Golf Fitness Exercises?
Ten years ago it was an oxymoron. Have you seen some of these guys on the PGA tour lately though? Slim and slender with more ripples in their arms than a fresh potato chip. I mean these guys are incredibly in shape.
Golf didn't used to be based around fitness, but now to compete at a professional level, you better be hittin' the gym three times a week at least. Take the top 10 golfers in the world for instance. The only two guys over 200 pounds are Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, who have both dropped over 25 pounds in the last few years. And well, the stat sheet shows what Vijay and Phil have been doing. I don't have to tell you that.
So what? Still think golf fitness exercises don't matter? Here, this will convince you. Did you know the media is now buzzing about golfers possibly using performance enhancing drugs? Yes, you read that correctly, golfers. We all know baseball and football players use performance enhancing drugs because their sports require so much physical ability, but golfers? Do they need drugs to compete? Evidently some are beginning to that golf fitness has a drug revolution stirring.
Rather than use drugs, in this article we'll discuss a few great golf fitness exercises to make your golf swing more powerful and stable, as well as view a real life case study as to the effects that proper fitness can have on a swing.
One of the most neglected general exercises today seems to be the common pushup. This is not only a great way to build up your arms, but also an amazing way to build your core. We're going to look at two variations of the pushup you can do at home to add to your golf fitness exercise routine.
Variation 1
This exercise will be done in the classic pushup position with one key difference. Instead of having your feet on the ground, you are going to place them on a bench, couch, or perhaps your coffee table. The goal is to get your weight more supported by your arms than your feet. Once you have found this position, make sure to fully extend your arms on the way up, and strive to keep your back straight.
This will be much harder than a normal pushup so if you struggle do those, don't try this until you have built your strength enough. This exercise will drastically increase your arm and core strength. If you want to target your core more, move your hands inward towards one another. This will force your core to be more active in the exercise. The core is key!
Variation 2
Grab a volleyball or a soccer ball before you go to do this golf fitness exercise. Why? We are going to use it to intensify the firing of the core muscles and stability muscles in your arms. Assume the normal pushup position, then place your hands on the ball. Use a semi deflated basketball if you have large hands. Do your pushups with your hands on the ball while focusing on keeping your back straight throughout. You'll feel this one more in your triceps and lower back as you try to stay balanced.
You can combine the above two exercises if you are more advanced.
NOTE: To develop more muscle speed, while doing your pushups, lower yourself slowly and push on the ground hard to get yourself back up. You can even come off the ground and clap your hands. Make sure you are keeping your back straight. I see a tendency to arch the back when my students try this variation.
Case Study
I had one student that was struggling with consistency off the tee and also had a problem getting the ball airborne. He was a beginner and I wanted to get him started off right, so rather than change a bunch of things in his swing to compensate for his low fitness level, I included the above routine in a golf fitness exercise program I outlined for him. This kid wasn't small, but you could tell he hadn't ever taken his fitness seriously, much less his golf fitness.
In 8 weeks of doing these golf fitness exercises, along with a few others I gave him, and two minor swing tweaks, he was able to make a much more consistent and stable golf swing with a lot less effort. He was hitting upwards of 275 on some of the drives he hit, pretty good for an out of shape golf beginner!
Why did this help? He was not able to generate swing speed without making a lot of jerky movements in his swing. This was due to the lack of flexibility and speed in his muscles. The muscle speed targeted pushups allowed him to build speed while also strengthening his core and upper back to develop the much needed power he was lacking. I also gave him some additional base and flexibility drills that were not covered in this article.
You can however, find those in the resource below.
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