Golf Exercises-Swing Stronger And Achieve The Maximum Distance

Golfers love to play the game but not everyone has the time to spend hours in the gym to build physiques like Rory McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau. However, concentrating on the correct golf exercises will ensure that you enjoy your golf so much more.

Whether you are a senior golfer or just starting, it is important that you focus on the correct muscles and build the body parts that will make you swing stronger and achieve the maximum distance.

Warming up is a critical part of your golf exercise program to increase the temperature in your muscles and dilate your blood vessels. The warm-up process increases the flow of blood and oxygen throughout your body protecting the various muscle groups that you are targeting.

Before a round of golf, it is highly recommended that you incorporate movements that simulate the golf swing such as airplane twists, golf swings, and arm circles. This will ready your body for a most enjoyable round of golf. The same applies to the start of a training session. Focus on the areas of your body where you most often experience aches and pains.

This video will give you a few tips for a quick and effective golf warm-up.

For this piece we will concentrate on the following specific areas:

• Golf exercises for seniors
• Golf exercises for flexibility
• Golf exercises with bands
• Golf exercises for your back
• Golf exercises for your hips

Golf Exercises For Seniors

Many senior citizens enjoy the game of golf as they have more time in retirement and it provides them with an opportunity to spend time in the outdoors while being social.

Seniors are generally not as flexible and are more prone to injury.  It is sensible for them to get into a workout schedule to develop or maintain their strength to allow them to take pleasure in playing golf for as long as possible.

Aging has a very detrimental effect on your body and research indicates that people with inactive lifestyles can lose up to 50% of their muscle mass between the ages of 20 and 50.

It does not get any better after 50 and you can lose approximately 30% of your body strength between ages 50 and 70.

The decrease in muscle mass impacts your ability to swing your golf club and you will see a decrease in your clubhead speed and loss of distance. You do not have to emulate Gary Player’s fitness regime but instead, keep generally fit and flexible.

Golfers no longer have to think about scaling down their golfing activities when they turn 55. By staying active and following an exercise program, many golfers enjoy playing golf into their late 60’s or even 70’s. To do this you need to maintain good flexibility, stability, balance, and mobility.

Walking

​Although most courses provide access to golf carts, many golfers still prefer to walk 18 holes. If you decide to use a cart you still need some cardio exercises to build enough stamina to play the 18 holes.

Walking at a brisk pace for 30 minutes a day is a good way to keep fit and ready.

Stretching exercises for seniors

As we get older, we become less flexible and are not able to easily bend over to take off our shoes or touch our toes.

You will require flexibility to complete the golf swing thus it is a good idea to remain flexible and daily exercises will aid you in achieving that

Some of the recommended stretch exercises for seniors can be accomplished while in the sitting position enabling you to continue doing them up to a very advanced age.

Sitting Hip Stretches

• This is best done from an armchair
• Sit at the very front edge of the chair while keeping your knees and hips pointing directly ahead of you
• Stretch your spine pushing back with your upper body as far as possible
• Place your right hand on your left knee and slowly twist to the left, using your left hand on the arm of the chair for leverage.
• Hold this twist for a few seconds and release to the center
• Repeat on the opposite side.
• Sit on a chair and pull up your ankle to rest on top of your opposite knee.
• Gently press down on your knee with the hand of the same side until it is parallel with the floor without straining causing pain
• Hold for 10 seconds and repeat on the opposite side.

Ankles

Exercising your ankles to retain flexibility in all your limbs can be done by sitting down and letting your feet touch the ground.

• Rotate both feet from the center to the side without moving the heel
• Keep it on the side for 5 seconds and return your feet to the center.
• Rotate your feet on the opposite side, keep it on the side and return to the center.

Core

Stability is extremely important in the golf swing and lunges are good to improve the strength in your core.

• Start with both feet together
• Step forward with one leg while keeping your trailing foot flat on the ground
• Your trailing leg should remain straight and the leading leg bends into a low lunge.
• Keep both heels flat on the ground and your back straight
• Keep this position for 15 seconds
• Return to the standing position and repeat the process with the opposite leg becoming the leading leg.
• Repeat this exercise 10 times

Quads

As with your core, your legs are part of the area that stabilizes your swing and your quads help with the stabilization during your swing and to avoid swaying from side to side

• Stand upright and keep both feet on the ground.
• Hold onto a wall or door for stability should you require.
• Pull one of your legs to the back by bending it at your knee.
• Keep pulling it up slowly until you get as close as possible to touching the glutes with your foot and a stretch and slight burning sensation in your quad.
• Keep your leg up for 15 seconds before releasing it to the ground.
• Repeat it with the other leg
• Repeat the stretch 5 times with both legs

Golf Exercises For Flexibility

Golfers know that flexibility is extremely important to enable you to maximize the body turn and increase your swing speed, producing the ultimate in distance. Most golfers think that strength training will increase their ability to hit the ball further, but that is not possible without having flexibility.

To achieve the most flexibility possible, you have to stretch your muscles to build a fluid, full golf swing, for enhanced performance. It is always advisable to start any exercise session with some pre-warmup activities such as walking or stretching for approximately 10 minutes.

Flexibility is a range of motion in a joint and its surrounding muscles during a movement. The increased motion will reduce the risk of getting hurt and increase your overall performance.

During your golf swing, your trailing side rotates more than your leading side. Flexibility exercises aids in correcting these discrepancies and reduce injuries that can be attributed to the overuse of one side.

To increase your flexibility and enhance your ability to achieve the maximum speed and distance we will review a few exercises.

Standing Forward Bend Stretch

Core strength is essential to enable you to keep your balance during the swing phase.

The standing forward bend stretch is used by athletes from many sporting codes to enhance the strength in their core.

• Stand up straight with your shoulders relaxed and back
• Put your arms behind your back and link your hands by interlacing your fingers
• Push up your shoulders towards your ears and push your hands away from your back
• Gradually bend forward from your waist and try to retain a flat back
• Move your hands towards your head as far as possible without hurting your shoulders
• At a full stretch, you will feel the tension in your hamstrings and your shoulders
• Hold for 15 seconds and release
• Repeat two to three times

Chest Stretch

The standing chest stretch is best performed against a wall or flat surface. This exercise is aimed at enhancing the range of motion of the shoulder joint.

• Stand at right angles to the wall
• Press the hand closest to the wall against the wall at shoulder height; fingers facing back.
• Use small steps to turn your chest away from the wall until a stretch is felt through your chest and arm.
• Hold for 45 seconds.
• Repeat twice on each side of the body

Torso stretches

Increasing the range of motion around your torso will allow you to build up more torque to rotate your torso faster in your golf swing.

• Stand up straight facing away from a wall and turn to the left, placing the right hand on the wall and pushing your torso around.
• Return to the center and move your torso to the opposite side
• Hold for 45 seconds in each direction
• Repeat twice on each side of the body

Shoulder stretch

The shoulder stretch will increase the range of motion in the shoulder joint leading to less restriction during your swing.

• Place your hands at eye level against the wall
• Push one foot closer to the wall
• Bend over at the hips
• Pushing chest and head down toward the base of the wall.
• Hold for 30 seconds
• Return to the upright position, pull your front foot back, and move the opposite foot closer to the wall
• Bend over at hips
• Repeat twice

Golf Exercises with Bands

Resistance bands have become a very acceptable replacement for working out with heavy weights with less negative effects. Use stretch bands that will allow you to exercise the muscles that require the most power and flexibility for increased speed during your swing.

These exercises on display below are aimed at improving strength and flexibility and decreasing the chances of picking up injuries.

To achieve the best results from using resistance bands it is recommended that you start with 1 set of 20 repetitions and increase slowly to multiple sets. For increased results, you can change to bands with more resistance as you get stronger.

Functional Golf Swing Exercise

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and place the band below your feet and the handles in either hand
• Grip the handles in front of you like gripping your golf club
• Change your posture into the position it would be when addressing the golf ball
• Start your swing with the takeaway sequence you would follow on the driving range building resistance with the bands. At the end of the takeaway, sequence follow through with a complete swing building up the resistance on the release side of your body
• Repeat 20 times

Forearm Pronation

This exercise aims to strengthen your outer forearms.

• Take a seated position on a chair or exercise ball
• Put the band under one foot and leave only enough of the band between your hand and your foot to create some resistance
• Hold the handle in your hand with your wrist facing upward and forearm resting on your thigh
• Slowly rotate your forearm so your palm faces downward
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return
• Repeat 20 times per arm

Forearm Supination

This exercise is designed to strengthen your inner forearms.

• Take a seated position on a chair or exercise ball
• Put the band under one foot and leave only enough of the band between your hand and your foot to create some resistance
• Hold the handle in your hand with your wrist facing down and forearm resting on your thigh
• Slowly rotate your forearm so your palm faces upward
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return
• Repeat 20 times per arm

Wrist Extension

The purpose of this exercise is to strengthen your wrist.

• Take a seated position on a chair or exercise ball
• Put the band under one foot and leave only enough of the band between your hand and your foot to create some resistance
• Hold the handle in your hand with your wrist facing upward and forearm resting on your thigh.
• Slowly extend your wrist upward keeping the back of your hand facing upward.
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return.
• Repeat 20 times per arm

Elbow Extension

• Take a standing position
• Put the band under one foot and leave only enough of the band between your hand and your foot to create some resistance
• Extend your shoulder and grasp hand with your elbow bent behind you.
• Straighten your elbow, keeping your shoulder extended
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return.
• Repeat 20 times per arm

Shoulder External Rotation

• Take a standing position and secure one side of the band to a door or fixed point approximately shoulder height
• Pull with your hand at a comfortable height between your shoulder and hips and leaving only enough of the band between your hand and the fixed point to create some resistance
• To ensure that you do not pull your arm away from your body it is advisable to place something between your body and your arm that will drop if your arm and body separate.
• Bend your arm approximately 90 degrees at the elbow with your hand in front of your body
• Pull the handle toward the outside while keeping your wrist straight and your forearm parallel with the ground.
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return.
• Repeat 20 times per arm

Shoulder Scaption

• Take a standing position and secure the band under your foot
• Pull with your hand to hip height leaving only enough of the band between your hand and the fixed point to create some resistance
• Lift your arm out to your side and slightly forward (about 30 degrees from your body)
• Pull the handle toward the outside while keeping your wrist and forearm straight while keeping your elbow straight and palm facing forward
• Hold for 5 seconds and slowly return.
• Do 20 reputations with both sides

Golf Exercises for your Back

Back

Your body rotates into many unnatural positions during your golf swing placing stress on several body parts.

The back and especially the lower back takes most of the strain and too many golfers experience problems with their backs at some stage during their careers.

Professional golfers have time to work out in the gym and strengthen their backs but too many amateur golfers do not put enough effort into strengthening their backs and thus lengthening the timeframe that can enjoy golf.

To prevent damage and pain you could focus on stabilizing the muscles of the lower body, upper body, core, and spine that are used in golf. Back pain can be caused by a muscle imbalance in the lower body as a result of weak thigh muscles, quadriceps, and hamstrings.

The upper body muscles used to create a powerful swing include the latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, pectorals, and triceps. Strengthening these muscles will reduce the strain on the lower back.

Your core creates stability and allows you to create good rotation during the golf swing. Strengthening your core will go a long way in preventing injuries and creating more torque and an increasingly powerful and faster swing.

The muscles that will strengthen your core are the lower back, abdominals, glutes, and quads.

Bridges

Bridges are aimed at strengthening your lower back and core.

• Start by taking a resting position flat on your back and arms relaxing on your side.
• Ensure that there is sufficient space above you to move freely
• Keep a slight bend in your knees and push your feet flat on the ground approximately shoulder-width apart
• Push your shoulders flat on the ground while raising your legs and hips forming a straight line with your legs from your knees to your head
• Hold for 5 seconds
• Slowly lower yourself back to the starting position
• Perform 2 sets of 10 repetitions

Toe touches

Toe touches are aimed at stretching and strengthening your hamstrings and lower back

• Stand upright with your feet together
• Straighten your arms above your head and lock your hands together
• Slowly bring your arms down in front of you pushing it down towards your toes as far as is comfortable
• Hold this pose for 10 seconds
• Perform 2 sets of 10 repetitions

Back extensions

The back extensions aim to improve flexibility and strength in your back

• Lie on your stomach and face down
• Place your hands next to your face with the palms on the floor
• Push your head up without using your hands until your back is arched
• Push up with your hands to elbow height
• Return to the starting position
• Perform 2 sets of 10 repetitions

Golf Exercises for your Hips

Hips

When you watch professional golfers, you will notice that they place a tremendous amount of strain on their hips to generate the speed and rotation that enables them to hit the golf ball tremendous distances.

Your hips allow you to stabilize your posture, control your lower body, a strong rotation, and a powerful swing.

The most important muscle groups aiding in building strong hips are the adductors that can be found on the inside of the thigh, the glutes or more commonly known as your butt, and the hamstrings that are found at the back of the thigh.

Controlling your posture will assist you in improving the consistency of your swing and ball striking.

Stronger glutes will provide a more stable base to prevent you from swaying from side to side

Some exercises that we reviewed for strengthening your hips are described below.

90/90s

This exercise aims to strengthen your glutes and it is named after the angles of your legs during the exercise.

• Take a seated position on a flat floor
• Place one leg in front of you at a 90-degree angle
• The other leg is then placed on the side at a 90-degree angle
• Push your body up with your glutes until your body is above your front leg. You can use your hand as support but not to push you upwards
• Hold the position for 5 seconds
• Slowly return to the seated position
• Repeat 10 times
• Swap legs putting the leg on your side in front of you and the front leg to the side
• Push your body up with your glutes until your body is above your front leg. You can use your hand as support but not to push you upwards
• Repeat 10 times

The Hip Loader

This exercise helps to improve your posture and lateral movement.

• Take a relaxed standing position with your feet slightly apart
• Lunge forward and push your hands forward in line with your knee and front of your feet
• Return to the starting position by pushing backward with your front leg
• Lunge to the side pointing the toes on your outer foot to the outside and the toes of your inner foot at straight as possible
• Return to the starting position by pushing backward with your front leg
• Rotate your body and leg and lunge diagonal and backward reaching as far around your body as you are able.
• Push back to the starting position.
• Repeat 8 times
• Swap position to have the other leg as the front leg.
• Repeat the above steps 8 times with the other leg as the lunged leg

For the best results, your back must remain flat throughout the exercise.

Single leg Squat with Arm Reach

This grade of difficulty of this exercise is extremely high and should only be attempted if you have sufficient strength to control your body movements. If you are uncertain it is advisable to attempt the exercise without a weight before adding the extra complexity.

• Take a standing position on one leg
• Hold the weight in your opposite hand (optional if you are uncertain)
• Perform a single leg squat, bending your knee and waist
• Use the hand with the weight to reach for the ankle opposite to the hand holding the weight
• Return to the starting position and raise the weight to shoulder height

Final Thoughts

Playing golf pain-free is a luxury that very few golfers have the pleasure of experiencing throughout their life. Keeping fit and flexible will go a long way in assisting you to enjoy many years of pleasurable and pain-free golf.

After working out and breaking a sweat it is always advisable to do some cooling down exercises and stretches rather than rapidly stopping.

The exercises reviewed here will not build you into a powerhouse but is aimed at building the flexibility and power required for the average golfer. Enjoy working out and building those golf muscles to produce the best game you can muster.

A word of caution: If you are in any doubt regarding your health it is important to consult a professional before engaging in any exercise or even a round of golf. These exercises are provided for informational purposes and one should practice care and common sense. Do not overdo your exercises, rather build up gradually. If you are in any significant pain or discomfort as a result of the exercises consult your doctor.

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