Guest Post

Top 7 Strength-Training Moves for Golfers

Whether you're a weekend golfer or you hit the links on a regular basis, strength training should play a key role in developing (and maintaining) your golf skills. Strength training will not only help you get more enjoyment out of the game of golf, but it can also help you reduce the risk of injury when you play.

Why? When golfing, you rotate your body quite a bit to generate power, speed, and direction. Doing a combination of strength training moves that tailor several parts of your body will help very much in injury prevention. Think about things like flexibility, core strength, and strong legs. Here are our favorite strength-training moves for golfers (and our favorite mens tshirts at barenecessities):

Pre-Workout Stretch – Regardless of your training exercises, you should always start with a pre-workout warm up and stretch since you should never stretch cold muscles. Do a brisk 10-minute walk to increase your heart rate and warm up your muscles. Then, launch into your favorite training activity.

Yoga – A good golf game requires some flexibility and a strong core. Take a basic yoga class to help tone your golfing muscles, balance, and coordination. You'll also learn mindfulness techniques that can be incredibly helpful when trying to focus only on your game.

Power Walk – If you're going to walk an 18-hole course, cardio will help you get in shape so that you're don't exhaust yourself before the end of your game. If you're not a runner, start slow with power walking. Try doing a brisk, 30-minute walk at least 3-4 times a week.

Jogging – Jogging can also help get you in great shape for golfing. If you've tried power walking and are ready to step up to something a little more challenging, try jogging for 5 or 10 minutes, then stopping for a walk break. Start in small increments like this and after you've given your body a chance to get used to jogging, see how far you can go without taking a walk break. Make it a goal to do at least three 30-minute jogs each week.

Basic Weight Training – Weight training can also play an important role in developing your golf game – just make sure to start with the basics like leg press, squats, bench press, and abdominal crunches. After you've mastered these, move onto a more golf-specific program.

Golf-Specific Weight Training –As its name implies, this training targets muscles that are used in your golf game – and toning these will help you improve your performance and decrease your chance for injury. A bit different than the weight training mentioned above, golf-specific training puts a focus on all muscles moving together instead of one at a time.

Golf-specific weight training includes things like tossing a medicine ball (to tone your abdominals), lunges with an upper body rotation, and standing oblique rotations.

Swimming – Swimming is a fantastic cross training activity that many athletes overlook. Head to your local rec center and swim a few laps. You'll strengthen your muscles with very little impact on your joints – and it's something fun that you can do 2-3 times each week.

Whether you're in the off-season or your golf game is going strong, keep these exercises in mind to help you hone your skills!

About the Author:

Cindy Prosser approaches her golf game the same way she does shopping: by getting a leg up on her competition.  Cindy finds behind-the-scene ways to improve her golf stroke just as she finds behind-the-scene deals while shopping for mens tshirts at barenecessities. It's a stroke of genius, really.