Alan Smith, Certified Pilates Instructor
Professional golfers have recently tuned in to Pilates as a way to improve their game, Tiger Woods being one of the first to publicly recognize its benefits. Most pros hire personal trainers and take advantage of the fitness trailers that accompany the PGA these days, making every effort to incorporate fitness into their game. Amateurs may not have the luxury of such tools at their disposal. What is needed is a simple set of exercises golfers can perform anytime, anywhere in order to improve their game and overall fitness.
According to Greg Norman in his book Greg Norman’s Fitness for Golf Tips:
The golf swing is a complex, explosive, and physically stressful action, and you must prepare your body to both produce and withstand the forces required for powerful drives. You can improve several important aspects of your swing through functional fitness training that should significantly increase your driving distance.
1. You can increase your club swing range by improving your joint flexibility.
2. You can increase your club swing speed by developing your muscle strength.
3. You can increase your club swing power by training your dynamic postural balance and segmental coordination.
Remember, it’s not those new clubs, but your body that is your most important piece of golf equipment. You need to maintain it and keep it in shape just like any other piece of equipment. Your body needs these areas of fitness--flexibility, strength, dynamic postural balance--to keep it in top working order. But how do you achieve these fitness goals? Personal trainers, Pilates and Yoga instructors are all good sources for instruction and gyms are usually recommended as the places do such a workout. But you really don’t need to go to a gym. I personally feel this is a myth of the modern fitness industry. With a little knowledge, you can perform exercises anywhere and anytime that cover these areas that are specific to your golf game. Actually, the best time to do some of them is during your game between shots and holes.
I like to make things simple. The more complicated things are, the harder they are to remember. Below are instructions for several relevant exercises that will improve your game. They focus on four flexibility and four strengthening areas, and are simple enough to be done right before the first hole and as needed throughout the day. Off the course, you can work on a more aggressive program which may consist of these with more intensity or other exercises for keeping your body flexible and strong.
Flexibility Exercises:
1. Neck rotational flexibility
a. Look straight ahead; now rotate your head to look as far to the right as you can. Repeat as far to the left as you can.
- How many times? 3 times each side at least 2 times a day.
- Benefit: Improves shoulder rotation for max backswing.
b. Now bring your right ear to your right shoulder and slide your left arm down your side to get your left ear and left shoulder as far apart as you can. Repeat on the other side.
- How many times? 3 times each side at least 2 times a day.
- Benefit: Improves shoulder rotation for max backswing.
2. Upper body flexibility
Put arms out to your sides and up in the letter T. Now swing your arms to the front so your palms cross each other and feel your shoulder blades open behind you. Next swing your arms behind you and feel your shoulder blades come close together.
- How many times? 5 times front and back at least 2 times a day.
- Benefit: Improves shoulder rotation for max backswing.
3. Mid-section flexibility
a. Put arms out to your sides and up in the letter T. Now rotate your body as far to the right as you can. Then return to middle and rotate to the left as far as you can. Allow your body to twist all the way down through your legs.
- How many times? 5 times each side at least 2 times a day.
- Benefit: Improves spinal rotation for max backswing.
b. Now try it without moving your pelvis or legs. Only your upper body is twisting. Practice next to a desk or countertop to learn how to keep your pelvis from twisting. This takes abdominal strength to stabilize your pelvis.
- How many times? 5 times each side at least 2 times a day.
- Benefit: Improves spinal rotation for max backswing, power through the downswing and breaking at end of follow through.
4. Hip flexibility
Tight hip flexors are a big problem resulting from our modern “sitting everywhere” culture. It is the root cause of a number of muscle imbalances that not only affect golf but everyday life and posture for so many of us.
a. To stretch, place your right foot on the first stair of any stairway. Place your left foot three stairs up. Hold onto the railings if you need to for balance and drop your pelvis toward the steps between your feet and keep your back straight up or even extend it backwards if you can. You should feel a stretch in the area by your front pockets. Switch feet and repeat on the other side. (You can also switch sides as you attempt to walk up the stairs three steps at a time to get a good strengthening workout for your legs.)
- How many times? 3 times on each side, once every day.
- Benefit: Improves posture, reduces back pressure, allows abdominals to tighten, allows back and gluts (your buttocks) to strengthen and hamstrings to release. Improves your setup, golf posture, back endurance, range of motion for your legs and hips during backswing and your ability to stay in the proper swing plane.
b. Always follow any back extension (bending backwards like in the hip flexor stretch) with a forward bend or flexion. Stand and roll down so that your palms are on the floor with your knees bent, much like you would bend over to tie your shoes while standing. Keeping your palms on the floor, try to straighten up your legs. This will stretch your back and hamstrings.
- How many times? Straighten up and then go back down 3 times on each side, once every day.
- Benefit: Same as 4a.
Strength Exercises
1. Shoulder/upper back strength
Place both hands on the corner of a sturdy desk or sturdy countertop. Move your feet back to a comfortable angle for your body to do pushups. If you perform your pushup with your elbows out, you will strengthen your from pectorals (chest muscles). If you rotate your palms so your fingers are pointing out to the side, you can do the pushup with your elbows rubbing your sides and this will work your triceps (back arm muscles).
- How many times? Do as many as you can up to 20 pushups, once a day.
- Benefit: Both muscle groups are used during your downswing. This will improve drive distance.
2. Core strength
Simply pull your navel to your spine. Hold your tummy in like you are putting on some tight slacks. When you inhale, keep the tummy tight. Don’t let your belly button come out. As you exhale, try to pull it in even tighter. You are training your deepest abdominal muscles to be contracted. This muscle provides stability for your spine.
- How many times? Do for several minutes, several times a day. Make it part of your setup procedure over the ball as well.
- Benefit: The entire process of navel to spine and breathing increases what is called “inner abdominal pressure” and it has been shown to reduce spinal forces caused by the golf swing by up to 50%. This can be a major factor in reducing back injuries. It also gives you more control of your movement and helps keep you in proper posture and proper swing plane during your entire swing.
3. Back/hip strength
a. Get in your golf posture with a straight back, lean over slightly and have your knees slightly bent. Hold.
b. You can also get in that position and perform trunk rotations all the way to the right and all the way to the left, while holding your golf posture.
- How many times? Work up to holding for 60 seconds. If you also do the rotations, do 5 in each direction.
- Benefit: Improves your setup posture and endurance. Strengthens hips. The rotation in this position primes you for your swing.
4. Leg strength and balance
Perform a single leg squat. Get in your golf posture and lift one foot off the ground, bring your arms up and lean over more as if to be running in place on one leg. Go up and down on that one leg as far as you can. If you need to, you can hold onto your club for support. Switch to the other side.
- How many times? Work up to 20 ups and downs on each leg.
- Benefit: Improves your balance, entire leg strength (from ankle to hip). Better weight shift control during swing and helps maintain proper swing plane on all surface types.
The above exercises are part of a simple exercise program that quickly and easily focuses on the primary flexibility and strength needs for golf as well as everyday life activities. The exercises help improve left/right muscle imbalances caused by dominant one-side use patterns found in golf. And they are meant to be incorporated into the golfer’s daily lifestyle as a way of conditioning for better golf as well as general health and fitness. To take it to the next level, you can incorporate a more in-depth fitness program into your life using exercise balls, elastic tubing, weights as well as many body weight exercises for even more benefits.
(Alan teaches Pilates at several Peak Fitness locations in Charlotte and
writes for PilatesStyle magazine. He can be reached at 704-877-9556 or
pilates289@yahoo.com
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