Jessica Korda is taking a break from momming so hard in her workout gear. In a new social media post the professional golfer and mother shows off her swing while taking a break from taking care of her baby. “Just happy to be swinging a club #teethingIshard,” she captioned the Instagram video. “You had the best swing on the planet , you’ll be fine,” commented one of her followers. “We certainly miss you 💕😘💕,” added another. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here are her top lifestyle tips.
Jessica is big into lifting weights. “I will do strength work with my trainer five to six times a week in the gym, and I will add cardio into that. That sounds a lot but when I don’t do that I feel my body falls apart,” she told RSNG. She is also “really big” into resistance bands. “I’ve had a couple of injuries in my career and I find that band resistance is a really gentle but very effective method,” she says. “I also like foam rollers – they really get to the trigger points like nothing else, and I will do some activational stuff before the round especially for things like glutes, the core and the shoulders. The challenge in the gym is not to develop what I have too much further; rather let this version of myself provide the platform for the technical and mental elements that will help me win tournaments.”
Exercise is “a physical thing, in terms of not being as primed as I feel I want to be all the time; and, I’m sure, something of a mental thing as well,” explains Jessica, on the importance of sweating for your mental health. “When you feel on top of your game, mentally, it really makes a difference to know you have put in all the physical preparation along the way too. It’s that feeling of knowing you’re not cutting any corners along the way, so there is nothing to suggest you can’t perform to your maximum potential. Both of those factors are equally important to me.”
“I love to run. You don’t usually get people admitting to that, but I love the endorphin rush of sweating… dripping with sweat. That really takes me to a good place where I feel alive and driven to succeed,” Jessica added. The Mayo Clinic explains that running is great for cardiovascular health, muscle building, and weight loss. “For every mile run, the average person will burn approximately 100 calories,” they say.
Jessica’s diet is designed with “meal plans and lots of sports science,” in mind, “but I do believe adding occasional treats in along the way is an important method for connecting you with who you are as a person, rather than just who you want to be as a sportsperson. The ideal scenario is when you blend the two, as far as I am concerned,” she said about her approach to diet. “I get my sweet tooth from my dad, and that’s definitely something that can get me through the day.”
Jessica drinks lots of water. “At the heart of my diet though is hydration – I’m always drinking water,” she says. According to the Mayo Clinic, hydration is important for a variety of reasons. Water helps get rid of waste through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements, keeps your temperature normal, lubricates and cushions joints, and helps protect sensitive tissues.
Jessica’s main workout is golfing, which offers extensive benefits per a comprehensive review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. They include improved longevity, decreased risk of developing heart disease or suffering a stroke, good mental health, and improved strength and balance.