The A-Z of Golfing Fitness (Part 1)

B is for back. Your back is one of the most used body parts in golf, whether it’s twisting to create a powerful, long drive, staying as still as possible on a crucial putt or just keeping your head held high on “one of those days”. Your back is working very hard! Because of this it is prone to injury. Protect your back by training your core stability muscles by using exercises like the ones in my post from 2 weeks ago.

C is for calves. The calves play an important role in the golf swing. They help to stabilise you whilst you make your swing. This could be from a flat lie or sloping lie, fairway or thick rough, grass or sand. Your calves also help provide power to your swing.

D is for deltoid. The deltoids are the muscles on the outside of the shoulders. They help to create a powerful and stable golf swing by pulling the arms through, stabilising the golf club through impact and slowing the club down on the follow through. They are the biggest of the shoulder muscles but not the only important ones! 

E is for exercise. Golf is a great form of exercise. By playing regularly you will enjoy the benefits of a 4-mile walk (whether you carry your bag or not is up to you). You will also help to develop your body’s ability to produce power.

F is for flexibility. Flexibility plays a big part in your ability to perform a good golf swing. If you have poor flexibility chances are your swing will be short, or you may gain length in your swing in other ways which may affect accuracy. Flexibility training has been important for professional golfers for many years.

G is for glutes. The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle in the body and it has two little brothers as well to back him up – gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. Being located on the butt cheeks, do they help a golf swing??? Of course they do! The gluteals are responsible for hip extension (moving your leg behind you). A freeze frame at impact would show the golfer almost on tiptoes using the glutes, quads and calves to add power to the swing.

H is for heart. Your heart will love you for playing golf, providing you are walking the course. The hilly, rough terrain 4-ish miles you walk round the golf course each time you play will increase your heart rate to around 60% (maybe higher for an untrained individual) of its maximum beats per minute. When you think about how long your last round took you, you can see you will be giving your heart a good workout.

I is for injury prevention. The most important role for any sports conditioning coach is to condition his or her athletes to be resilient against injuries common in their sport. The most common injuries that occur in golf are back pain, knee pain, shoulder pain and elbow pain. Joint pains often occur when the muscles which stabilise the joint are not strong enough. They can easily be strengthened with resistance training. Again, see my post 2 weeks ago for some back stabilisation exercises.

J is for joints. The joints in the body are the most susceptible areas to injury. Those joints are the ankles, knees, hips, back, elbows and shoulders. Injury is usually a result of weakened muscles whose job it is to stabilise these joints. Stability training will help to strengthen the stability muscles and reduce the risk of injury.

K is for keeping focused. Keeping focused for the length of time a round of golf takes requires a lot of mental discipline. Physical training can help you to stay focused to the task at hand.

L is for latissimus dorsi. The “lats” work hard throughout the swing. Firstly contracting eccentrically (elongating) in the backswing, then contracting concentrically (shortening) on the downswing. Because of the nature of the golf swing each lat works independently to the other. 

M is for muscles. There are around 600 muscles in the human body. In the golf swing we probably use most of these muscles in some form … from the big leg muscles providing the sold base and weight transfer to the many tiny muscles in the hands that are used to maintain a firm grip whilst swinging.

OK, that’s your lot for this week. Stop by next Thursday for neural pathways, rotator cuffs, X-factor and the rest of the alphabet of golfing fitness.