Sensible Fitness: Exercises That Will Tee You off
Read on for simple conditioning exercises that can improve your golf game, reduce your risk of injury and take inches off your figure. 

Question:
What would be good exercises to improve my golf game?
-Annette

Answer:
While many people chase the latest technology in a driver or golf ball, one of the biggest factors in a longer game is passing by. The latest technology can impact distance, but no matter what club or ball you own, an increased club head speed is guaranteed to give you greatly increased distance. With a golf-specific, strength-training program, you're guaranteed gaining an increased club head speed, while you'll ensure losing two things: strokes off your game and inches off your figure.

The key to a successful golf fitness program is identifying the muscles involved and then targeting these muscles in a manner that simulates the motion seen at the specific joint in your body. Unfortunately, this isn't something you can throw together yourself as a considerable knowledge of kinesiology is needed to get it right. For example, diagonal horizontal adduction from a superior to inferior position is seen in the trailing shoulder on the downswing, so a declined bench press would be a great choice for your chest muscles. But the leading shoulder is going through a totally different motion, which requires different exercises to include in your program.

In order to know the muscles that are involved in a golf swing, you have to breakdown the motion, joint by joint, of the backswing and downswing. I have included a video link, at the end of this article, that details the most active muscles based on EMG analysis, which are surface electrodes that detect muscular activity.

I would never leave you hanging with all of this technical talk without giving you a great exercise to include in your golf fitness program. A very specific exercise for your obliques, is kneeling trunk rotation using rubber tubing. This can be done easily at your home or gym. I have also included a link to this exercise, featuring a Sensible Fitness Personal Training client who is a tennis player, who demands strength in the same muscles. This exercise is not only great for golfers and tennis players but for many other female athletes using trunk rotation, including softball and volleyball players.

The best part of any sport specific program is that it has the additional benefits of accentuating your figure with toned and shapely muscles, not to mention the psychological benefits of increased confidence and self-esteem that exercising brings in general. If looking great, feeling great and living healthier is not enough to get in you in the gym, I hope an additional 20 yards on your drive might do it!

Click here, or on the play button below, for an analysis of a typical golf swing.

Click here, or on the play button below, for an example of a golf-specific exercise.

Doug Gibson
		About the author:
		Doug Gibson is a columnist for Cincy Chic and President of Sensible Fitness Personal Training Center in Blue Ash, Ohio, which specializes in women’s fitness programs. E-mail him at doug@sensiblefitness.com.
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Last update: 05-08-2008 08:11

Published in : Magazine Items, Health