Exercise Tips for Golfers – PGA Tour style!

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Did you start your golf season this year with very high scores or a sore back? Maybe a little bit of both in some cases? As a certified personal trainer I see a ton of clients that spend the summer on the golf course – but come winter they’re only exercise is walking from the refrigerator to the sofa.

The worst thing you can do for your golf game, and for your body is go from extremely active (say playing golf 3 to 4 days a week in the summer) to doing virtually nothing all winter. The body gets used to regular repetitive motions, say your golf swing. However if you suddenly retire your clubs for the winter months, and don’t do anything active to keep those muscles exercised, come next year’s golf season, you better bet you’ll have an injury on your hands.

Many consider golf a low intensity form of exercise; however it still comes with risk of muscle and joint over-use, tendonitis, bursitis, and muscle strain or sprains. The most common sites for injury are the most used muscles and joins – so the elbows, spine, knees, hips, forearms and wrists.

Orthopedic surgeons in the
United States estimate that approximately 110,000 golfers injure themselves on a seasonal basis. The best way to prevent injury is by keeping up your golf swing with some sport specific conditioning for golfers over the winter months. You better bet the golfers participating in this past weeks’ Golf PGA Tour dedicate themselves to golf-specific exercise regimes when their not golfing.

The best way to implement a golf exercise routine is to focus on the most important and repeated movement – your golf swing. You can try some exercises that mimic this movement, like this lateral raise, with resistance (with dumbbells). This exercise will strengthen the back and shoulders – the same muscles you use primarily for your golf swing. So come spring your swing will be stronger and more accurate as well.

To perform:

1. Bend your hips forward.
2. Hold your dumbbells with arms straight, hands at your thighs, palms should face each other.
3. Slowly raise dumbbell to the side and up and lower in a 3-3-3 cadence.
4. Perform 10 repetitions.

The second exercises are called Superman’s because they resemble the superhero’s flight. This exercise can also help perfect your posture – and thus your golf swing as well. The key muscles used in your back when you swing a club are your erector spinae muscles (or the small elastic muscles on either side of your spine). Using an exercise ball for stability (this will help further strengthen the body when it’s in an upright position):

1. Put the exercise ball on the floor and lie on top, so your belly button is at the center of the ball.
2. Raise your right arm and left leg up so that their parallel with your body, stretch them out straight (away from your body).
3. Your opposite leg and arm should remain on the floor for balance, but not support.
4. Switch sides
5. Perform 10 repetitions on each side.

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