Exercise Tips to Shape up Your Golf Game
Your favorite golf course is ready for another great round of golf, but is your golf game up to par? Shape up your golf game with the following exercise tips to increase your fitness level as you shoot for more of those birdies and eagles. The fairways are groomed, the putting greens are smooth and the tee boxes are set. Are you ready?
Tip One: Train Like an Athlete
The primary goal of training for athletes is to prevent injury first, followed by improving performance. If you are injured, you can’t practice, you can’t play, and you can’t improve your performance. The first step of an athlete’s training program should be a personalized fitness assessment that tests range of motion, strength and flexibility. If you don’t have an established baseline to work from, then you won’t have a clear direction toward accomplishing your golf fitness goals. Golfers are athletes so they should train like an athlete. You have to get fit to play, not play to get fit. If you don’t know, or have never measured baseline parameters like the strength and flexibility component of your golf game, you can’t effectively train to improve.
Tip Two: Turn Up Cardio Conditioning
Since the PGA requires golfers to walk all 18 holes of the golf course during its tournaments, fit players need to focus on increasing cardiovascular fitness levels with exercises that are performed while standing up. Golf is an expanding, explosive sport so you need to train as functionally and effectively as possible. This means that as much of your training exercises need to be done on your feet as possible, and the training movements need to be as explosive as possible. Challenging and improving your sense of balance through varietal planes of motion, while developing explosive power are areas to explore in your fitness routines.
Increasing your cardio and metabolic conditioning, though, doesn’t mean that you have to log double digits of running or walking miles each week. Adding exercises into your fitness program that mimic the explosive and repetitive nature of golf, like a circuit of pushing/pulling, battling ropes and multi plane medicine ball slams into your workout will not only help increase your overall fitness level, but prepare your body for endurance and for powerful tee drives and strong golf swings. “Tee em high…….watch em fly.”
Tip Three: Build Total Body Strength, Power and Stability
The golfer’s swing is the most critiqued movement of the game. If you only focus on strengthening the upper body portion of your swing, you’ll miss out on a critical part of your golf game. You have to be able to control the forces of the swing or you’ll end up spending most of your time looking for your ball in the trees or, ultimately, injuring yourself.
The power of your golf swing comes from total body strength that starts with strong, explosive and flexible legs, followed by strong back, shoulder and neck muscles, and ending with powerful biceps, triceps and forearms to finish the swing. You can hit all of the key muscle groups in your body by adding total body strength and power training moves into your workout. Some total body movements for golfers include Kettle bell swings, shoulder press squats, medicine ball throws and medicine ball lunges with a twist. Holding regular plank, side planks and superman positions for one minute in duration three-to-four repetitions at a time also are excellent exercises for building strong core and back muscles to stabilize your body, which can help you crush the ball off the tee and drive it down the fairway with power, finesse and skill. Most people avoid working their legs due to the sheer difficulty of it, and perhaps not knowing how and what to do. If you look closely at professional golfers, those that have mastered the art of “leg drive” in their golf swing have a major advantage in the distance department. “Hit em deep…watch em weep.”
Tip Four: Stretch It Out
A limber, flexible body is an integral part to every golfer’s game. It’s important to cool down and stretch after hitting the greens to recover your muscles and prepare them for the next round. It also is a good idea to warm up and stretch prior to teeing off to loosen tight muscles and prepare them for the torque and repetitive motion of a golf swing. Before you head out to the greens, warm up your lower and upper body muscles with dynamic stretches such as walking lunges, toe touches and core rotational movements. After your golf game, static stretches at the course, as a “cool down” and even regular massage, will help relax your tired muscles and prepare your mind and body for the next golf event on your roster.
It’s important to prepare your body’s fitness level for the physical wear and tear of the golf. Golf requires a strenuous athletic movement, repeated many times over the course of 18 holes. By incorporating these four fitness tips into your workout routine, you will be on your way to upping your game.
Fitness Together Mission Hills offers personal training with qualified professionals by regular appointment in private suites. Exercise and nutritional programs are custom designed to fit your needs and abilities. Call 619-794-0014 for more information or to schedule a free fitness diagnostic and private training session. See what others are saying about us on Yelp and San Diego City Search.
Category: Health & Fitness
