Get Fit for Golf Season: Don't Neglect These Tips
The annual ritual of the start of golf season is coming up fast. If you want to have a better season than last year (fingers crossed!), then here are some tips for preparing in advance. And I am not simply talking about getting your golf shoes out of the garage to clean them off. Rather, you need to prepare your body itself for golfing.
You might thing that playing golf itself is enough to qualify for your fitness goals. Certainly there are some moderate benefits, but even more important is preparing your body for the new golf season after a winter of too much sitting around.
And for those who ride the course in a cart rather than walking, and then pack away a couple of cold drinks after the round, the fitness element can be almost non-existent. If your body is capable, I encourage you to save the money and global-warming contributing emissions from your golf cart usage, and take to the fairways by foot this year.
But before the season starts, there are several ways to prepare your body for the rigors ahead. The goal is to get you ready to handle the lengthy time standing and walking on the course, and to gently build muscles that are used frequently in golf.
So we are looking at stamina and aerobic exercise to prepare for the lengthy golf course, and flexibility and key muscular training for longer drives, more accurate swings, and general mid-body strength. None of this involves the heavy weight lifting that body builders do. Rather, the key is to gently strengthen the muscles worked repeatedly in the asymmetrical, repetitive game of golf.
Lower back muscles, rotational flexibility, shoulder strength, and hip flexibility all contribute to the golfer's unique swing. You also want to avoid spasms in leg or back muscles after walking a long distance. This is especially true for those of us who are stuck in office chairs all winter long.
You can do many exercises at home, or during your lunch break at work, and for the most part, you don't need to get all sweaty doing so. When golfing, your torso rotational power depends on the muscle groups in the lower back, abdominals, thighs, buttocks, and hips, so start by doing some stretching of those areas. Then move on to strength training, still concentrating on the core areas--your power zone.
The muscles, ligaments, and bones of the core area are those between your chest and knees. There are thousands of various exercises that can help you target those areas, but some of the more common ones include gentle trunk rotations, abdominal crunches, gentle torso twists, side rotations using resistance, hamstring stretches, and cat arches and hunches for the lower back.
Be sure to start slowly if you have led a sedentary existence during the winter months. The risk is that you may injure a core muscle, and your golf season would be pushed back by several weeks. Take a few minutes to warm up before each strength building session, using whatever aerobic method you prefer such as a treadmill, elliptical trainer, or stair climber.
The key is to start early in the spring. I will provide some specific exercises in my next article, but don't delay starting until a few days before your first tee-off! Try some of these things in an easy, short, daily effort, long before the first game of the year, and your torso strength and stamina will be much enhanced. Your body will thank you right up until the final hole of the round.
About the author. Morgan Fobbs loves helping people improve their golf game and is a golf guru. To get more hot tips and a genuinely free copy of a shocking golf secret, click the link now to change your golf world view.
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