling dehydrated in a hurry. Which is why Rahm’s first piece of advice is simple: Drink more water!
“My main thing if I have a long flight like that would be staying hydrated, making sure I’m hydrated,” he says. “You can get dehydrated on a plane when you’re there for five hours very, very quickly, so making sure I’m keeping up [on drinking water] takes care of a lot.”

2. Get your meals in

Your body draws energy from food and water. We just learned why drinking water can be a challenge, but eating can be just as tricky. Especially when you’re jumping ahead time zones. You could go to bed after an exhausting journey having lost an extra meal, which will make it harder for your body to recover.
“Making sure you get your meals in so your body can recover after a long week like the US Open is very important,” he says.

3. A little exercise can go a long way

The first two tips were relatively easy — eat more and drink more — but Rahm’s third piece of advice will probably help you the most.
We get it, you get off a long flight, you’re tired, you just want to crash and go to sleep. But that’s one of the worst things you can do.
“If you just sit for five hours and then you arrive here late, have dinner, and go to bed, I don’t feel my best the next morning,” Rahm says.
Why? Because when you’re sitting for long periods of time, your muscles get deactivated. The relative lack of blood moving through them can cause them to get stiff, achy and painful. Some form of active movement can get blood moving through your system, and prevent soreness the next day.
“If you have time and a gym, whatever it may be, get a little bit of exercise in,” he says. “It doesn’t need to be crazy. It could be 30, 40 minutes of just some kind of stretching or walking on a treadmill to get the blood flowing a little bit more so your body can just naturally recover and get things moving.”

Three relatively simple things that will loosen up your golf swing and have you feeling great, physically. When you win your buddies trip and they ask you what your secret was, credit Jon Rahm.

The post Jon Rahm: 3 things I always do to recover after a long flight appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

So, I signed up for Weight Watchers and interviewed their experts along with some of the sharpest minds on tour who went through their own, similar experiences.

It wasn’t easy, but 40lbs and a few years later, I feel great. A lot of people come into 2023 with similar resolutions, and sometimes they’ll ask me what I learnt along the way.

What I say in response is that the process of losing weight is relatively simple: If you create a calorie deficit, which means you’re burning more calories than you’re eating, you’ll lose weight. You have to eat the right calories, for sure, but for me, the really hard part came in changing my behaviour — from building new habits to becoming disciplined enough to stick to them and keep yourself motivated.

Playing golf really helped with all those things. Done right, the game you play for fun can be a useful tool for making your feel and look better off the course. It may even help you play better on it, too.

So, if you want to lose weight, here are a few ways to make your new resolution stick — and use golf to help you do it.

1. Establish your ‘why’

This is a big part of the Weight Watchers programme. It’s essentially no different setting a goal for yourself, like you’d do with your game. Why do you want to lose weight? Remind yourself of that often and it can help keep you grounded.

2. Budget your carbs

There are no bad foods, and that includes carbs. Just remember the purpose carbs serve: Your body burns through them quickly when it needs them for short-term energy. That’s what makes them great before a round of golf or a range session. But if you’re eating lots of carbs without doing much, you’ll be stuck in a cycle of feeling hungry and eating more, faster than your body can burn them off. Budget them accordingly.

3. Eat more protein

One of the reasons why Weight Watchers incentivises people towards more protein is because it gives you a more sustained energy source that keeps you feeling full longer. The best diet is a balanced one, but when in doubt, you can’t go wrong with lean proteins such as chicken or turkey breast.

4. Plan ahead

A bit like going to the range with a game plan of what you’re going to practise, spend a little bit of time at the end of each day to plot your meals for the following day. Changing what you eat, more than anything else, requires building a new set of good habits. If you’re going to have a carby breakfast, what are you going to eat for lunch? Or dinner? What kind of fruit are you going to eat along the way? A little planning ahead, especially in the early days, can go a long way in keeping you on track.

5. Don’t let yourself get too hungry

If you’re like me, when you don’t plan out what you’re going to eat for the day ahead of time, you’ll invariably end up hungry. And that’s the worst time to start thinking about food. When you’re hungry, your brain and body will naturally start craving fattier, higher-calorie foods. Keeping a conveyor belt of healthy fruit and high-protein snacks during those long stretches between meals (like when you’re on the golf course) will stop your cravings from leading you into making bad decisions. Simply put, it’s really hard to build healthy habits on an empty stomach.

6. Weigh out your food

It may sound excessive, but this truly was a game changer for me. If you’re gaining weight and not sure why — or rather, you’ve made some dietary changes and still aren’t seeing the pounds come off — you may simply be eating way more than you think. Weighing out carbs like pasta, and seeing how they compare to the serving size, was an eye-opening experience.

7. Look for easy upgrades

Not every change you make to get healthier has to be a big one. Sometimes, it’s the smaller ones that can work the hardest for you. So look for those easy upgrades: Rather than reaching for a sugary sports drink on the course, try a water instead. If you usually take a cart, try working in a round with a push cart every now and again.

8. One bad hole doesn’t make a bad round

When you’re trying to change your eating habits, you won’t always succeed. You’ll get hungry and cave. You’ll be in a social setting with friends and decide to order dessert, or keep reaching for that delicious appetiser somebody brought to the party. Not if but when this happens, don’t be too hard on yourself. Remember not to lose sight of the goal and don’t let one bad day destroy all your hard work. It’s not about what happened, it’s about what happens next.

9. Keep score

There are definitely real and serious drawbacks to being too laser-focused on the number the scale says, but if you’re serious about getting healthier and losing weight, you need to be honest about where you are. Weigh yourself on a regular schedule: Whether it be daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, make your weigh-ins routine and mandatory. Just as tracking your golf stats can highlight the areas of your game where you most need to improve, tracking your weight will do the same with your body.

10. Focus on the process, not the immediate results

If your goal is losing weight, some days will feel easier than others. You may not see immediate results either, or even if you are proud of shedding a few pounds, those around you may not give you the kind of positive feedback you may be craving. It’s important to remember during these times that getting healthy and losing weight really is about playing the long game.

The post New Year Resolutions: 10 tips to help golfers lose 10lbs (or more) in 2023 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

High-intensity training can unlock potent speed in your golf swing – and the desert dunes of Big Red make the perfect playground

By Claudine Foong-Riggs
Speed is the essential raw material required in any powerful golf swing. When you can control it through balance, stability and good mechanics, that’s when you unlock explosive power. But without speed, a golfer will always have limitations. So how do we increase our dynamic power? We do it through high-intensity training, and a trip to the desert dunes on the Dubai-Hatta road provides the perfect environment in which to train. The soft sand and dramatic contours of the dunes make the following exercises especially challenging, but your focus should be on quality, not quantity. High-Intensity Interval Training and dynamic control for a golfer is beneficial for improving conditioning, strength, power and anabolic response to build muscle and reduce fat.  Each of the following exercises should be performed for no more than 20-30 seconds with a rest period of 30-60 seconds. Remember to always do a full warm-up before getting started.

Spiderman Crawl (main image)
This is a great exercise to do in the desert. Begin in a strong push-up position and bring your right knee to right elbow, left hand out in front and keep your body low to the ground. Alternate your hands and legs to continue to crawl forwards.
3 sets of 8

Speed Parachute Training
Once you have mastered the sprint technique, the parachute can be an excellent tool, which provides resistance in the drive phase of sprinting. You can do this exercise without a parachute.
Perform 3-5 sets of 30m sprints

Hill Sprints
Hill Sprints require an athlete to use a lot more leg power to drive hard into the ground. Sprint UP the hill and run back down, focusing on looking forward. Experiment with different hill lengths – short, medium and long.
Perform 3-5 sets

Bound with Med-Ball Pass 
Stand with your feet wider than hip-width apart. Hold a light medicine ball (or basketball) at your chest. Hip hinge and push off the ground as hard as you can, jumping forwards. Push away with your arms and release the ball. Land softly and sprint to the ball and repeat.
3 sets of 5

‘180’ Jumps 
Your lower body is the driving force for this movement. The sequence is: lower body, core, then arms. Load and drive off the ground to rotate and face the opposite direction. Land softly, stabilising your body and immediately load and jump back in the other direction.
3 sets of 10

Claudine Foong is the Brand Ambassador of PXG Middle East. Instagram: @claudinefoong

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The post Golf Fitness Special: Speed drills in the desert appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Chances are you’ve had a few close calls to the first tee since (and will again) so here’s the second in our series of 11th-hour warm-up exercises from the PXG Middle East ambassador:

Here’s a reminder of Claudine’s last tip to ensure you warm-up adequately when time is tight:

Foong began Golf Digest Middle East’s new Golf Fitness series with the “Farmer Carry”. Again shot on location at Trump Dubai, the exercise activates the all-important core muscles, promotes shoulder and pelvic stability and increases grip strength and can be seen here:

Later the Canadian introduced the ‘Goblet Squat” to the mix to assist lower body strength and marry core and pelvic stability:

Stay tuned for more fitness tips from the Ontario-native, who played collegiate golf at Gardner Webb University in North Carolina and spent three seasons playing professionally – including on The Futures (now Symetra) Tour and in Canada and Florida – before devoting her career to wellness and performance coaching. Your game, and body, will thank you for it.

The post VIDEO: PXG ambassador Claudine Foong is back with another quick warm-up tip appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

High-intensity training can unlock potent speed in your golf swing – and the desert dunes of Big Red make the perfect playground

By Claudine Foong-Riggs
Speed is the essential raw material required in any powerful golf swing. When you can control it through balance, stability and good mechanics, that’s when you unlock explosive power. But without speed, a golfer will always have limitations. So how do we increase our dynamic power? We do it through high-intensity training, and a trip to the desert dunes on the Dubai-Hatta road provides the perfect environment in which to train. The soft sand and dramatic contours of the dunes make the following exercises especially challenging, but your focus should be on quality, not quantity. High-Intensity Interval Training and dynamic control for a golfer is beneficial for improving conditioning, strength, power and anabolic response to build muscle and reduce fat.  Each of the following exercises should be performed for no more than 20-30 seconds with a rest period of 30-60 seconds. Remember to always do a full warm-up before getting started.

Spiderman Crawl (main image above)
This is a great exercise to do in the desert. Begin in a strong push up position and bring your right knee to right elbow, left hand out in front and keep your body low to the ground. Alternate your hands and legs to continue to crawl forwards.
3 SETS OF 8

Speed Parachute Training
Once you have mastered the sprint technique, the parachute can be an excellent tool, which provides resistance in the drive phase of sprinting. You can do this exercise without a parachute.
PERFORM 3-5 SETS OF 30m SPRINTS

Hill Sprints
Hill Sprints require an athlete to use a lot more leg power to drive hard into the ground. Sprint UP the hill and run back down, focusing on looking forward. Experiment with different hill lengths – short, medium and long.
PERFORM 3-5 SETS

Bound with Med-Ball Pass 
Stand with your feet wider than hip-width apart. Hold a light medicine ball (or basketball) at your chest. Hip hinge and push off the ground as hard as you can, jumping forwards. Push away with your arms and release the ball. Land softly and sprint to the ball and repeat.
3 SETS OF 5

‘180’ Jumps 
Your lower body is the driving force for this movement. The sequence is lower body, core, then arms. Load and drive off the ground to rotate and face the opposite direction. Land softly, stabilising your body and immediately load and jump back in the other direction.
3 SETS OF 10

Claudine Foong is a Brand Ambassador for PXG Middle East.

The post Golf Fitness Special: Speed drills in the desert appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Gary Player meets the Butch Harmon School of Golf’s Claudine Foong to discuss the keys to a healthy game

Your Core Is Your Power Source
By Gary Player

My advice to all golfers is very simple. Focus on your core! Picture yourself in golf set-up and now zoom in on the area that runs from your breastbone down to your knees – that is your power base. When I exercise, I spend a lot of time on this area. I do 1,300 crunches and sit-ups four times a week, and a series of plank exercises, starting on my back and then alternating each side, holding these planks for two minutes each time.

To play your best golf, you should focus on a strong core, strong hands and feet, and a loose, supple back. What you should not be doing, is building up your shoulders and biceps with too much muscle, as I believe Tiger Woods did. And when you stretch, don’t forget to pay close attention to your ‘weaker’ side. I’ve hit over 11 million golf balls in my life, swinging right to left. So when I stretch, I make sure I spend extra time going the other way.

Related: Breaking 70 at Eighty

3 Things You Can Learn From Gary Player
By Claudine Foong

Meeting Mr. Gary Player, the first thing you notice is his energy and vitality. You would never guess he is 80 years young. He is in phenomenal shape; and his passion and zest for life are incredibly inspiring. Here are the three key things that I took away from meeting golf’s original fitness pioneer.

1 Make Fitness a Priority
● Not only is fitness important for golf, but fitness for life is key. Player attributes his ability to shoot well below his age to his exercise routine. His routine includes weights, sprints and an extensive group of core exercises. He demonstrated a few of his routine exercises during the interview, one of which included me sitting on his feet while he leg pressed me.

2 Take Nutrition Seriously
● Gary Player is a strong advocate for healthy eating.  He believes in educating people to eat nutrient dense meals mainly consisting of a variety of vegetables. He does eat some meat, however he ensures it is free range and good quality.

3 Get Healthy in Mind and Body
● As part of his fitness, Mr. Player practices Tai Chi poses that help him focus his mind and instil discipline. He is a firm believer that a healthy mind promotes happiness.

Claudine Foong is the Director of Fitness at the Butch Harmon School of Golf. For more information, contact +971 (0)4 425 1040 or visit butchharmondubai.com

Photographs by Farooq Salik

The post Maximise your athletic potential appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

We detail how Alex Riggs and Claudine Foong at the Butch Harmon School of Golf have been helping to transform a BRIGHT talent

THE SWING: How Sana Is Taking Her Game To The Next Level

A home grown success story

By Alex Riggs

Sana Tufail is the most successful female junior golfer in UAE history. If you play regular tournament golf here, you will probably be familiar with the exploits of this home grown success story. Now 18 and embarking on a college golf scholarship at the Old Dominion University in the U.S., Sana has won all there is to win at an amateur level in the UAE, even playing in the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters as a 15-year-old in 2011 and carding a debut round of one over par 73.

Sana is a dedicated athlete who has put everything into achieving her goals. Having worked with our director of instruction Justin Parsons as a junior, she has set new standards for what is possible as a female golfer in the UAE, but is right now facing her biggest challenge – to compete against the best college golfers in America.

 Claudine Foong, our director of fitness here at the BHSG, and I have been working with Sana these past three months to help prepare her for that big step up. When we first started, the priority quickly became adding power to her game. Although she’s always been consistent, Sana wasn’t hitting the ball far enough to compete with the top women golfers in her age bracket internationally.

From a golf swing perspective, we have therefore been working to make a powerful draw her stock shot. Most of the women on tour play this shape for that very reason – it can be a difference maker. Away from the course, Sana has been working hard with Claudine to transform her physical capabilities, and the results have been encouraging. We wish her well with her collegiate career, and anticipate plenty more success down the road. I’ve outlined some of the swing techniques we’ve been focusing on, and for anyone seeking to hit a draw these positions will help.

POWER UP: How Sana Is Taking Her Game To The Next Level

Catching up off the course

By Claudine Foong

When Sana first came into the gym at the Butch Harmon School of Golf she was very green – she’d never really done much strength and conditioning work in the past. So our first goal was to develop her athleticism and make sure she had good movement patterns. As a golfer, you need strength, power and mobility, and these three components have been something we’ve been focusing on over the last three months. I’m really impressed with how far she’s come in such a short period of time. Along with the work she’s done with Alex on her swing, she’s been able to gain a significant amount of distance and more consistency of ball striking. With Sana going into collegiate golf in the States, conditioning-wise she’ll now be equipped to handle the rigors of regular tournament play. Here I’ve outlined three of the exercises that Sana has been doing in her training program, and I would recommend you also give them a try to help develop strength and power in your golf game.

1.  The Tyre Push

We’ve used a tyre here, but this exercise is traditionally done with a sled. It’s a great one for developing strength in your glutes and the entire posterior chain, as well developing core stability. It also challenges the upper body and works the entire shoulder girdle. This exercise works either for sprints or strength. With Sana we focused on the latter, so she’s using a tyre that weighs around 30kg. Ultimately, you want to choose a weight that’s heavy enough to challenge your body over each set.

Perform 4 sets of 15-30 metres, with a full rest and recovery in between each set.

2) The Bulgarian Split Squat

This unilateral exercise challenges the entire lower body. It’s excellent for core strength and stability. Begin with the rear foot elevated 4-6 inches off the ground, progressing up to having it rest on a bench. Slowly lower your body until your back knee lightly touches the ground, holding your arms out directly in front of you. Drive through your front heel to return back to the start position, ensuring that your front knee stays behind the toes of your front foot.

Perform 3 sets of 8-10 reps on each leg

3. Farmer Walks

This is a great addition to your workouts for developing power in your legs, glutes and hips. It strengthens the core and develops a stronger and more stable back and shoulders, increasing grip strength. Use a deadlift to bring the dumbbells to your thighs, and taking short, fast steps, maintain a tall spine, keeping your chest and eyes up. Vary the weights and distance. Light weights for longer distance (40m), right through to heavy weights for short distance (10-15m). At this end, you should aim to carry half your body weight acorss both hands.

Perform 4 sets, taking full rest and recovery in between each set

Sana Tufail: Owner of six UAE course records (including a 67 at home club Yas Links), Sana Tufail enjoyed a prolific junior career that culminated in an invitation to play the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters in 2011. She shot a gross 64 in the 2014 Faldo Series Asia at Al Ain Shooting, Equestrian & Golf Club, en route to winning the event. She has won 29 Ladies EGF events and a record 17 Ladies Opens in a row

Photographs by Farooq Salik

The post Big Draw: How Sana Tufail is Transforming Her Game appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.