Five Great Golf Training Exercises

Since good posture is important to having a proper swing, exercising your core muscles is not only vital, it is something that most golfers fail to realize. Sit on an exercise ball and hold a weighted medicine ball in your hands with your arms fully extended outward. You can also use a chair and a single dumbbell and assume the same position. Keep looking straight ahead and, with the medicine ball at chest height, rotate your torso slowly to the right. Stop and then slowly twist the other way. Repeat this eight times, rest, and do it the reps again. This will improve your core rotational strength while it helps you to maintain proper posture. Not only will you be able to better keep the club in the proper rotational arc, but you will be able to hit the ball harder and deeper on to the course.

Golf weight training to increase strength starts with off season training to get your body ready for the more intensive workouts. After a warm up of stretching and floor exercise, start with simple pushups. Work to where you can do 15 to 20 reps. From there go to squats to work those leg muscles. Fifteen reps should be enough. Using a universal machine and light to moderate weight, do 15 lat pull downs followed by 20 oblique crunches. Most machines will have charts right on them to show you the proper technique. Grab a dumbbell and do 10 lunges for each leg followed by 15 barbell upright rows and 15 reverse flies. Work on your biceps with 15 dumbbell curls and another 15 reverse wrist curls. Doing 20 back extensions on a stability ball will stretch you out and complete your weight training. Make sure you do all of these exercises in a slow controlled manner to avoid injury and to maximize results.

After working on the basics for about 2 months, you are ready to proceed to the specific exercises that will benefit your game. Begin with a dozen shoulder presses followed by plyometric pushups for your arms. After doing 15 single arm dumbbell rows with each arm increase the weight and do the same number of dumbbell squats to develop leg strength. Dumbbell lateral rises done slowly will increase arm strength. Stand and do your torso twists to stretch that core. Strong wrists are essential to your swing so do a dozen barbell wrist curls and another dozen reverse barbell wrist curls. Always use an amount of weight that is very comfortable for you and increase the weight as your strength allows.

Follow this program in the offseason as well to maintain your strength and conditioning.