Golf Fitness

Golf fitness is becoming increasingly recognized as a great way to improve your handicap.

It might be difficult to believe that you have to be fit to play a good round of golf; after all, it’s just really a good walk with a few rests, hitting a ball with a stick isn’t it? Why do you need to be fit to do that? It’s not exactly athletic is it? Well, sorry my friend but you’d better think again. Even amateurs who have their sites on winning their club championship can find a great improvement in their game by improving their fitness, not just any old fitness (although that always helps) but there are also specific exercises which you can do to help improve your game.

What Strengths Does a Golfer Need?

• Strength – how do you think the professionals hit the ball so far, there’s technique but there’s also strength in those shots (and for carrying your golf bag)
• Power – similar to strength, but power is more like what you do with your strength – do you see the subtle difference?
• Flexibility – it’s all in the hips (and the arms and shoulders and back of course)
• Stability – yes, in golf probably more than any other sport you’ve got to exert great power and movement, while keeping the rest of your body perfectly still, sounds impossible and it very nearly is
• Endurance – make no mistake, 18 holes is a long walk taking up to 4 hours, and you need to be as fresh at the 18th as you were on the 1st.
• Strength of mind – which is just as important as the strength of your body, especially when it comes to the crunch

Golf Fitness Exercises

• Practice your swing – golf exercises need to focus on the muscles and flexibility which you will need to improve your game, and by practicing the motions of your swing every day it can really make the right muscles do the work. Of course, you shouldn’t start swinging your club around the house, that’s a recipe for disaster, but you can use fitness tubing which will do the job just as well with less damage.
• Backswing with a dumb bell – another good idea is to go through the motions of the backswing with a dumb bell in the lead hand
• Medicine balls – these can be used in a variety of ways to supply the necessary muscle resistance and exercise your golf muscles. A stationery swing is one example of a good exercise.
• Lower back exercises – the lower back is often the area of the body which causes most concern for amateur golfers, so any lower back strengthening exercises can help to improve your game and also reduce the risk of injury.

As with any other sport it’s important that you warm up before playing a round of golf with a few simple exercises. It’s very often a long way to walk back from the 9th or 10th hole if you’ve strained yourself carrying that heavy bag.