Functional Training For Golf Fitness | December 2023
Depending on where a golfer lives, there may be a chance to cope with inclement weather. You should know about exercises and functional training for golf to make this easier for you. This weather may make it impossible to play and practice gold outside.
This off-season time is a prime opportunity for a golfer to improve aspects of his game. These aspects may not get as much attention when you are busy playing seasonal golf games.
You should not let this free time deteriorate your personal fitness while you wait for better weather to return. You must ensure your body is performing at a level that is according to the level of your golf game.
Good exercise and training for golf may enhance your chances of staying healthy and fit. You will also not lose any practice or play time due to injury.
Are you going to spend time working on your fitness? It is a wise move to ensure you are using this time efficiently. We have selected several golf exercises that are important to improve your fitness for golf. These exercises are split up into three categories.
They are critical to high-quality and powerful golf swings:
- Mobility
- Strength
- Power
Let’s see different exercises that you may do to stay fit and healthy.
Exercises and Functional Training for Golf
The following is a detailed guide to a golf warm-up routine to stay fit for golf.
1. Quadruped Spinal Flexion & Extension
Spinal mobility is essential. It is often lacking in many people. The mobility of the hip and shoulder may suffer when our spine becomes immobile. This is bad news for our golf swings. This exercise is important for improving our spine.
Primary Purpose: Spine
2. Hip Drops
Lack of internal hip rotation is the most prevalent area of limitation in many golfers. A sway, early extension, lower back injury, and slip are all risks that can increase with less internal hip rotation.
Moreover, it will reduce power. It can also make efficient sequencing more challenging. In conclusion, you need to make sure that your internal hip rotation is strong.
Hip drops can be a great exercise for this purpose. You can go for hip rotation golf exercises to improve internal hip rotation to perform well during your gameplay.
Primary Purpose: Hips
4. Split Squat (Eccentric Emphasis)
Split squats can be an excellent workout for lower body strength. It simultaneously tests your mobility and stability. It is also highly helpful to slowly lower yourself during the exercise.
It gives you the ability to work on imbalances between the left and right sides of your body. It is one of the best things about workouts, as they focus on each side of your body separately.
We understand that neither side of the body needs to be identical. However, there shouldn’t be a significant discrepancy either. We are also aware that there is a significant relationship between club head speed and ground force about transfer to the golf swing.
Hence, you must strengthen your lower body as it is the best way to boost your ground force.
Primary Purpose: Quads. It is also important for hamstrings and glutes.
5. Cable Rotation
There are many drawbacks to general golf fitness programs. One of them is that they only encourage you to perform vertical exercises. This is not the best way to improve the physique of a golfer. Your rotational golf strength training will increase as a result of this exercise.
Rotational strength is mostly controlled by the muscles surrounding our trunk. This is frequently referred to as the “core.” The trunk is crucial for rotation as well and it plays a crucial role in the movement of force from the lower body of a golfer to the upper body.
Weak cores may cause “power leaks.” It may occur when we attempt to move force from the lower to the upper body. Hence, it will significantly reduce the effectiveness and power of a golfer. Cable rotation and other rotational exercises are important exercises for rotational strength.
Primary Purpose: Obliques. It also helps you improve your glutes and deep trunk muscles.
6. Chin-up / Pull-up
Chin-ups are a special exercise in which you use an underhand grip with your palms facing you. Pull-ups are when people use an overhand grip with their palms facing away.
Many pull-up bars now have parallel handles. These are places where your palms can face each other. These may be referred to as neutral grip pull-ups or chin-ups. Chin-ups are easier as compared to others.
When people cannot perform one full chin-up/pull-up, they may have a fitness issue. They are either carrying too much body fat, or they are injured. Their strength levels may be low.
They must address these problems. Pull-ups/chin-ups can be a great diagnostic tool to address them. They can help us provide upper body and trunk strength. This strength is important for powerful golf swings.
Moreover, becoming proficient at chin-ups/pull-ups may go a long way toward preventing common elbow and shoulder issues. These issues plague so many golfers. It is one of the important grip strength exercises.
Primary Emphasis: Lats & biceps. People use massive amounts of upper body and trunk muscles.
7. Alternate Lateral Jump
This exercise is an excellent way to develop lower body power in a lateral fashion. It can be beneficial for improving how the feet of a golfer interact with the ground during the swing. We may not be able to see with the naked eye how much pressure high clubhead speed golf players apply to the ground with their feet.
However, it is substantial. When coaching players through this, I like to use the phrase “load and explode.” It helps them understand the feeling they want as they absorb the landing of each jump, and then propel themselves back towards where they came from.
Primary Emphasis: Lower Body Power
8. Rotational Medicine Ball Throw
It can be one of the important exercises for golfers to help them increase their club head speed. It’s excellent for improving ground force. It can also teach golfers how to use their big muscles to develop rotational power.
The manner in which their bodies move also has enough similarity to a golf swing that provides a very high degree of transfer. Hence, performing this exercise alongside a more general strengthening program is a good way to ensure your strength gains are realized in your golf swing.
Primary Emphasis: Rotational Power
9. Single Leg Balance With Core Halo
While standing on one foot, you must move your hands from overhead to one shoulder, then back up to the other shoulder. Continue by bringing your hands back to your shoulders. With the other leg, repeat the motion. Constrain your core muscles at all times to ensure you are moving with control.
Tip: Golfers should find a fixed point with their eyes and focus on the point like they would on the golf ball.
Primary emphasis: It improves balance. It also improves upper & lower body dissociation.
10. Single Arm Medicine Ball Chest Throw With Rotation
Golfers frequently focus on their “core.” It means that upper body strength and power don’t get the attention they require. It is important to give the appropriate strength training exercises to the upper body. It is crucial to the force of the golf swing.
This exercise can improve the capacity of a golfer’s body to function as a whole. The movement starts with the lower body pushing into the ground.
The force then moves up the trunk and into the upper body. Here it is conveyed by the arm propelling the golf ball as forcefully as possible.
Although it isn’t the identical motion, it may follow the same pattern as the golf swing. Thus, golfers can benefit much from this functional workout. These are the best exercises for the core.
Primary Emphasis: Upper Body exercises are important for power training
Hopefully, you have found this article(training for golf) useful for golf fitness and exercises.
Training for golf is a crucial aspect of improving your game. Training for golf involves various components, such as working on your swing, building strength and flexibility, and enhancing your mental focus.
To excel in golf, you must dedicate time to training for golf consistently. Seek professional guidance to tailor your training for golf to your specific needs, and remember that consistent training for golf can lead to remarkable improvements in your performance.
Conclusion
We have explained the best golf exercises. They are a good start to improve your game. But, these exercises may scratch the surface of what golfers can be doing to work on their fitness, both for longevity and golf performance.
If you want to take ownership of your physical function, you must check out the various videos for functional training for golf. You should make a habit of doing these exercises to stay fit and perform well while playing golf.
