10 Best Golf Exercises to Get You Ready for a Long Day on the Course
Whether you’re just getting into the swing (literally) of the game or playing in tournaments, you can benefit from making certain exercises a regular habit.
These ten golf exercises will not only help turn your bogeys into birdies but prevent injuries, and prep you for a long day out on the course. They help build strength, flexibility, and balance and are some of the best exercises for your golf swing.
These exercises have been chosen with female golfers in mind, from warm-up routines to casual stretches and, if looking good is important to you don’t worry, you won’t have to give up fashion for fitness. SwingDish has some of the best women’s golf apparel that is designed and crafted specially to move with your body, allowing you a full range of motion while you are performing on the course. Never feel like your choice is either uncomfortable good looks or comfortable sweats. With SwingDish you can play every round of golf (and, ultimately perform all of these exercises to maintain your physical fitness) with a wide range of movement, all while looking great.
1. Plank
A strong core goes hand-in-hand with being a great golfer, as it’s the muscles found in this area that help power your swing. The plank targets your abs, back, and butt, which make up your core, and a bonus is that the move strengthens your shoulders and arms as well. One tip to help prevent a neck injury, an ailment that affects golfers: look down at the floor while planking, not up. Keep your back straight without allowing your hips to dip and hold the position for as long as you can.
Some of the benefits to planking include improved posture (which is sure to help you in your golf game), increased balance and coordination (think you could use that when lining up a shot on an incline?), improved flexibility (make the most out of that swing), improved metabolism (so you’ll feel better out on the course), and improved overall mental health - which can help you in all walks of life.
Indeed, planking is remarkably beneficial for you, and not just for improving your pre-golf warm up routine.You’ll find that it translates to better overall health, better core strength, and all of the other things mentioned above which can’t help but improve the quality of your game.
2. Lunge
The classic lunge tightens up the hamstrings and lower body muscles which are important for executing a good golf swing. Do 15 to 20 reps per leg to reap the benefits.
After all, lunges are extremely beneficial to a woman’s warm up exercises for golf. As a unilateral lower body exercise in which you work on each side of your body independently, you’re able to achieve greater balance, coordination and stability. They’re also better than bilateral exercises in that they correct imbalances in your body to make it more symmetrical overall.
There are many different types of lunges and each one can be beneficial in its own way to your body’s golf exercise regimen. Stationary lunges strengthen the glutes, quads and hamstrings to give you better balance. Side lunges train your body to move side to side which can help you as you line up that shot and move through the motion of a swing. Walking lunges help with coordination, and we all know how important coordination is on the course. Twist lunges are the perfect lunges to help you as you prepare for your golf swing, and the curtsy lunge sculpts and strengthens your hip and quads to give you better posture, decreasing your risk of injury.
3. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Working the shoulder muscles can help prevent rotator cuff tears, a common golf injury. Use dumbbells that you can comfortably lift up over your head for 15 to 20 repetitions.
Overall, any kind of weight training for golfers is beneficial, especially any move that targets the back, shoulders, butt, and legs. Shoulder presses as part of a woman’s golf workout help to increase the strength of the shoulder muscles, the triceps, the trapezius muscles, as well as the core muscles - your obliques, transverse abdominals, lower back, and spine. These all help with standing up straight and keeping a great posture.
4. Elbow Conditioning
Golfer’s elbow is a common complaint among those that love the game. To keep it at bay, perform hand exercises by stretching your wrist back and forth. Then with a light weight (like the weight of a hammer), rotate your hand left to right. Then, with thumbs pointing upward and palms in, use a light weight to deviate the hand up and down. holding light weights (or soup cans) extended in front of you with your palms facing up. Slowly bend your arms, bringing the weights towards your shoulders.
Two sets of 15 reps are recommended for these exercises. Over time, you can gradually increase the weight.
5. Standing Hip Extension
In this classic move, you stand behind a chair and raise one leg up behind you and back down. Besides isolating your buttocks, this exercise also helps open up the hips, which is important for maintaining a good swing.
Lift each leg for 10 to 20 reps. For added resistance, hold the leg up for a few seconds before bringing it back down.
Hip extension exercises are important because they work out your glutes and your hamstrings, which are big players in your body when it comes to being able to get around a golf course, including going up and down hills, hitting off a slope, and getting yourself out of a bunker. Strong glutes lead to better pelvic alignment which is good for back support - something you’ll definitely need on the course - and strong hamstrings are important for walking on uneven ground.
6. Yoga
It’s not exactly your typical exercise, but the ancient practice of yoga is a golfer’s secret weapon as it increases flexibility, builds core strength, and improves concentration. Check out our beginner’s guide to yoga for golfers for basic poses that new yogis can try.
Among the benefits of yoga for golfers are the increase in overall flexibility (which will help you not only as you traverse the course but also in the consistency and strength of your swing), as well as improved body awareness and control, improved core strength and stability, better posture, less back pain, and a counteracting of the tension that comes from repeated spinal rotation.
On top of all that, yoga for golfers is an important part of a woman’s golf warmup because it teaches breathing control as well as mindfulness, which can lead to the ability to perform under pressure: to hit a perfect shot right when you need it, shutting out everything going on around you.
Some of the best yoga positions for a woman’s golf warmup are Wrist Stretch, Cowface Arms, Sphinx Pose, Downward Dog Twist, Lunge Twist with Quad Stretch, Pigeon Pose at the Wall, Reverse Tabletop with Figure 4 Legs, and Supine Twist.
7. Glute Bridge
The butt lifting glute bridge will build more oomph into your swing. Lie on your back with your arms at your sides, bend your knees, and lift your buttocks towards the ceiling.
The glute bridge works the lower back, the hamstrings, and the abs, as well as your glutes of course. Think of the glute bridge doing the same work as a squat, but without putting pressure on your lower back. Because of this, the glute bridge is a perfect exercise to replace the squat if you have back, hip or knee pain.
8. Side Lunge
This lower body exercise improves balance while also building strength throughout the legs including the inner thighs. Stand with your knees slightly bent, hands on hips, and head up and looking straight ahead while you take a step to the side with one leg. Bring it back and perform the move with the other leg.
9. Medicine Ball Rotational Throw
This maneuver mimics a golf swing as you rotate your torso in one direction before rotating it to the other and tossing the ball at the same time. You’ll want to perform this one near a wall to safely break the path of the ball.
10. Other Golf Exercises
Consider exercises that use resistance bands to work on your strength, balance, and flexibility. Pilates and barre classes can also supplement a golfer’s fitness regimen, as both offer moves that target the core and lower body muscles.
Don’t forget to apply heat after a hard workout. Applying heat carefully to muscles stimulates blood flow and eases tightness. Cover up with one of our signature jackets or pullovers on your way home from the gym or your class!
The best women’s golf apparel is not just apparel that is made for the course, but will also get you through your workout, and through the restful period after it as your body processes and heals. A sleeveless top with a comfortable short will help you through your exercise regimen, and of course the outerwear will get you to and from the gym in style, before you ever have to worry about getting on the course.
Because remember: a good game of golf is a game that is not only about your performance on your scorecard, but about how you feel when you’re on the course - the wind, the sun, the sprinkling rain or the smell of fresh-mown grass. Golf is an experience meant to be enjoyed and to be relished, and you can do that to the fullest in the best women’s golf apparel, at peak health.
For more tips on how to improve your golf game, see all of our posts on the SwingDish blog.
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