What Are the Best Exercises for the Golfer?

With all the talk about the players on tour getting stronger and more flexible, we hear a lot about exercising for golf from television commentators and read about it in the golf publications. But what exactly are the best exercises for the amateur golfer?

A great question that has a good answer, but before we give you the answer let us provide some background so the answer makes a little more sense to you. First of all, discussing the golf swing for the time being will get us rolling.

What exactly is the golf swing? The golf swing is an athletic movement that requires using of the entire body from "feet to fingertips" in order to complete the swing. Realize that the golf swing is not about the club, not just about your grip, or where your head is during the swing. The golf swing is a movement that requires your entire body to move through a sequence of movements with the correct timing. To perform the "athletic movement" of the golf swing requires the body to begin at address, move through the actual phases of the golf swing and complete it with the follow through. In order to perform this activity with efficiency and repetitively, the body must have certain physical parameters.

These parameters, as I call them, are actual physical categories of the body that need to be developed to a certain level. These categories of the body are the platform from which the body is able to perform the athletic movement of a golf swing efficiently. The categories are probably familiar to many of you, but for the purpose of this article let us briefly run through them.

The body is required to have certain levels of flexibility, balance, endurance, strength, and power to complete a golf swing. If the body lacks in any of the above categories, then the results will be seen in the golf swing. The results are usually in the form of poor mechanics, bad shots, or poor scores on the course. So, now that we know what the connection is between the "body" and the "swing" let us address the question about the best exercises for golf.

The Best Exercises for Golf

Let's say you walk into your local health club and see all the fancy machines and aerobic machines at the facility to get you shape. What ones would choose? Would you choose running on the treadmill for 30 minutes, or would it be better to push out a couple sets of bench presses? Well, the answer to our question really lies within the connection between your swing and your body.

I will tell you that exercises meant to "pump you up!" or give you that "six pack" are not necessarily the correct exercises for your golf game. Neither is that weight training program you used back in high school. So, with those thoughts in mind what do you think the best exercises for golf are?

Right now we know, in general terms about the golf swing, what is required of the body for the golf swing and what exercises are not good for the swing. Armed with that knowledge we can decipher what the best exercises for golf are for you.

Beginning with flexibility, we know that the entire body must move through certain ranges of motion to perform an effective golf swing. And what happens if your body is not able to move through the required ranges of motion of the golf swing? The answer: the golf swing will mechanically suffer resulting in shots that are less than optimal. So part of the exercises that are good for golfers are flexibility exercises and, even more so, flexibility exercises that work the muscles used in the golf swing through the movements involved in the golf swing. So first and foremost flexibility exercises should be on the top of your list.

The second category of exercises that would be conducive to the golf swing would have to do with balance. We hear about balance in reference to the golf swing all the time. "Stay balanced through the swing; transfer your weight to maintain balance during the swing?" But what does balance exactly mean? Balance is the ability to control your body through a specific movement pattern. The movement pattern we are discussing just happens to be the golf swing. We know the importance of balance in relation to the golf swing, so how do we train our body for better balance in the golf swing? Before we answer that question we need to know a little more about balance. Balance in relation to the body has to do with the connection between your nerves and muscles. Essentially your nervous system, as a result of messages sent from your brain, tells your muscles how to move to maintain the body's balance. The more efficient your nerves and muscles are to these messages the greater balance abilities the body develops. So balance exercises train both the nervous system and muscular system to become more efficient at this function. Summing it all up, balance is the second category of exercises that will assist your golf game.

The third category of exercises that are beneficial to golf have to do with your muscles. The golf swing requires the muscles of your body to move through a specific range of motion (flexibility) and help with your balance capacities. In order to perform these actions and others, your body needs certain levels of strength and endurance. The definition of strength is the ability of the muscles to exert force for the given "athletic action" (simplified definition but a good working definition for us). Endurance is the ability of your muscles to do the same activity over and over again for a specific amount of time.

First off, let us discuss strength. The golf swing has one intention of developing club head speed while maintaining balance through the swing. The muscles in your body must have enough strength in them to do both. Now, when we discuss building strength for the golf swing it is NOT the type of strength needed to bench press 250 lbs. Or squat 500! It is strength geared towards the improvement of your swing. I refer to this type of strength as "golf strength." So when you get to the gym, performing strength exercises like bench press will not help your swing. Exercises that train the body in the positions and through the movements of the golf swing will help your swing.

In addition to strength, we need to develop endurance in your muscles. Think of how many swings you may take over the course of 18 holes. In order for you to be able to swing the club the same way on the 18th hole as you did on the 1st hole. Your body has to have high levels of endurance. This will allow your body to perform the golf swing without getting tired. You develop endurance similar to how you develop "golf strength." Utilize exercises that train the body in the positions and through the movements of the golf swing. Lighter loads with higher repetitions will be used for these exercises. The end result will be the development of "golf endurance."

The final segment of exercises beneficial to your golf swing is power training. Power training is geared towards the ability of your body to generate high levels of club head speed. Power development by the body is what allows for greater distance on your shots. Clubs help, golf balls help, but it really comes down to the piece of machinery, your body, swinging those club and hitting those golf balls. Development of power for the golf swing is very similar to the development of "golf strength and endurance." It is the utilization of exercises that place your body in the positions and move you through movements similar to the golf swing.

My Golf Disaster

Although I was never picked for sports teams as a kid, I always thought that golf would be far easier than all the others as it required very little physical exertion in regards to chasing a ball up and down a field for 90 minutes while opponents try to take the legs out from under you.

I mean, how difficult could it be? You stand still, look at the hole at the other end of the green, look at the ball and then hit it as hard as you can with a metal or wooden club. Even better, once you do, you don't have to run as fast as you can to the hole. Instead you take a taxi in the form of a golf cart. How sweet is that!

I had a rude awakening one day when a friend of mine managed to talk me into playing a few rounds down at one of the local courses. For starters there were no golf carts, so we had to walk around all 18 holes. That wouldn't have been so bad but for the fact there were no golf caddies on that day either so we had to carry the bags of clubs around too. Damn those things are heavy! Golf caddy's do not get paid enough.

To make matters worse, it began to rain half way through the game. So there I am, soaked, sore, tired and about to drive my tuft of grass another 100 yards, for that is all I seemed to be hitting all morning.

Someone must have super glued the golf ball to the tee because every time I looked down after swinging that freakin club, there it was, smiling up at me, wondering why I wasn't hitting it. On the few occasions that I did manage to hit it, it made a lovely plopping sound as it hit the water, sinking into the murky depths of the nearest water hazard, never to be seen again.

Or I spent the rest of my time doing a David Attenborough as I searched through the rough long grass (in vein I might add) looking for that elusive white golf ball. I actually managed to find many day glow and colored golf balls on my safari for my own but alas it was never found.

In all I lost 12 golf balls that day but managed to recover 9 multi colored ones that didn't belong to me. This leads me to believe I'm not alone in my inability to hit a golf ball straight. I didn't come across the dead bodies of any lost golfers looking for their own golf balls but I was fully expecting to.

Just when I was about to assign golf to a watery grave by hurling my 9 iron as far across the nearest water hazard as I could, two extremely attractive females came walking over the hill behind us. They too were searching for their lost golf balls. (I swear you couldn't make this stuff up if you were writing a film.)

We exchanged golfing disaster stories and after a bit of chatting decided to retire to the club house for the day to escape the rain and plan a new strategy of attack.

Thanks to my golfing disaster we now have dates for this Friday night and although I caught the cold, lost my balls and was thoroughly pissed off for most of the game. (I was losing a bet with my friend) I can't help but feel that meeting girls at a stadium of 90,000 screaming fans just would not have happened.

Although I'm still useless at golf, my opinion of the sport has changed completely. Not only for obvious reasons but I've come to learn there is a great deal of skill required to hit a ball straight with a bent club in a cross wind.

Try Developing Your Own Golf Style

Some golf beginners think that all they have to do is copy Ernie Els, Tiger Woods or whoever their favorite golfer might be and bam, immediate golf success!

I am sorry to say, it is just not that easy. If it were then everybody would be a lot better. This, as we see every time out on the course is not so much the case.

In reality, no two people ever really swing the same way. Since each of us has a unique body build, some more unique than others, we need to develop our own individual set of muscles. A golf swing method used by one golfer who has a different build and has developed his or her set of golf muscles, is probably not of much value to you. Golf is an individual sport. So, find a method of playing that produces results for you, and then go with it. You will enjoy your time out on the links much more.

While it is often a waste of time to try and copy someone else, coaching by a pro can help you find your swing by getting suggestions and tips on how to improve. Just make sure you hire someone who will work with what feels comfortable for you and your natural swing.

If you hire a pro, make sure he is a superior player. You also want someone that is not going to just stand there and watch you swing. You want a pro that will actually show you how to get out of the sand and some less obvious shots you may come across in a round of golf. Make sure you are getting your money's worth!

When you're ready to play golf, and you're faced with a shot, just make your decision on how you're going to do things and stick with it. If you have a bad day of golf, don't be inclined to change what you are doing. If you start changing things every time you have a bad game you will never get any better. But don't be so hardheaded that you never try anything new either. We are looking for a middle ground. If after a few rounds something just isn't working for you, then you need to change it. Just that. Keep the good and toss out the bad. Something about a baby and bathwater comes to mind.

Certain techniques are fundamental to the game and you should try to follow them. But don't get too bogged down in these. It is almost impossible to make a good shot, when the whole time you are thinking of seven or eight things you need to be doing. When you are playing just play and when you are practicing then you can think about things like your grip, where your feet are, where the ball is, to keep your eye on the ball, to follow through, keep your head straight, etc. Hopefully the things practiced will just become natural for you when you get out on the course. This is the goal anyway

Golf Club Componets: Playing Golf The Lego Set Way

To understand how to buy golf club components, you first need to know how these parts work and what they are in the first place. So let's begin in this way. If you know the parts already, treat this portion as a short review of Golf 101.

The Grip

The grip of the golf club is important because it is the extension of the golfer's hands. According to the rules of golf, the grip has to be round, without obvious pockmarks which detract significantly from the roundness.

The Shaft

The shaft of the golf club connects the grip to the head and, like the grip, must also conform to accepted roundness rules. Most modern golf club shafts are made of either steel or a carbon-fiber and resin composite. Now it's about time to explain the concept and the theory behind a golf club component. The operant word is assembly type. It's like playing Lego set. So let's say you want to fit your choice of shaft to the rest of the club components, you'll be running into a vendor that sells a golf component kit. Now you've got to be careful about whom you trust in this business. It's easy to ruin your investment. It can get scratched or worse, broken. It's not a simple glue or Epoxy situation.

Some unscrupulous golf component vendors use a sacrificial laminate process, involving grinding the outside of the shaft. By cutting the fibers on the surface, energy and feel are lost. Solution: Look for a high grade modulus shaft fiber which results in very little loss of energy from your hands to the clubface.

What Do the Core and the Golf Swing Have in Common Part II?

In part one of this article we discussed the core and its relation to the golf swing. A quick review of the information in article one will indicate a definitive connection between the "athletic movements" of a golf swing and the core section of the body. Prior to beginning this article let us take a brief moment to review information provided in the first article on this topic.

A quick review will indicate that the core is an anatomical region of the body. This region of the body consists of all the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and neural structures, located from the hips to the lower chest. This comprises all of the structures of: the hips, abdominals, low back, and obliques (side abdominals). In addition to describing the anatomical region of the core, part one of this article described the following: the relationship between the core and golf swing in the specific areas of range of motion, coordination, speed of motion, and balance. Part two of this article will discuss core flexibility, strength, endurance, and power. We will relate these three additional topics to the golf swing as we did in part one.

Recalling from the first article, range of motion is directly related to distance. Distance that a body moves in a specific amount of time when discussing biomechanics. Relating range of motion to the golf swing indicates that the greater range of motion that the core mechanism of the body can move through, the greater amount of force can be created to deliver into the club head.

The second topic discussed in article one was speed of motion. Remember, speed of motion is directly related to range of motion. Speed of motion is essentially adding a component of time to range of motion. The faster that an object or the body can move through a specific range of motion, the greater amount of force can be created through this range of motion.

Thirdly, we introduced coordination. Coordination is the ability to time the movements of the body in the correct sequence to perform the activity desired. This requires the body to move through the required ranges of motion with the correct speed of motion.

The final topic discussed in section one of this article was balance. Balance is the ability of the body to maintain a center of gravity during a movement. Increased balance allows for greater accuracy with athletic activities. Moving forward into section two of this article, we build upon the information discussed in article one. Relevancy to the core and the golf swing is easily seen when connecting these topics (range of motion, speed of motion, coordination, and balance) to the athletic movement associated with the golf swing.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint and is influenced by skeletal structures, ligaments, muscles tissues, and joint capsule type. Range of motion is a result of the deformation of soft tissues (i.e. muscle tissue, ligaments, and tendons) surrounding a joint. Flexibility is essentially the ability of the neuromuscular to create a desired range of motion by the body. The golf swing requires the core, and the entire body, to move through a specified range of motion to create contact with the golf ball. Limitations in flexibility can create the inability of the body to move through the required ranges of motion at the correct speed to perform a golf swing. This will result in numerous problems as a result of poor mechanics in the swing. A direct connection exists between range of motion, speed of motion, and flexibility. If flexibility is limited the result will be limitations in ranges of motion and speeds of motion.

Strength

Strength can be defined as the ability of the neuromuscular system (neural system, muscular system) to create and exert force. A lack of strength limits the ability of the body to create force for a given athletic movement. In relationship to the golf swing, strength is a required component of the core. A large proportion of the force created in the golf swing is a result of the lower body and core musculature system. As a result, creating the force needed to develop club head speed is directly related to strength levels within these structures of the body. A lack of strength lessens to a degree the amount of force that can be created in the golf swing, thus reducing the amount of club head speed available to the golfer.

Endurance

Endurance is the ability of the neuromuscular structures (muscular system, neural system, ligaments, and tendons) to perform the same athletic movement repeatedly over a specific amount of time. The golf swing is a repetitive athletic movement requiring the neuromuscular system to perform the same neuromuscular activity over and over again for a given number of swings, time, etc. This requires the body to move through a specific range of motion, with the correct speed of motion, coordinating the movements in the correct sequence, with the required force outputs (i.e. strength), and correct levels of endurance. A lack of endurance in the neuromuscular system will limit the ability of the individual to perform the components required of the golf swing listed above.

Power

Power is the ability to create the greatest amount of force in a specified amount of time. Power is contingent upon the combination of strength and speed of motion. These two components working in conjunction create power. A decrease in strength or speed of motion limits the ability of power production by the neuromuscular system. The golf swing requires the body to produce power to deliver into the club head. The amount of time to perform this is limited and contained within the ranges of motion through which the body moves during the golf swing. The point to be made is that a direct connection exists for power production between range of motion, speed of motion, and strength. These three components working together determine the power outputs created by the body during the golf swing.

Summary

This article discussed an additional four components that are relevant to the core structure of the body and the golf swing. The key point to make between the topics discussed in this article and article number one is the connection between all of these components. Range of motion, speed of motion, balance, and coordination are contingent upon the points discussed in this article. The ability of the body to swing a golf club requires the ability of the body to have the required ranges of motion, speeds of motion, balance, and coordination to perform the swing. The development of flexibility, strength, endurance, and power within the body allows for these activities to occur. Thus all eight of these components (range of motion, speed of motion, balance, coordination, flexibility, strength, endurance, and power) are interconnected to perform a golf swing. The relationship to the core and these activities is a follows: the core region of the body is a main component of the golf swing. It is utilized greatly in all aspects of the golf swing from maintaining balance to creating power. The core can be considered to be the "engine" of the golf swing. Please visit our website at www.bioforcegolf.com to get more information.

Increase Golf Swing Speed Easily

Golf swing speed is an elusive term for most amateur golfers. We've all heard of it and know it relates somehow to longer drives, but how can we increase golf swing speed quickly and effectively?

Do you think it's swing harder? Have you tried that approach? What happened? I can take a wild guess. The ball didn't go anywhere! You were so tense that your golf swing speed was actually much slower.

That's not what you want!

So how do you achieve the ever-elusive higher golf swing speed?

It starts with your engine. Your core. The center of your machine. The stronger and more flexible you get your core, the faster the arms, hands and club will come through without swinging harder. Resulting in longer and much straighter drives.

Just take a look at the main movement in the golf swing!

It's rotational!

In ALL sports movement?what dictates the power? One guess. It's your core. That's why athletes spend so much time throwing weighted medicine balls, pulling weighted cables and doing tons of twisting exercises with resistance.

The same approach should be taken for the golfer wanting to improve golf swing speed. Start with simple rotational exercises that incorporate both strength and flexibility like the seated rotation with a club.

• Sit upright with a club on your shoulders behind your neck.
• Grab each end with your hands.
• While facing forward, focusing straight ahead, rotate to the right and back to the left.
• You will feel tight and restricted at first.
• Maintain an erect posture with eyes straight ahead.
• Do this slowly at first, then build up the rate of speed.
• Rotate back and through 10 times for 3 sets.

This is a starting (basic) core exercise that will make a HUGE difference if you haven't worked on your core before. You will notice a difference in your range of motion and power output on the course quickly.

You would then progress up to more resistance related rotational exercises with handweights, tubing (cables), weighted medicine balls and even weighted clubs.