Think golf is a low-impact, gentle, easy sport? Not quite. While golf is one of the best low-impact workouts you can enjoy, golf also requires excellent physical fitness, flexibility, mobility, and strength to haul your golf bag and clubs around, walk the course, and execute a proper golf swing.
Golf involves ballistic movements, meaning it involves sudden bursts of exertion at maximum velocity and acceleration. Golf is also one-sided. Players can swing dozens of times from one side of the body during a single game, leaving the body susceptible to overuse injuries and muscle imbalances.
Exercises that address mobility in the shoulders, upper back, and hips are especially important, as are compound exercises that train the muscles to work together as a unit. Increased mobility ensures a better range of motion to hit the ball farther while also reducing the risk of lower back issues.
Exercises that increase flexibility in the hip flexors are also crucial as tight hip flexors can increase the risk of a lower back injury and prevent you from executing a good backswing.
RESISTANCE BAND TRAINING
One of the major issues many golfers struggle with is lateral movement and swaying from the right side across to their left side in their swings. This is often a result of tight hip flexors or weak glutes.
This drill is an excellent exercise to work on at home and uses just a resistance band. It is an effective way to help you activate the proper muscles and develop the right support, rotation and coil with your backswing.
Once you master this drill using just a resistance band, you can increase the difficulty of this exercise by holding a small medicine ball or barbell against your chest.
THE GRIP
The wrong grip can lead to many bad shots, but grip is one of the hardest habits for a golfer to change.
Although it can be difficult to successfully correct your grip, you are sure to see huge improvements in your golf game once you do. However, working on your grip in a high-pressure situation is a recipe for frustration.
Instead, work on your grip in non-pressure situations, such as at home in front of your favourite tv show. Work on how you hold the club and practice different grips to work on getting a sense of the proper form and how different grips feel.
By repeating this movement pattern and making a habit out of gripping the club properly, you’ll automatically see positive changes next time you are on the golf course.
Conclusion:
If you think the golf course (liverpoolgolf.com.au) is the only place you can improve your golf game, you may be surprised to learn that your own home is one of the best places to work on any habits on the course/driving range that need improvement. However, this is often neglected and it can lead to frustration when trying to make changes on the range or course.
The good news is that you can start building your ideal body for golf right from the comfort of your own home using simple training exercises and little to no equipment.