Exercises to Help Improve Your Swing

It seems as though the Holy Grail of golf is the perfect swing. Golfers worldwide spend hundreds, if not thousand of dollars on top-of-the-line golf clubs in hopes that they’ll distance their drive and decrease their handicap.

What we all need to realize, however, is that your distance might not have as much to do with your club as it does with your strength.

Just like with any other sport, you have to tailor your workouts to focus on the muscles you use most when you play. In golf, attention should be given to core strength and flexibility to reduce overuse of your arms and wrists and to prevent strain on the lower back.

In addition to strengthening your core muscles, improving your flexibility in your feet, ankles, and hips will increase your rotational range of motion; weight training is necessary to improve your overall strength—which will also help your shot distance drastically.

So, we’ve found some workouts online that focus on the important muscles for golfers:

1. Seated Rotations

How to do it: Sit straddling a bench, or squeeze a pad or towel between your knees. Hold a club behind your back with your arms, so it sits in the crook of your elbows. Set your palms flat on your stomach and maintain your posture. Without moving your hips, rotate your torso to the right and hold for two seconds. Return to the starting position, then continue to the left and hold for two seconds. Alternate sides, 10 to a side. These will improve your rotational mobility, a key component of the golf swing

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2. Hand-walks

How to do it: Start standing up. Bend forward at the waist and set your hands on the ground so you're on all fours. Slowly walk your hands out into a pushup position. Then, making sure to keep your knees straight, walk your toes toward your hands. Once you're starting to feel a stretch, walk your hands back out and repeat for a total of 10 reps. This exercise will prevent “golfer’s elbow” and reduce the risk of shoulder injury.

3. 90/90 Stretch

How to do it: Lie on one side with the bottom leg straight and the top leg bent with inside of knee on ground. Rotate your trunk back attempting to put the top shoulder blade on the ground. Hold two seconds, return to start position and repeat for 10 reps. Switch sides. This move opens up your shoulders, helping to build flexibility and mobility.

4. Glute Bridge

How to do it: Lie face-up on the floor with knees bent 90 degrees and feet flat on the floor. Squeeze a rolled up towel between your knees. Fire your glutes and bridge your hips toward the ceiling, so that only your shoulders and heels remain on the ground. Lower your hips to the ground and repeat for 10 reps.

5. Single Leg Dead Lift

How to do it: Stand on left foot with dumbbells in each hand. Slowly tilt forward from the hips keeping your torso and back completely straight. Try to keep the leg supporting your weight as straight as possible, but a slight bend is okay. Repeat on right leg (dumbbells are optional). This exercise builds glute and hip strength, back and torso alignment, as well as balance to help maintain proper back alignment to reduce back and glute fatigue.

6. Medicine Ball Swing Toss

How to do it: Stand in your regular golf stance, knees slightly bent, leaning forward through hips with back straight, holding a medicine ball in place of a golf club. Swing medicine ball as you would your club (arm and hand motions will be different), and when your arms are at a 45° down angle, release the medicine ball, throwing it against a wall. This should be a quick motion just like a normal golf swing. Do exercise on both sides of the body (switch leading hands). This exercise builds strength through actual swing motion focusing on all muscles involved to help add extra distance to hit without losing control.