5 Essential Golf Fitness Tips to Improve Your Golf Game
Golf is one of the few sports in which the most athletic is not necessarily the best player. Having the strongest body, running the fastest, or jumping the highest is not necessary to be a good golfer. In order to play golf well, you need to have excellent hand-eye coordination, balance, and core strength. Here are some things that you should focus on for a golf specific workout if you want to get your body in shape to improve your golf fitness and improve your golf game.
Have a balanced training routine
A golfer’s year is divided into four phases; early pre-season, late pre-season, in-season, and post-season. Phases of training focus on different areas. In order to be in peak shape for the season, you want to get stronger before it starts.
Early pre season
This phase is focused on building strength and muscle through weightlifting. Your body will become accustomed to moving heavier weight if you challenge yourself and lift moderately heavy weights. The goal is to get stronger without getting bulky.
Late pre season
power development is the main focus. It can be accomplished by using slightly lighter weights, but focusing on moving them faster. Give yourself enough rest in order to be able to consistently do each set at a high pace. This should include power exercises.
In Season
The goal of this phase is to maintain the strength and power you have built. Alternate your strength workouts with your power workouts. When you are out on the golf course, you want to feel good. Schedule your lifting days around your playing days. This phase should be characterized by two workouts per week.
Off Season
For several weeks, avoid heavy lifting and strenuous workouts. Let your mind and body rest by doing something besides golf. For a few weeks, don’t lay on the couch and do nothing, but try to do exercises that use other muscles.
Increasing strength and power
The best way to increase strength and power is to lift weights with purpose. When you lift to improve your golf fitness, it is going to be much different from what you would lift for most other sports. Keep in mind that the purpose of lifting is to hit the golf ball farther and more consistently, not to look better in the mirror. Tailor workouts to build golf-specific muscles that are located in the lower body and hips.
Enhancing mobility
Golfers’ mobility is arguably the most important aspect of training. It is important to be mobile in both hips and thoracic spine (T-spine) because golf is a rotational sport. Stretches for hip mobility include;
- Hip Rotator Stretch
- Butterfly
- Traveling Butterfly
- Standing Piriformis Stretch
- Frog Stretch
- Bear Sit
Don’t rush these stretches, instead focus on correct form and do them slowly. Additionally, these exercises do not require much equipment and can easily be done at home. You should do them a few times a week along with strength training.
Endurance
You’ll be able to walk the course day after day without fatigue and swing the golf club more consistently if you improve your endurance. Through cardio, you can increase your aerobic capacity so that you won’t be out of breath when you need to take a shot. You can accomplish this by:
long distance training will improve your stamina. Long distance running and swimming are examples of this. If you can’t do long distances right away, start shorter and slowly work your way up, you will be amazed how fast you improve.
Your stamina and power output will also be improved with short explosive exercises. Among these exercises are sprints, hill sprints, broad jumps, and bike sprints.
Strengthening the core and maintaining balance
A lot of people think building core strength simply involves doing sit-ups every day. The truth is that you can improve your balance and core strength without doing a single sit-up! Exercises such as these include
- Planks and side planks
- Leg raises
- Hip dips
By following these tips, not only will your golf game improve, you’ll also see improvements in your day-to-day life.
D&A Golf offers a wide range of golf lessons and golf instructional programme for men, ladies and juniors of all levels. We provide individual lessons, coaching programmes, group clinics and golf camps.
Mens Golf Lessons– From private lessons to beginners and advanced mens clinics, advance your game with one of our PGA Professionals
Womens Golf Lessons– whether you are a novice or ann advanced golfer, we offer a wide range of clinics for women.
Junior Golf Tuition and Camps– We also run Easter and Summer Camps which run over three days for two hours each day. Our programmes will cover all aspects of the game including putting, chipping, pitching, irons and the driver.
Girls club– This girls only programme is designed for girls 6 -18 years of age. We encourage participants to develop the essential skills, positive attitudes and self-esteem to ensure a life-long love of the game. Girls will have fun in a social group setting and learn all aspects of the game.
