Golf fitness: Four essential moves for a better game
The snow is melting, the sun is shining, and your golf clubs are beckoning. With golf season on the horizon, it's time to get your winter body in golf-season shape.
When it comes to golf, there's more to a hole-in-one than just a hope and a prayer. "I started to golf in my late thirties and had an immediate “aha” moment," says Libby Norris, a corporate fitness consultant in Toronto. While she wasn't suprised by the social appeal, "What did surprise me was how strategic and athletic golf is. As a fitness professional, I was intrigued by the integrated movement patterns of the golf swing. There are so many variables contributing to the end result: a well-struck ball. Success comes from a combination of skill, experience and conditioning."
If you want to improve your golf game, conditioning is the most important element in your training routine. Without balance, co-ordination and strength, your swing lacks the necessary strength and directional control to make it to the green. "Skill and experience require time and aren’t always easy to come by. Conditioning, however, is something you can work on and benefit from each week, whether you’re a scratch golfer or just getting started," Norris says.
Ready to boost the power in your swing? The following four exercises will increase your balance, co-ordination and stamina, making a power swing a piece of cake. When possible, do the exercises in front of a mirror, to monitor form.
Four essential fitness moves every golfer should know
The hula hoop drill
What it does for your game: This move increases flexibility, which reduces the chance of injury and is essential for a consistent swing.
How-to: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold a hula hoop or stability ball against your body with your arms and hands at chest height. Rotate your torso from right to left in a controlled tempo. Do one set of 10 to 20 rotations.
The Russian twist
What it does for your game: This move increases core strength and control, allowing you to rotate in one strong, fluid movement.
How-to: Lie face up in a bridge position on a stability ball with your head and shoulders on the ball and your feet flat on the floor directly under your knees, shoulder-width apart. If you don’t have a stability ball, use a bench or an ottoman. Hold your hands over your chest with your palms together. Rotate to the right side, rolling your right shoulder down and your left shoulder toward the ceiling. Return to start position and repeat to the left side. Begin with a small range and gradually increase to a full semicircular movement.
Plank hip rotation
What it does for your game: Plank exercises are famous for increasing core strength and stability; this move also teaches you to isolate different parts of your body. The power of your swing will improve with this move.
How-to: You can perform a plank from your hands or forearms. If you have sensitive wrists, use push-up bars or hold dumbbells on the floor to help keep your wrists in a neutral position. Extend your legs to a full plank position. Keeping your body centred, rotate your right hip down and under, return to the centre and repeat to the left side. You should feel like a rotisserie chicken rotating around the centre axis of your body.
Golf squat
What it does for your game: Squats increase strength and endurance in your lower body, adding power, control and stability to your backswing, point of ball contact and follow-through.
How-to: Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold a strength bar horizontally in front of your thighs. Rotate your core and shoulders to the left with most of your weight distributed on your left foot. Squat down and up for a set of 10 to 20 repetitions. Then repeat the movement to the right.
For step-by-step instructions for each of the exercises here, as well as bonus challenge positions and technique tricks, check out our Golf fitness: Four essential moves for a better game slideshow!
This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of More
