Keep Your Body Chemistry Balanced for Better Golf
Your body and it's chemistry is an incredibly complex system that strives to balance itself for maximum health. Examples of this include the release of histamines to clear the your nasal passages of pollen, or the way your body naturally comes to the rescue to heal wounds and mend broken bones.
For the past 13 years we have been working closely with well known holistic doctors and wellness researchers to best understand how to help competitive golfers take better care of their bodies so that their bodies can take better care of them as they endeavor to play competitive golf. .
For most competive golfers this is not always easy given the
- long hours of play
- multiple days of play
- multiple weeks of play
- exposure to all the elements of nature
- stress of playing and being a student, or if a pro, stress of playing without a guaranteed contract or salary
- challenges of eating well on the road
- extensive travel, with multiple changes in time zones and routines
- and many other mental and physical challenges that come with playing competitive golf
Biochemical im-balances brought on by resulting irregular sleep, dehydration, poor diet and stress can undermine the performance of even the best players.
Looking for Answers
In looking to assist our clients with their mental games we came to realize that after some players mastered the skills needed to use the 8 champion traits in competition--including maintaining focus, managing emotions and tension, staying tough minded, etc--some players were having difficulties always using them, even though they were trying and were sincerely committed to doing so.
After much research it became more and more clear that their mental skills and their physical skills were often sabotaged by biochemical im-balances. Some corrected themselves over time and some did not.
We found that with simple blood and/or saliva tests we could reliably uncover underlying nutritional or biochemical deficiencies that were causing their challenges. Traditional tests for illnesses often missed these problems but tests for wellness made them readily apparent.
Based on family history, some players seem to be more genetically prone to the imbalances, but most seem to be brought on by nutrition and lifestyle. The good news, whether the cause is mostly nature or nurture, almost every player benefits from improvements with nutrition and lifestyle.
Solutions
One of the ways we start is with a simple symptom survey. This provides a report based on the players self-reported symptoms. From this we can generate a report that identifies areas in the body that are most in need of nutritional support. Accompanying recommendations give the player nutritional and lifestyle steps to take to make the corrections, including organic whole food supplements to help their body more quickly make the corrections back to balance and wellness.
In less than two months one of our favorite player accomplished the following:
- A better ability to manage his anger.
- Greater consistency (due to a much improved ability to use his physical and mental skills)
- Better sleep
- Better digestion
- A calmer, more peaceful personality (for which one veteran Tour official thanked us profusely!)
- A better working relationship with his long time caddie (who was about to "fire him")
- A wife who said he was fun to be with again
- His first win on the Champions Tour!
Through similar experiences with a number of our clients we have come to better understand how incredibly important balancing body chemistry is to consistency in golf, and in health.
Another veteran tour player, in his zeal to prepare for his rookie year on the Champions Tour over-did everything for his golf--daily lessons, practice and play. And he under-did everything for his health--little quality food or water, lots of diet coke, high stress, little exercise, relaxation or family time.
When he seriously under-performed the first few months of his rookie year, guess what he did to try to improve his play. You guessed it. More lessons, practice and play!
His 4 pillars of wellness were completely out of balance, compromizing his health and his play.
Here are the top 4 aspects of biochemial balance that we check and correct to help golfers play to their potential. This player needed help with them all!
Four Pillers of Wellness That We Must Keep In Balance
All of these areas are equally important to your health and your performance, and all depend on each other for balance. If you take care to keep your body biochemically balanced in these ways, your body will take better care of you:
Cell Hydration
Most golfers that we test have some level of dehydration, especially the pros. There are many reasons why golfers tend to be poorly hydrated, and those who are rarely play to their potential.
Low cell hydration means there is not enough water moving in and out of your cells. The movement of water delivers nutrients and removes wastes. This movement also generates a charge in the cell membranes, making each cell a mini-battery that generates electricity. This is what you call ENERGY! When hydration is low, energy and performance are both low.
Calcium Activity
Many of our clients who are struggling test low in calcium activity. A lack of calcium will affect many aspects of your health and your play.
Golfers can be low in calcium activity for any one of the following reasons:
- they do not absorb the calcium from their food (poor digestion)
- they lose calcium in their urine (when the tissue and cell cholesterol is high)
- the calcium is bound up and not available ( when the tissue and cell cholesterol is low)
- their diet includes a lot of processed foods and fast foods
- either they are not eating enough or not digesting enough protein and/or fat
- there is simply not enough calcium in their diet.
Tissue Cholesterol
Some players are too low in tissue cholesterol because they have chosen a low fat diet. Yes, you can be too low. Your body needs some cholesterol!
Some players are too high in tissue cholesterol because of a poor diet and genetics.
If you are low in tissue cholesterol your body will lose its ability to:
- handle stress
- protect you against inflammation, including allergies, colds and skill eruptions or chronic infections
- maintain hormonal balance
- keep your bones and nervous system strong
- maintain healthy mood and sleep
- protect you from toxins and radiation in your environment, water and food
If you are too high in tissue cholesterol:
- your cells cannot burn fuel to generate energy
- intake of minerals like calcium and magnesium are wasted by increased loss in your urine
- it throws off your electrolyte balance, again reducing their production of energy
Some players are too high in tissue cholesterol because of a poor diet and genetics.
Reasons that your tissue cholesterol levels may be high on the wellness scale include:
- liver stress causing your liver to not remove enough cholesterol from your blood
- your diet may be too high in carbohydrates and sweets and/or animal fats
- your fat digestion is poor
- you have a family history of high cholesterol
Digestion
You cannot have wellness without a healthy digestive system and you cannot have a healthy digestive system without wellness.
Poor digestion can occur even in the absence of the usual symptoms of
- heartburn
- constipation or diahrea
- belching
- bloating
- passing smelly gas
Some people become so used to some of these symptoms that they no longer take notice of them. They may even feel they are normal.
We have simple blood and saliva tests to assess all four of these pillars of wellness and more. Don't wait for out of balance body chemistry to hurt your golf and your health. Take steps to insure good balanced body chemistry today.
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