May 2019 Issue - Health, Fitness & Wellness Section

The

By JON RIZZI Photographs by EHREN JOSEPH

Joy

Stretch your muscles,

stretch your game.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2019

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coloradoavidgolfer.com

Flex

of

TORSO ROTATION

• Lay on your side and place your lower leg on a foam roller or something like it.

• Make a 90-degree knee angle with both bottom and top leg.

• Place both hands on top of each other.

• Keeping your legs stationary, open your chest and reach as far as you can with your top arm.

• Repeat 6-12 times and switch sides.

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Working with athletes of all ages and abilities, Colorado Golf Fitness Club owner DEE TIDWELL stresses the primacy of flexibility and mobility.

On the following pages, two of Tidwell’s clients—63-year-old senior player Robert Polk (above) and 31-year-old World Long-Drive competitor Mike Synek—demonstrate the myofascial stretches that keep them in the game and free of pain.

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May 2019 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

Mike Synek (left) and Robert Polk

OI STRETCH

A hip muscle originating deep within the pelvis, the obturator internus (OI) rotates the leg externally and has a major role in stabilizing the head of the femur into the hip socket.

PIRIFORMIS STRETCH

Located deep in the buttock, the piriformis runs from the lower spine to the upper surface of the femur. The piriformis muscle helps the hip rotate, turning the leg and foot outward.

• Sit on the floor in a 90-degree hip and knee angle (right). Grab your knee and shin and pull yourself upright, keeping your spine as vertical as possible.

• Turn your upper body toward your back leg with the goal of having your chest be perpendicular to your thigh.

• Now, if you can, reach forward with both arms turning your pinkies to the ground as far as you can, then push arms forward (above). Then sit up tall and push your arms forward again.

• Repeat for up to 45 seconds • Slowly unwind and switch sides.

• Sit with both legs forward, hands on the floor behind you.

• Bend one knee so it’s 90 degrees from the other.

• At this point either your sameside butt cheek or knee is up, or both are up if you are really tight.

The goal is to lower either the hip or knee to the floor while keeping chest up and as straight a spine as possible.

• Hold for up to 45 seconds, then come out slow and switch.

“MOST AMATEUR GOLFERS lose the ability to turn their hips and torso because they bring their hunched desk posture to the golf course,” says Tidwell, who’s coached golfers in Colorado for 20 years. “And if you can’t turn, you hit it shorter and you get hurt.” Consistently doing these exercises, which are based on famed French osteopath Guy Voyer’s Soma Golf method, will result in a more efficient and effective swing.

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Upward

Mobility

Among Colorado Golf Fitness Club owner Dee Tidwell’s numerous credentials are Level Three Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) certifications. A Top 50 Golf Digest Golf Fitness Pro and Soma Golf Trainer, he is certified as an ELDOA Trainer and uses Osteopath Guy Voyer’s ELDOA method and Myofascial Stretching to prevent and relieve pain.

An orthopedist’s recommendation brought long-driver Mike Synek to Tidwell to rid himself of the back and shoulder pain medical professionals couldn’t relieve. Within six months, he could swing pain-free.

“From when I started to where I am now, it’s a night-and-day difference,” he says. “My flexibility is up, my swing speed is up to 145 from 135 miles per hour, and my ball speed is above 200, when last year at this time I wasn’t even touching 185.”

More than 30 years Synek’s senior, Robert Polk didn’t arrive with pain, just a simple desire: “I didn’t want to hit it longer, I just didn’t want »

Dee Tidwell

T8/9

The thoracic spine attaches to the ribs, rendering it less mobile than the cervical or lumbar spines.

Of the 12 thoracic vertebrae, numbers 8 and 9 take the most stress from the golf swing.

• Sit on the floor and grab your knees.

• Knee angle should be about 90-110 degrees and about a fist width apart.

• Keep feet grounded with toes down.

• Now pull yourself up so you are sitting on the front part of your sit bones, which will straighten your spine.

• Push your head to the ceiling and push the back of your head to an object behind you. Think about being as tall as you can in this position.

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• Now the hard part! Put both arms out in front of you and turn your pinkies to the floor while spreading your fingers and extending your wrists. Then raise both arms overhead.

• Try to get your spine and arms to be as straight as possible. Now hold for up to one minute, working on everything you just read. When done, unwind slowly, grab your knees and relax all.

• Do one to two times per day and especially in the evening after golf.

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May 2019 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

GOLF POSTURE CHOP • Place a band or cable machine on a high position.

• Get into your normal 5-iron golf posture. Now grab the handle with the toward-target hand and put the other on top of it.

• Form a triangle with your arms and work on a chop move from the top of the backswing.

to hit it shorter.” He’s the anomaly, Tidwell says. “99 percent of 63-year-old dudes are saying I want to hit it longer—and not hurt.”

Polk, whom Tidwell calls “Spider-Man” because of his client’s preternatural flexibility, says he “wanted someone to give me some good ideas, refine my stretching and work on the areas where I was weak, like my legs, and strengthen them.”

“Because they’re so mobile, Robert and Mike just really need to make sure they’re strong so they don’t get injured,” Tidwell says.

• Your pelvis moves first, torso (chest) second, lead arm third and hands (club) last. Do this slowly. Speed is not important. Sequence and timing are. They are the DNA of an efficient swing.

• Do this in front of a mirror to make sure you aren’t losing posture, swaying, sliding or making any other kind of swing fault. Perform up to 2030 reps slowly and do 2-3 sets.

Thanks to Tidwell’s regimens, both players are hypermobile and strong. Polk’s age means his muscle tissue requires more recovery time than Synek’s. “Playing every day and getting no rest, which is very common for amateur golfers, is stupid as an older golfer,” Tidwell says.

At any age, the key is to “have hips and a torso that move well. When it just becomes an arm swing, he says, you get elbow, wrist and back issues.

“Once you set that rotary movement on the backswing, it makes it easier to rotate from the pelvis, then the torso drags behind, then the lead arm and then the clubhead contacts the ball right after that,” Tidwell explains. “That sequence is really important and dependent upon your ability to use your pelvis and your torso.”

He says people who think a new driver is going to revolutionize their game are delusional. “Any golf club is only going to be as good as the person moving it,” he says.

“Most amateurs can’t utilize the full potential of their golf clubs because they don’t move right.”

Golf-fitness professional and soft-tissue therapist Dee Tidwell owns Colorado Golf Fitness Club in Greenwood Village. Reach him at dee@coloradogolffitnessclub.com or 303-883-0435.

ONE-LEGGED BACK SWING CHOP • Place a band or cable machine on low position. Get into golf posture, then lift the leg away from the target without changing any of your posture, especially your pelvis.

• Make a triangle with your arms by grabbing the handle with your target-away hand first, then place the other on top of it.

• Turn your torso into your backswing keeping your elbows straight.

• Emphasize the torso turn without the posture changing and with minimal pelvis movement. You will probably only be able to turn your torso a maximum of 50 degrees. Perform up to 15 reps and do 2-3 sets.

• Try lifting the opposite leg, focusing on your weaker balance leg.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2019

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Best Golf

Leave the cart in the barn, smell the flowers, protect the turf and walk your way to lower scores, improved health and deeper friendships with your playing partners.

By ANDY BIGFORD

*Although “golf car” is the preferred trade term, for the purposes of this article we’ll use the colloquial “cart.”

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2019

saves money on cart fees, allowing you to buy that new $650 A.I. driver, and prevents what can be significant damage to your golf course from the wear and tear of carts. Pace of play? No doubt golf can be faster in a cart, but typically the pace is set by the slowest groups on the course, and walking doesn’t need to exacerbate the problem.

Golf has closed the door on its Scottish origins as a walk-only endeavor in favor of a sedentary game where the cart is viewed like the remote for your TV: a necessity. Today, an estimated 70 percent of rounds in the U.S. are played in a cart, despite mounting evidence that walking is good for you and the game in general. Alas, there’s probably a better chance that marketing to the lazier tendencies of the population will win out, and that even less strenuous variations on the game, entertainment-based diversions such as Topgolf, will end up winning the

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match. And that’s a shame.

“The golf cart has destroyed the game we know,” says Ed Mate, the executive director of the Colorado Golf Association,

“Walking 18 holes typically covers five to seven miles, easily eclipsing that 10,000-daily-step goal.” after returning from a trip to Santa Barbara, Calif., where he drove by a perfectly flat muni to see that it was absolutely swarming with carts. “It has completely taken over.”

In his day job, Mate and the CGA advocate coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPH (TOP) COURTESY OF CLUB CAR; BY MARK B. WALDRON/COURTEY OF BANDON DUNES

AVID GOLFERS WILL digest via fire hose any information that may remotely promise to improve their game. So they are scouring this issue to learn how diet, exercise and fitness can help them launch 300-yard drives, calm their nerves over slick three-foot sliders and stay fresh through the closing holes.

Perhaps the game’s greatest irony is that the vast majority will then choose to ignore the gimme health option that is right in front of them on most first tees: the choice to walk instead of ride in a golf cart.* Whether carrying a bag, hiring a caddie, or using a trolley (even a motorized version), walking burns almost twice as many calories, can lower your score and improves the overall experience (except for those whose definition of good golf is being able to carry and consume a 12-pack). It also

Fitness Tip Ever!

UNSEATED: Club Car’s Tempo Walk provides walkers with a high-tech, autonomous golf car alternative.

walking to this state’s 65,000 members for all the obvious reasons, as does the game’s national authority, the USGA. Personally, Mate goes steps further, as an extremely knowledgeable, thoughtful and skilled opponent of today’s definition of golf as a cart-based game. As the incubator of the nationally trendsetting Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at the CGA’s Commonground Golf Club, Mate uses that entree to demonstrate to cart devotees that walking promotes an enhanced version of golf, in which participants actually converse, stroll in leisure and escape from the world’s problems for four hours. Between starts and stops, ins and outs, ball searches and cart-path only rules, riding in a cart robs players of the game’s true charm. “No good conversation has ever been had in a golf cart,” Mate maintains.

“I have a dream of a new golfer who coloradoavidgolfer.com

wants to walk,” says Mate, who has been brainstorming ideas to “put the cart Genie back in the bottle.” His working plan is called Five-Club Golf: it would introduce new players to a walking sport, with a light carry bag, fewer stressful club choices (five to 10 clubs) and a simplistic approach. As a 2-handicap, Mate’s experience shows he plays best with nine or 10 clubs, and that he most enjoys stripping down to five: One for the tee (3-wood), one for the fairway (7iron), one for chip shots (sand wedge) and one for the green (putter). That leaves room in the bag for yet another choice, probably a 9-iron.

Such a movement could even lead to cracking the holy grail, bringing experiential-based newcomers (millennials?) to a sport that is not growing. It could also place Mate in the bull’s-eye of two major players in the golf business: the clubmakers who sell

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HARD BY THE SEA: The walkingonly edict at Bandon Dunes adds to its authentic “experience.”

clubs and the course operators who rely on cart revenue.

For this exercise, let’s focus on the latter. It’s true that for health reasons, some golfers absolutely cannot walk. It’s also true that some course topography and weather demands carts, and, were it not for the existence of the golf cart, a number of May 2019 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER

HIGH-PLAINS DRAMA: The caddies at Ballyneal Golf Club enable healthy hikes through Eastern Colorado chop hills.

AMBULANT AMBIENCE: North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland hasn’t seen a buggy since it opened in 1832.

stunning Colorado golf courses—including Sanctuary in Sedalia, which has raised more than $100 million for charities—would never have been possible. In addition, for many courses, cart revenue—even after factoring in the capital expense and operations (staffing, maintenance, battery charging, cart path construction and repair, etc.)—is a critical part of the bottom line, and that’s just fine.

But as no less than the USGA concluded in an exhaustive analysis of the issue in a 2014 report: “The net revenue from carts is important for many facilities, but it does not need to be the foundation for success.”

Would you like to play Bethpage Black, Chambers Bay, Streamsong, Merion, Pinehurst No. 2, Seminole, Shoal Creek, Erin Hills or Cypress Point? All of these iconic layouts restrict cart use. Mike Keiser’s Bandon Dunes Golf Resort on the Oregon EASY CARRY: The Tempo Walk eliminates the shoulder and back strain of lugging a bag. coast is the most recent poster child for disproving the necessity of carts, and in fact the act of getting in shape to walk Bandon has become part of the “experience” of visiting the 2019 CAGGY Award winner for top destination in the country. seems apparent to me that it really helped The successful experiment has also them.” In the end, Galnick says there are done its part to fuel a small revival of the all kinds of player and personality traits to caddie trade, which has been in decline for accommodate, and the best approach is to decades before seeing recent signs of life. It let them do what they want to do, with a few is now going strong in parts of Colorado, led friendly suggestions along the way. He also

by CGA’s Commonground and a handful belongs to a club outside Scottsdale where COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2019

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99.9 percent of the play is by cart, because it makes sense for that membership and that course (it’s also in one of the residential areas where the cart has become all-purpose transportation, a growing trend).

Neil Wolkodoff, the medical program director for the Colorado Center for Health and Sports Science, wanted to see what science had to say. So he donated 500 hours of his time, bought $27,000 of complex equipment, recruited eight golfers and set out to look for answers. First and foremost, he learned that “ just the act of swinging a golf club 100 times uses a significant amount of energy.”

Carrying a bag burned 721 calories in just 9 holes. Using a push cart removes 718, while playing with a caddie registered 621.

Riding in a cart dropped all the way to 411 calories burned on average. Golfers using a trolley or caddie scored the lowest average scores in Wolkodoff ’s study, conducted at a Denver course; carts were next, and carrying a bag came last. The study did not include the fast-emerging battery-powered push cart, an ideal gateway for those looking to wean themselves off carts.

When physically fit collegiate golfers started rolling push carts a decade ago (and winning NCAA championships), some old-school PGA TOUR players reacted in horror. Then several pros revealed shoulder and other health problems stemming from their early years of carrying a bag, the stigma evaporated and trolleys became cool, not dorky, as well as healthy. A push-cart company CEO predicted three years ago that trolleys would become more prevalent than carrying by 2021, and their popularity will continue to rise...especially as scores go down.

Walking 18 holes typically covers five to seven miles, easily eclipsing that 10,000-daily-step goal, and can be the coloradoavidgolfer.com

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF BALLYNEAL GOLF CLUB; JON RIZZI; CLUB CAR (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT)

of Denver’s premier, old-line private clubs— among them Cherry Hills, Columbine, Denver Country Club and Lakewood.

For a more mainstream example, look to Lake Valley Golf Club in Boulder County.

Granted, it is located in one of the healthiest regions in the country; is an amenity-free golf-only club that tends to draw serious golfers; and offers a course that is quite walkable. Sixty percent of rounds at Lake Valley are played on foot, with only 40 percent in carts, more than an inversion of the nationwide norm. When the course went private in the late 1990s, the cart fleet was eventually reduced from 64 to 46 carts. If the rest of the applicable golf course world could follow this example, it would equate to no less than a major U.S. health initiative.

Lake Valley co-owner and GM Mitch Galnick monitors his membership habits closely, and notes that he’s seen several longtimers who converted from carts back to walking—and the benefits are clear. “They lost weight and felt better,” Galnick says. “It

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SAVING SHOULDERS: Pros no longer call NCAA players “soft” for using trolleys.

ClubCar foresees a trend toward walking, and so is aiming to appeal squarely at tech-savvy millennials, and to woo any golfers who want to leave their riding carts behind. It could also provide replacement revenue for golf course operators; it is not a consumer product, but will be leased by the facilities. Look for Tempo Walks at Colorado courses this summer.

The Troon North Pinnacle course is considered by many to be one of the finest in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, but until a while ago you’d never be able to walk it. Then original designer Tom Weiskopf reconfigured the Pinnacle (swapping some holes with the resort’s other course, Monument), eliminating the long green-totee distances between holes and restoring walkability. The designer said he was simply returning the course to its natural flow, as it was meant to be.

Just as the game of golf was meant to be played. On foot.

Colorado AvidGolfer contributor and lifetime golf bag schlepper Andy Bigford is now, after researching this story, using a trolley. He swears he’ll quit golf when he has to ride a cart, but won’t.

SOLE OF GOLF: Far from pedestrian, walking 18 at Ballyneal brings fitness, camaraderie, tradition and oneness with the game.

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TOP: COURTESY OF NCAA; BOTTOM: COURTESY BALLYNEAL GOLF CLUB

PRE S E N T ED BY

equivalent of a two- to three-mile run.

Besides maintaining proper weight, it can prevent or manage heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, while strengthening muscle and bones and promoting balance and coordination.

Wolkodoff cautions that golf (even while walking) is still an intermittent task, and that it probably can’t be a primary source of exercise (Sorry, President Trump). So unless you’re playing five rounds a week, Wolkodoff recommends other fitness regimes to reach the standard goal of burning 4,500 to 5,000 calories a week.

Phoenix/Scottsdale is the epicenter for many Coloradans seeking a winter golf getaway. But when its almost 200 golf courses are pared down to the high-quality ones you can walk, the list dwindles to a handful: TPC Scottsdale Champions, Ak-Chin Southern Dunes, Wigwam Blue and Papago among them. (Another, ASU Karsten, shuts down this month.) Mind you, there will be no discount for not taking a cart in most cases, but you are allowed to play the game as it was intended. Standing tallest on his soapbox, Mate (the traditionalist lover of the game, not the CGA leader) says bringing a new golfer to a cart-only golf course is like taking your child to a new school and introducing him to the loudest, most obnoxious bully in the schoolyard.

Maybe the riding-cart genie can be stuffed back in the bottle, one small step at a time. Today’s “push carts” are a far cry from that rusty, rickety three-wheeler that your father used. ClubCar, a leading cart supplier, has just released Tempo Walk, a 90-pound, Jetsons-like walking cart that not only reliably follows you from four feet behind, but has all the amenities—GPS, USB, Bluetooth, bag transport—and other accessories of a luxury riding cart.

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Beat the Clock How to get younger—really!—and play better after 50.

By NEIL WOLKODOFF, PHD Illustrations By DAVE PALMER MOST SENIOR GOLFERS don’t think about how aging affects their game until aches, pains and loss of distance begin to encroach.

Your chronological age is your age in years, and your functional age is how you function. The two can be completely different. Some 73-year-old golfers function at strength, power and endurance levels of those who are 47. Conversely, a sedentary 47-year-old can have the functionality of an average septuagenarian.

Unfortunately, just continuing to do the same routine you did at age 24 does not respect the critical changes to the body as it ages. While not a total list, here are some of the research and application concepts to playing better golf, gaining health and function and being more vital if you are over 50.

RESPECT STRUCTURE After 50, your joints show signs of wear and have less structural support.

For the shoulders, the ligaments around the rotator cuff lose density, making injuries more likely. Twice per week, take five to nine minutes and perform a rotator-cuff program with elastic bands.

COLORADO AVIDGOLFER | May 2019

Knees have less support and cushioning after 50 just from wear, so minimize impact activities like running in favor of cycling and the elliptical.

Your feet lose support in the arch, which tends to fall with increasing age.

The fat pads under the ball of the foot and heel also wear out, diminishing your ability to take even the typical impact of walking.

The simple solution is properly fit orthotics combined with more traditional golf shoes offering increased lateral and heel support compared to minimalist/athletic styles. And remember to change your golf and athletic footwear yearly if not sooner, as they lose their lateral support and cushioning sooner than you think.

WORK AND MOVE Sitting at a desk slows metabolism, leads to swollen legs and encourages poor posture. The first goal is to sit less. Getting up once per hour and taking a three-minute walk will lessen fluids settling in the legs and elevate metabolism. If you can, sit on a FitBall at work instead of an office chair. Or opt for an adjustable standing desk.

After looking down at the computer most of the day, our shoulders round,

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affecting our spines. Every time you hit “save” on your keyboard, stand up straight and pull your shoulders back.

THE CORE PROBLEM The reasons golfers over 50 lose distance are lack of a consistent and optimal golf posture and the ability to rotate around a stable spinal angle. This all literally pivots around your core.

With the core, simple is better, so use a FitBall every day for three to five minutes to train the core and work on total body flexibility.

Because the FitBall is mildly

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unstable, it activates the deep muscles in the core as they are righting muscles, or muscles that keep you from falling.

Short bursts of 10-15 repetitions are very effective at engaging these muscles.

They are endurance muscles, and if you could ask them, they would prefer limited repetition sets with just body weight in various positions. Additionally, the FitBall offers some unique ways to stretch the whole body rotationally in a short time.

LESS PLASTICITY, MORE CONSISTENCY Every decade above the age of 30, it takes 10 percent more time to make a training gain and 10 percent more time to recover.

Plan your exercise carefully with scheduled breaks to recover. For example, exercise Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, take off Thursday, exercise again Friday and Saturday, and rest Sunday. Also, only lift weights twice per week, and give yourself at least two days in between for recovery.

TRAIN FOR GOLF, DON’T USE GOLF TO TRAIN Under the age of 30, sports provide a training or fitness benefit because of body plasticity and intensity level. After the age of 50, sports don’t give the same fitness benefit.

Surprisingly, many studies suggest that even compet it ive c ycl i ng will

not build and maintain leg strength or muscle mass for those over 50.

To play effective golf you will have to build your endurance, sprint capacity (you won’t get the physiological yips approaching the putting green or tee box) and strength outside of golf. Start with small doses like 20 minutes of exercise for each session, then coloradoavidgolfer.com

work up to 59 minutes per day, five days per week—the threshold that indicates you’re doing enough formal exercise to affect weight, health and performance.

People over 50 tend to be more sedentary, so formal training is even more critical. Overall, those five days should typically be comprised of two resistancetraining days and three days spent in endurance-building exercises, like cycling.

OPTIMAL MUSCLE/ BODY COMPOSITION To determine ideal weight, throw out BMI and use body composition, or the ratio between optimal body fat and the good tissue, like muscle and bone. Getting a measurement of segmental body composition (arms vs. legs vs. trunk) is key to determining if you are maintaining muscle in each area and what is a healthy weight.

For men, less than 20 percent body fat is healthy; for women, less than 28 percent is ideal. Body-fat percentage tends to rise with age because of the average loss of muscle mass, specifically in the “fasttwitch” or explosive muscle fiber. This leads to decreased metabolism, resulting in fat and weight gain.

Thirty years’ worth of data indicates that resistance training at the highest level at which you can perform ten repetitions can restore some degree of muscle mass and strength.

For the senior golfer, those strengthbuilding and muscle-maintaining exercises should comprise 80 percent of resistance training. Only 20 percent should focus on “functional” exercises that might help with golf.

As pro athletes know, without fundamental strength, functional exercises are of minimal value. While you don’t need to lift heavy weights all the time, most senior golfers tend not to push enough resistance to maintain muscle mass and strength.

RECOVERY BOOST After you turn 50, there are days where you need either complete rest or just light exercise. Recovery is now a science. If you have to exercise the day following strenuous exercise or hitting a lot of golf balls, try riding a recumbent bike at a light level for 30 minutes. This will allow recovery activity without further stressing the back from resistance training or golf. Massages do

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help, and if pressed for time in your weekly schedule, consider a massage chair at home where you can go head to toe in 15 minutes.

FOOD, ENERGY AND SUPPLEMENTS When you are 25, your metabolism is a blast furnace. Hit 50, and you are a smoker grill.

The key is to match consistent caloric intake to your needs.

Once you’ve established your golf and exercise schedule, calculate your resting metabolic rate (basically the energy required by your body to perform the most basic functions—breathing, circulating blood, thinking—when at rest) at 10 calories (kcal) for every pound. A 6-foot tall, 170-pound man’s resting metabolic rate would be 1,700 calories per day. To that number, add energy nutrition to maintain a balance. For an average work day, add 200 kcal, 900 for golf in a cart, 1400 for walking/carry golf and 500 kcal for each hour of formal exercise.

With fluids and water, an excellent place to start is half your body weight in ounces per day, more due to perspiration.

Remember, if you’re over 50, you’re likely taking 4-7 regular medications for such conditions as blood pressure, anxiety and cholesterol. With your physician or trained health provider, work on supplements that might help specific conditions like inflammation without interfering with the medications. Be very careful. Many of these medications don’t play well with herbal supplements, so a professional opinion is the wisest road before implementation.

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62

HAND-EYE-FOOT-BRAIN Other overlooked culprits in the diminution of golf skills after 50 are the losses of coordination and sensory processing. Formal sensory and brain training is the most effective route because you train something specific such as reaction time combined with balance or speed of recognition.

A home strategy is to get a rocker/ balance board and practice going from front to back, then side to side each day for 30-45 seconds with your feet in different positions while moving your arms in different ways.

Keep the brain going by taking alternate routes to regular destinations, reading something challenging every day and playing games like chess, Sudoku or Word Collect.

Neil Wolkodoff, Ph.D., (neil@cochss.com; 303596- 6519) is the medical program director for the Colorado Center for Health & Sport Science, a medical fitness facility in Denver. At CCHSS, he works with patients ranging from senior exercisers to professional athletes who seek to link fitness, improved function and better health. coloradoavidgolfer.com

Oil That and More Can hemp oil and CBD products really help your game? By JON RIZZI PGA TOUR CHAMPIONS player Scott McCarron, who has twice finished second in the Schwab Cup standings, this year became the first player to endorse a hemp-based product. With a reported 60 players on the Champions Tour and 24 on the main PGA TOUR currently using such substances to relieve pain and anxiety, McCarron’s endorsement of FR EndoSport—a full-spectrum hemp-oil extract from Boulder-based Functional Remedies—could signal a break in the stigma of cannabis-derived products.

Functional Remedies’ hemp-oil extract comes in balms, capsules and tinctures. “It helps me sleep, it helps me with inflammation and it helps me with anxiety,” McCarron told Golf Channel’s Damon Hack at this year’s PGA Merchandise Show. He joked that Steve “The Volcano” Pate, who stood alongside him, could benefit from the oil’s calming effects: “You ran a little hot out on the tour.”

Hemp itself is hot now that the 2018 Farm Bill made production legal again. The plant contains cannabidiol (CBD)—a dominant compound that works with receptors in the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) to regulate homeostasis.

Hemp is a form of cannabis, but it is not marijuana. Members of the same plant family, they share certain similarities, including naturally occurring terpenes, flavonoids, essential oils and cannabinoids like CBD. The crucial difference is the concentration of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound that induces the psychoactive high.

Whereas marijuana can have as much as a 40 percent THC concentration, hemp has a meager 0.3 percent—the U.S. legal limit for THC content in any hemp product.

However, comparable amounts of THC in a person’s blood can trigger the unfortunate consequences of a positive drug test.

Even though the World Doping Agency has removed CBD from its list of banned substances, THC remains prohibited. Many CBD supplements that claim not to have any THC actually do, as a result of the FDA’s sketchy regulations on supplement labeling. coloradoavidgolfer.com

KNOW THE SPECTRUM That 0.3 percent THC concentration—the maximum allowed by federal law—distinguishes “full-spectrum” hemp products from the “broad-spectrum” and “isolate” ones.

“Full-spectrum” products, such as EndoSport and others produced by Functional Remedies, extract all the compounds found naturally occurring in the plant, including cannabinoids like CBD and THC. Why use a product with THC? It’s the “entourage” effect: Since the dozens of cannabinoids in the hemp plant work synergistically, removing any—even those occurring in minuscule amounts, like THC— can diminish their therapeutic benefits. “We produce the full expression of the plant,” says Steve Patterson, the 2016 Colorado PGA Teacher of the Year, who now directs EndoSport sales for Functional Remedies.

Functional Remedies benefits from the work of Chief Science Officer Tim Gordon.

For more than 25 years he has cross-bred and improved hemp strains to produce the most nutrient-rich plants. Using a proprietary lipidbased process, FR extracts the phytonutrients to produce the oil. “We’re vertically integrated, seed-to-bottle,” Patterson says.

On the other end of the spectrum, “isolates” extract CBD to the exclusion of all other hemp compounds. That “purity” means the CBD lacks the “entourage” that delivers full effectiveness.

A blend of the first two, “broadspectrum” products extract all the terpenes, flavonoids and cannabinoids—except THC. This eliminates any risk of psychoactive effects and a positive drug test at work.

“It has zero-percent THC and a tentimes better absorption in the stomach than CBD oil,” Uncanny Wellness founder and CEO Alex Corren says of his water-soluble broad-spectrum Barista Blend powder that mixes with coffee and other liquids, even cake batter. Corren, a Boulderite with “a great respect for golf,” understands the physical and mental toll the game takes. “Taking a product derived from organically grown hemp’s

63

LEADING MAN: McCarron swears by hemp-oil extract.

natural compounds,” he reasons, “has to be safer than popping ibuprofen like candy.”

SHOULD YOU USE IT? The FDA has already approved one cannabisderived medicine, and research strongly suggests CBD aids in treating anxiety and insomnia. According to one medical study, topical application can reduce the pain and inflammation due to arthritis. Another study demonstrated the mechanism by which CBD inhibits chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain.

“Anecdotally, golfers tell me all the time that they’re experiencing less pain, soreness and inflammation, recovering faster and feeling calmer,” says Patterson, clarifying that he “can’t make medical claims because Functional Remedies is a supplement.”

Since the PGA Champions doesn’t drugtest, McCarron and other senior players don’t risk suspension over the presence of THC in their systems. The PGA TOUR, on the other hand, bans the substance.

Players use CBD “at their own risk,” says Andy Levinson, the executive director of the PGA TOUR’s Anti-Doping Program.

At this year’s Masters, a two-time champion was filmed furtively eye-dropping something under his tongue before slipping the vial back in his golf bag.

Patterson hints he’s “pretty sure” he knows what was in the dropper. He believes it won’t be long before the medicinal value of his and other hemp-based extracts will outweigh the perceived danger, and the prohibitions will fall.

Hemp-based products made by Functional Remedies (functionalremedies.com) and Uncanny Wellness (uncannywellness.com) are available online or in retail stores. Marijuana dispensaries do not carry them.

May 2019 | COLORADO AVIDGOLFER