Gerry Dulac: New shirt designed to aid posture at work, at play
April 12, 2015 8:28 PMWhile I am writing this column, I am already destroying my golf game. Or, should I say, making it more difficult to swing the club and strike the ball the way I desire.
Every time I sit at a computer, which most of America probably does on a daily basis, I am harming the component most essential to a good golf swing -- posture.
Since we were young, we have been told by our parents and teachers to sit up straight, shoulders back, head looking forward. No slouching. And yet it is almost impossible to avoid slouching and sitting the way we were told not to when working at a desk or banging away on a laptop.
No wonder we can't hit 4-irons like Rory McIlroy?
Now there is something to help our posture -- and our game -- while we're working.
It's called the posture shirt, designed by a California company called AlignMed, and it's a medically approved garment that is being worn by golfers, baseball and basketball players -- in fact, any athlete who uses an overhead motion.
The posture shirt uses elastic bands stitched into the material to press gently on upper back and shoulder muscles to pull the shoulders in proper alignment -- a key to avoiding fatigue and injury, CEO and president Bill Schultz said.
"Where you place the bands on muscles and how much elasticity you give them, that's the magic formula," Schultz said. "We do not do compression. If you have bad posture, that's just squeezing a bad jacket. You have to have the bands anatomically placed."
According to research from the Kerlan Jobe Orthopedic Foundation, the bands help with posture and muscle alignment and can stabilize and increase rotator-cuff function. Schultz said the bands also keep the scapula in the proper position, thereby creating better range of motion with the shoulders -- essential for a good turn for golfers.
Several players on the Champions Tour have been wearing the posture shirt. NBA players Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard and Eric Gordon also have worn the shirt after returning from shoulder injuries.
Noted golf instructor Roger Fredericks, a leader in golf fitness and flexibility, has endorsed the shirt because he preaches posture as the most fundamental aspect of a good golf swing. He recommends his students wear the shirt, especially when they're not playing.
"All golf instructors try to get their students into good posture," Fredericks said. "It all makes sense. But the problem is, when I teach, how do you get a person with terrible posture who is weak, tight and rotated and expect to put this person in the proper posture, let alone stay in the same spine angle. They can't do it."
Schultz said the shirt not only has been approved by the United States Golf Association -- meaning it is OK to wear in competition -- but it also has been approved by American Medical Association as a medical device. In some cases, the shirt is available with a prescription.A lot of sports apparel companies, most notably Under Armour and Nike, make compression clothing that "squeeze" parts of the body and make the wearer feel tight and fit. With the posture shirt, AlignMed seemingly has gone an extra step, producing functional clothing that compresses and helps muscles, tendons and joints align physiologically.
In other words, clothing that heals.
"Guys that golf, a lot of these guys work at computers and desks, and the action they do causes the shoulders and heads to move forward," Schultz said. "It's like a bad workout for a golfer. You can't undo that workout at the driving range. You can't undo 10 to 12 hours of a bad workout at a driving range, even one hour at a gym. That's not going to do it. You have to be aware of your body all the time."
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac. Listen to "The Golf Show with Gerry Dulac" every Thursday, 6-7:30 p.m. on 970 ESPN.
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