AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Tiger Woods was stricken with more back pain Sunday and withdrew after eight holes at the Bridgestone Invitational. He struggled to even take off his golf shoes before being driven away to an uncertain future.
In his third tournament since returning from back surgery, this had the look of a serious setback, as Woods injured himself playing a shot from edge of a bunker on the par-5 second hole.
“I just jarred it, and it’s been spasming ever since,” Woods told a PGA Tour official before leaving.
In the video below, Woods can be seen taking an awkward slash at the ball with all weight on his right leg and falling back toward the sand. He landed with a thud and kept jogging out of the bunker from sheer momentum of the steep drop.
Skip Bayless comments: “Tiger’s body just keeps breaking down. So much weight-training, distance-running, Seal-training, power-swinging and now price-paying.”
With exercise, it is often true that how you do things is more important than what you do. If you are simply ingraining bad habits with your exercise, it might be doing you more harm than good. This is where Alexander Technique can help.
Alexander teacher Alan Bowers writes: “Who would not lament Tiger Wood’s recent withdrawal because of searing back pain from a golf tournament he commanded for so many years. That could be true for so many of us not so generously gifted as he. What Mr. Woods said on withdrawing was a representation of popular thought. He said, according to the New York Times, that he needed to strengthen his glutes and core strength. First, I would imagine that is exactly what he has been doing. Second, I think that most of us who read and post here would see it differently, that his core strength is likely more than adequate. We might agree that what Mr. Woods needs, is what we all need, the reintegration of our core strength, a cultivation of its relationship to the whole, to the head, to the legs, to the feet, the neck and spine. The core can too easily become the commandant of the whole, pulling the extremities toward our center as we protect the back. It can be a very vicious circle. Here’s to Mr. Woods and to his health and to that dove that might whisper in his ear: Alexander Technique.”
What should we expect from a fitness program? I believe it is the ability to carry out our daily activities, including sports and other physically demanding tasks, in an enjoyable, easy, and efficient way. It should include the ability to cope with unanticipated crises calmly and effectively and the ability to get a good night’s sleep so that we can awake refreshed and alert the next morning.
Our bodies, after all, are a lot more than heart, lungs and blood vessels. Aerobic capacity is just one of many important indicators of good health. The ability to pass an aerobics test doesn’t in any way guarantee that you can go through life without pain, discomfort and fatigue.
A large part of the problem is that exercise is frequently carried out in a manner which fails to take account of the way we, as individuals, actually use our bodies. In fact, some programs encourage an unconscious exaggeration of our worst habits of movement. You can see this for yourself the next time you watch a group of joggers or an aerobics class. Chances are many of the people you see will look awkward and uncomfortable, with excess tension and strain showing in their faces and in their bodies.
There are a number of methods available today which can teach fitness participants how to stop putting harmful and unnecessary strain on their bodies while exercising.
The method I know the most about is the Alexander Technique. Four generations of performers and athletes have used it to increase their stamina and skill and it is increasingly being used by people in all walks of life to help alleviate stress-related conditions such as backache, migraine, and TMJ disorders.
Certified teachers of the Alexander Technique undergo a rigorous and lengthy training process during which they learn to detect the harmful (and often very subtle) habits which interfere with the body’s natural flexibility, coordination and balance. Because these habits often produce excessive muscular contraction, or tension, they prevent the spinal column from achieving its full length and restrict breathing and movement capacity.
