Greetings golfers. Tyler here with the first in a series about the different things that I have gone through this year in trying to get back to competition level.

First, for those of you who don’t know me personally, let me give you a brief background of what I battled this year. At the beginning of the year I had a “neck” injury. It built slowly over a few weeks until one day I did one of those, “use my fist as a lever on my jaw to crack my own neck” and BAM! The room started spinning, I had trouble breathing and for the next few hours I felt very uncoordinated. For a 27 year old, this is some scary stuff. I went to a neurologist, a chiropractor, an ENT, a physical therapist, another chiropractor, another physical therapist and finally a CHEK practitioner. While this was going on, I was consulting with some of my TPI super nerds about people to see and questions to ask. I tried lots of different treatments from pills to lifestyle changes to exercise to diet to you name it. But it wasn’t really until I met the CHEK practitioner who sent me to a NUCCA chiropractor and recommended a complete evaluation from a CHEK level 3 that I made big strides (feeling ok for more than a day in a row). Over the next few posts, I’m going to share with you the lessons that I learned and why you might want to give them a try as well. I’m certain that not everyone had a bad car accident, subluxed a shoulder, and ate like crap for 20 years resulting in this kind of skeletal muscle dysfunction, but I’m sure there are things going on that are quite easy to fix if you knew what to look for.

Anyway, after battling this thing for almost a year I am really just now starting to feel somewhat in control of these “weird” symptoms. Things ranging from trouble thinking of the right words, a grinding sensation in my neck when rotating, dizziness, trouble breathing, trouble swallowing, and vision blurriness just to name some of the more annoying. Going from a pretty severe case to somewhat normal has made me even more hyper sensitive to my body’s changes and given me some insight into the nagging issues facing your everyday life. You don’t have to be tired and in pain if you don’t want to be. And on that note, let me share my first lesson.

Gluten free has worked for me!

If you don’t know someone who is avoiding gluten then you soon will. I see it more and more on websites. I hear it every now and then on TV. It’s only a matter of time. Why am I putting this first as far as things to consider? Well, it’s relatively the easiest change that I have made. There really is no need to visit a doctor or practitioner on this one. All you do is try cutting out certain foods and monitor if you feel better. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it really could be life changing – so let the experiment begin!

A little background on Gluten

Gluten is a protein found in many grains (wheat, oats, spelt, barley, and rye). The major one that you have to avoid is wheat because it is hidden in lots of things other than bread and pasta. Read the labels and become familiar with how much you are eating because if you’re like me, you may surprise yourself.

If you asked people around me, they would have said that I lived a very healthy lifestyle and ate very healthy meals. but I did consume a lot of whole grains (mostly wheat). I must admit, it took a bit of planning and was a little tricky giving up gluten at first but it resulted in one major difference for me. Within 3 weeks of giving up gluten my lower abs were flatter and more active than they had ever been in my life. As a skinny person, few would believe, but I always had a little level of abdominal distention. After a few weeks of giving up gluten that was gone and my lower stomach was flat. In addition, when I’d do my abdominal exercises they became much more effective and I finally felt the lower portion. If you do lots of exercise and have trouble getting your lower abs to flex and flatten, gluten may be a big contributor. How does this help the golf swing?

Well, without having a strong and stable pelvis I had developed what we call a hip trigger. When I went to take the club away, my hips would move first and then my arms and shoulders. Now 3 months on no gluten and I can finally stabilize my lower body which has helped my wedges and short game tremendously. I was stunned with how easy it was to keep my lower body quiet on short shots after my lower abs developed as a result of getting off the G.

If you’re skeptical as I was, here was my confirmation. I slipped up one night and had a breaded cutlet at a Japanese steak house. For almost a week following, I had great difficulty doing the basic lower ab drills that have become part of my nightly routine. I had to use my upper abs and hold my breath to get the same level of control in my pelvis. This was all the confirmation that I needed that cutting out gluten was the key to my golf improvements this year.

For what it costs to make this change, I highly recommend giving it a try. Now here is the kicker. If you are going to try it, you have to completely cut it out for at least a month before you will see benefit. That is how long it takes for your intestinal wall to replenish the Gluten damaged cells with new ones and you won’t see a big change until you have new cells processing nutrients more effectively. When I say Gluten free, I mean free. As little as 1/8th of a teaspoon could cause an inflammatory response in gluten sensitive individuals. So this isn’t one of those, “you can cheat once a week” programs. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

I highly recommend giving this a try and if your improvements are half as dramatic as mine you will definitely thank me. Stay tuned for more info on life changing topics that may make great New Year’s resolutions for 2010.

Dear Tiger-

I felt like I needed to write this letter to tell you how I feel and I imagine many millions of your fans as well.

You’ve disappointed us.

You’ve let us down.

You’ve crushed us.

Like Lance Armstrong’s book’s title says, “It’s Not About the Bike.” For us Tiger, your book should be titled, “It’s Not About Golf.”

For me, I saw you as more than just a great golfer, you were a great role model for kids and adults in an otherwise society that is STARVING for strong role models!

I saw you more than the average fan did, and I watched you. I watched how you acted and how you talked. Because I am a golf fitness professional who trains PGA tour players and who has met you on multiple occasions, I have been able to form a personal opinion of you that was one that is positive.

You have not only been the best at your sport, but you have single handedly been one of the few sports professionals to do the most to help kids by being a strong, positive role model for them all across this world, especially those you’ve affected through your foundation.

Unfortunately, your actions have knocked you off your pedestal of being the world’s greatest golfer and possibly athlete.

For now, and maybe it’s temporary, you are no better than any other athlete or person who has cheated on his wife and kids!

Like all the rest…your credibility, integrity and character are damaged, and the only way to “un-damage” them is to come clean, repent and become even more of the person that you were before.

Because you, Tiger, are at a cross roads in your life and career. You can either give up on your family, fans and God, or you can rise to the occasion, take the heat (and it’s going to get REALLY hot!) and make even a bigger difference than you did before!

If you choose the latter, and we hope you do, you must do three things:

First, you MUST restore yourself to God,
Second you MUST restore yourself to your wife, and
Third, you MUST restore yourself to your fans (especially the kids).

Now some may “poo-poo” the importance of the first choice, but for me and millions of other fans, I believe the only way the you can regain the public’s trust and admiration (especially of the kids and fans), is to come clean before God with a repentant heart and allow him to “re-shape” you in His image.

Because, you see, you’ve blown it. You were in charge of your life, and you couldn’t do it.

We all thought you had it together, but now we know that what we saw was really a sham!

Honestly, I don’t care that you are as great an athlete that you are! You can play golf better than anyone in the world, ever! BUT WHO CARES!

Now you have an obligation to show your family and the world what kind of person you REALLY are! Are you going to take the many lessons and strengths that you’ve developed by becoming the worlds greatest and apply them to your LIFE now?

We all know you are the best at coming from behind in a tournament, or recovering from a mistake on the course, but now what?

Really, Tiger, WHAT KIND OF A MAN ARE YOU?

This is a test of your manhood, and I think your world has crashed in around you…so that you have to hit rock bottom so you can “find yourself.”

This is your chance to show your wife and kids, the world, and most importantly God, that you are a man that rises to the occasion in LIFE, not just in golf!

So Tiger, I pray for you and your family.

I pray that you see how much you have created pain, not just in your wife’s heart, your kids’s hearts and the public’s hearts, but most importantly in God’s heart.

But, maybe unlike with your wife and the public, Jesus Christ still loves you. He knew this was your path. He knew before you were even born that this would happen to you!

The other great thing is that all he wants of you is to come to him, ask for forgiveness, recognize that he is your Lord and Savior and repent. THAT’S IT!

You see if you don’t get right with God, you’ll never get right in life! And as one who has lived the way the world celebrates, it got me nothing but pain and suffering!

Now though, I am blessed, happy and unlike you at this point Tiger, my integrity, honesty, and character are stronger than ever! Not to mention my heart and mind are pure and restored!

BUT, it doesn’t mean that I am perfect! Far from it! Very far from it!

These days, a person who walks the line of one who follows Jesus, is hard. We are ridiculed, and made fun of. We are labeled by the world (especially the media) as ignorant, xeno-phobic, homo-phobic, stupid, close-minded, hypocrites and everything else in the book!

But what they don’t know is the freedom. The freedom of our hearts and minds to live a life that is pure, honorable, and character filled!

Do the right thing Tiger. Now’s the chance to turn the world on its head!

Come out, share your weaknesses, ask for forgiveness and repent. Not only will God celebrate, but the world will have compassion on you instead of the contempt, disappointment and anger like we do now.

Tiger, you need to make it right for the children…they need to see how real men deal with adversity and mistakes in life.

What they don’t need to see is another sad athlete act as if he is better than everyone else. They also don’t need to see another athlete act as if he is above the law and his inherent responsibility to be a good role model to the youth of this world.

They just can’t take it.

Now’s your chance Tiger, we pray you make the right choice.

Hello all!

Tyler and I want to thank you for being regular readers of Golf Fitness Guys, and also thanks for your patience as we strive to make our blog better!

We look forward to putting out the best information re: golf fitness in 2010 and the best part is, is that Tyler and I will be together all summer long as Red Sky Ranch in Vail Colorado working with Advance Motion Peformance!

So we will be pumping out videos and crazy posts!

Stay tuned and we hope you have a blessed new year!