Golfers, if you’ve had trouble with the last couple of tests, this is a great way to get your hips moving independently from your trunk!

Again, this is ESSENTIAL if you’re wanting more power and more consistency in your golf swing!

This exercise is called “Stork Turns”. Pay attention in the video to assure your upper body is remaining still, while you turn your hips on the standing leg.

Golfers, I’d love to hear from you on how these things are going for you. BUT, if you’re not a golfer, these are still great mobility tests. As we age, mobility becomes an increasingly bigger problem for most people, and it’s so important for daily function and life!

Stay moving, stay mobile, and stay strong!

Ok, golfer, this is sure to get some looks. Your wife or husband may start to wonder. But, you can assure them this is the 2nd and final test to determine if you can separate your hips and your trunk!

If you can’t perform this test easily, sequence, and rhythm during your backswing and at the top of your transition is going to be difficult.

So give this test a go – who cares what your golf mates think? You can take their money on the course! The 2 essentials in this test are that your shoulders DO NOT MOVE AT ALL and that your hips don’t just move SIDE to SIDE.

If you can’t easily rotate your hips, then stay tuned for the next video, because we’ll be covering a couple exercises that will help increase trunk and hip mobility, improving your swing!

If you’re a golfer and you’re unable to separate your trunk from your hips, try these two exercises to improve your thoracic spine mobility.

Thoracic spine mobility is the biggest culprit for not being able to separate that trunk from your hips, which will affect your sequence in your backswing and can cause you to do all sorts of compensations.

These shouldn’t cause any pain, just feel like a good stretch through your mid-spine.

Try these, then go out and enjoy a round with improved mobility!

If you’re a golfer and you’re not able to separate movement between your hips and your upper trunk, you’ll be fighting a huge uphill battle to have the correct takeaway in your BACKSWING to generate sufficient power and ball speed.

Try this test to see if you’re able to do the movement with ease. If it’s difficult for you to do, you may either have some limited mobility in your hips or trunk, or you need to work on either strength or coordination!

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH A GOLFER IN YOUR LIFE!

So here is my challenge to you.

If you’ve been dealing with pain for a long time, set yourself a 30-day goal.

Obviously, this is specific to you. I can’t tell you what your goal should be, but it needs to be attainable, and you need to be able to measure and track the progress.

Here’s an example.

Say that right now you can only walk for 15 minutes in the grocery store before your back starts killing you and you need to either lean on the cart or sit down and take a break. If that’s the case, start walking DAILY for 10 or 12 minutes. Do this DAILY!! And maybe by the second week, you work your way up to walking 13 minutes. By the end of 30 days, your goal could be to walk 18 minutes without a flare-up of your back pain.

The thing is, this may not seem like much. But, if you’re able to do this for 4-6 months, think of how much progress you could make, and how much different your life could be.

This can be tedious, and it’s certainly hard work. But the payoff is worth it! You’re worth it!

If you’re going to have more control over your chronic pain, you need to become more familiar with DIMs and SIMs. This is essential because if you can increase the SIMs in your life, and at the same time decrease the DIMs, you’re so much more likely to decrease your pain and take back control of your life!

DIMs (Danger in Me) represent ANYTHING that is dangerous to your body tissues, your lifestyle, job, happiness, or your day to day function.

SIMs (Safety in Me) is just the opposite. They are ANYTHING that makes you feel like a more confident, stronger, happier, healthier version of yourself.

Examples of DIMs would be things like looking at an X-Ray or reading a radiology report without knowing what all of those big, scary words mean. Or thinking “this pain is going to last forever”, or “it’s just old age”. Other examples would be if you’re depressed or anxious, or even an out of date healthcare provider.

Examples of SIMs would be sayings like “there’s light at the end of the tunnel”, and “I understand what’s happening to me”. It could be going to a baseball game with a dear friend or a family member you love spending time with. Being happy and optimistic are SIMs. Another example would be a belief in your healthcare provider that they can layout a good path for recovery.

Check out the image to get a sense of what moves your “Indicator” up and down. If you have chronic pain, you know this is true. Sometimes you don’t feel too bad. You’re able to move around and do most of what you need to do. Other times, you feel terrible and you’re in a lot of pain. It’s hard to make sense of why that happens. Here’s an explanation. Where there is more evidence of “Danger in Me” than there is evidence of “Safety in Me”, you’ll experience pain. Conversely, if you have much more evidence of “Safety in Me” than “Danger in Me”, you won’t have pain, or have much less pain.

In the next blog and video, we’re going to expand on the notion of DIMs and SIMs (Dangers in Me and Safety in Me), because the more you know how to increase the SIMs and decrease the DIMs, the more control you’ll have over your pain!

The pain you’re experiencing is 1000% of the time in your brain, and REALLY relies on CONTEXT.