The Essentials of a Golf Fitness Program – Part Deux

Hello again everyone!

Thank you for your patience in Part two of our series where I’ll talk about the much anticipated Strength/Stability and Power components of a golf fitness program.

If you missed out on part one, here’s the link.

Essential Components of a Golf Fitness Program

So without further ado:

Strength/Stability

Once you have developed mobility in your body and you are able to create a “bio-mechanically efficient” golf swing (see “kinematic sequence & MyTpi.com for more info) and move your joints through proper range of motion, then you are ready for strength and stability.

Strength and stability refers to not only using resistance to strengthen your body (like weights, cables, bands, body weight, etc.) but also the ability to stabilize both your body and the joint that is moving. As golf has a lot of moving parts, the ability to stabilize and utilize the CORE is essential in creating a stable base from which you can create a sounds swing.

Some great stability and strength drills include: front plank/prone iso abs, kneeling chops from high to low or low to high to create distinction between your upper and lower body, rotations with bands utilizing your obliques, side planks, high row and low row with bands or cables, downward chest press with cables or bands and many, many more. To see some of these in action and view others, check out the exercise library at MyTpi.com.

Typically, I like clients to perform two sets of many different exercises with a resistance that is fatiguing usually within 12-15 repetitions. If done three times a week with days of rest in between you can achieve great results. If you are “hardcore” then you could also vary between “push/pull” days where one day includes pushing exercises and the other, pulling exercises. This could allow you to train five to six times a week….but then when would you have time to golf? 🙂

Power

Ah yes, the unquenchable thirst for more power and distance. Although power comprises of an important component of a golf fitness program, the reason it comes last is to truly prepare your body for the ballistic movements. Moving at high speeds can be a recipe for disaster and injury. Just think about that one swing you took and tried to kill it and felt your back ache  for days afterward…you know what I’m talking about.

So once you have all the other components implemented and have made significant improvements, then power can be introduced.

Many great power movements include a medicine ball such as lateral tosses against a wall both face on and perpendicular to the wall, seated rotation med ball slams, and a fave of mine, the squat/press/rotate and throw to partner. If you can’t use a medicine ball, try incorporating bands in the same movement pattern with a higher speed. Another great one for the lower body includes lateral jumps from 1 leg to the other which can incorporate both power AND balance.

Once you’re ready, power exercises can be implemented a few days in the week with your program. Usually two or three exercises with one or two sets each is plenty. Remember, the goal of power exercises is NOT to make you sore, the goal is to train your fast twitch muscle fibers so that they engage with more velocity during your swing. This leads to increased swing speed and ultimately, the much desired increase in distance off the tee.

Well folks, that about covers it for the Essentials of a Golf Fitness Program! I hope you learned some valuable information with which to attack your golf fitness goals.

And remember, if you have any questions or would like to set-up your own, individualized golf fitness program, you can contact me at John@PinHighFitness.com or 800-610-8939. You can also follow me on twitter at PinHighFitness.

Today’s guest post was written by John Heringer, owner of PinHighFitness.com. John is a Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Certified Golf Fitness Specialist as well as a Certified Strength and Core Specialist (CSCA) from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

A good workout program that factors in strength, stability, and power is the P90X workout. It’s a series of 12 exercises designed to turn you from regular to ripped in three months. They use a technique called muscle confusion which accelerates results by constantly introducing different moves and routines so your body doesn’t plateau.