Golf fitness ??

[Dogma]

I think there's probably two areas to potentially address fitness wise for us amateurs.

If you feel that you get tired easily after a few holes, then doing a spot of cardio will do you some good. Some light jogging a couple of times a week to get your heart rate going and you'll see an improvement in your fitness.

If you want to hit the ball further, then you're going to need to do some weight training I'm afraid.

I have been doing a modification of a programme called Stronglifts 5x5 over the last 3-4 years which focuses on lifts that work a lot of your core muscles in the body (squats, bench press, rows and deadlifts). I started this before I even got in to golf and my coach says my current ability to hit a golf ball far is aided by these exercises.

If you're really serious about your fitness, then you can also look in to flexibility training much like DJ, Justin Thomas, Rory does.

But hey, there's only so much time in the week for us amateurs juggling other life commitments!

 

[Roops]

I have always been a gym goer so generally have a fair state of fitness. Most of that time has been a mixture of cardio and strength training, when I started golf, I just continued as normal.

However, I noticed that when I started to do Yoga it made a lot more difference than general gym work. A lot of Yoga practice involves quite intense movements, many of these are based around the core and large muscle groups, if you do it right the next day you really know it. I have found this helpful for improving flexibilty, strength, injury prevention and recovery. Defo worth a try if you are looking to do somethign to assist your golf.

 

[PCWOX]

I have started doing a mixture of yoga and pilates in the last couple of months. I would echo the above, definitely helps with the golf.

 

[r0wly86]

The tiredness in the shoulders is just fatigue, if you haven't played in a while it is perfectly understandable that your shoulders are fatigued, a golf swing uses muscles that you don't normally use a lot day to day.

For people who run/cycle, you may have stopped for a while because of injury or something else, those first few outings afterwards leave you with extremely painful legs because they aren't used to the exercise. Fortunately the stamina will come back to you reasonably quickly if you keep playing.

So nothing to worry about if all you want to do is get back to where you were before you stopped.

If you want to get a bit fitter for golf which will of course help your golf and your recovery then there is some very good advice on here.

1. Warm up properly before you play of go to the range. A wide range of upper and lower body stretched, dynamic stretches not static stretching before you swing a club. Especially in the cold weather, swinging a club is a violent movement for the body if cold.

2. Cool down after you have played or practiced, and not just with a beer. Gently stretch, can be static this time. Full body, listen to your body and pay attention to places that are stiff or sore.

3. The best way to get over an injury is not to get injured. If you are feeling pain in a muscle or joint, and I mean pain not soreness from use, then look after your body by not putting any more stress on the area that is painful. Or you may cause a bigger injury to yourself.

4. Flexibility is the secret to longevity in any sport especially golf. It may not feel important when you are still relatively young, but putting in flexibility programmes into your life as early as possible the better as it will massively help you out later in life. Also flexibility will help your golf swing with your shoulder turn etc.

5. Core strength is far more important than big shoulders. The core is not just your stomach which some people seem to think for some reason, your core is your trunk: glutes, back, and anterior stomach wall. All power and control in every sport or movement comes through these muscles, a strong core is crucial to sport. Dogma is spot on though that compound lifting, deadlifts, benchpress, Olympic lifts etc will work your core as well as other muscles.

6. Strength will of course get you to hit the ball further. Resistance exercises are the best for this, can be weights or body weights it is totally up to you and what you have available. You do not want to build too much muscle to the point that it impinges on your flexibility, what we call muscle bound. You should be looking at slightly lower weights than the typical mass building programmes and higher reps. This will still build muscle and strength but also add in muscular endurance too.

7. Cardio is never thought of much in golf, but the fitter you are the more oxygen you are getting to your muscles which is important. Especially near the end of the round where you may be fatiguing. You don't need to start running 5 miles a day. Just gentle cardio like walking is a great way to start increasing cardio. The best way to increase cardio output is whatever way you enjoy and get's you doing it. Don't stick doing something you hate or you will start to resent exercise.

If you only have time to do one thing then yoga or pilates is brilliant for golf and life in general. It will improve your core strength, flexibility, increase your cardio and even strength to a lesser degree.

 

[User101]

Brilliant, thank you.

 

[Jacko_G]

2 bacon rolls and a pot of tea then onto the first tee.

Solid warm up.

 

[HankMarvin]

2 bacon rolls and a pot of tea then onto the first tee.

Solid warm up.

Sounds good but I much prefer a Lorne sausage and bacon doubler with brown sauce and a cup of tea.

 

[User101]

Sounds good but I much prefer a Lorne sausage and bacon doubler with brown sauce and a cup of tea.

I thought you'd be more of a croissant and cream tea type man.

 

[HankMarvin]

I thought you'd be more of a croissant and cream tea type man.

Only in the house

 

[patricks148]

I thought you'd be more of a croissant and cream tea type man.

I think he's more a sausage and meatballs type:rofl:

 

[Orikoru]

Starting to get into a bit of yoga and stretching to improve my core stability but thats about as far as I'm going

I keep meaning to get into yoga, but I haven't even done the most basic research to get started yet. My job involves sitting behind a desk all day so I lack some flexibility in hamstrings, etc, from sitting still all day. My general fitness should be fine enough for golf though as I play football several times a week and go to the gym on some of the other days.

 

[MadAdey]

Proper stretching and a warm up is what you need. I find when I rush to the course and play I feel more tired towards the end of the round than when I get there early, go through a proper stretching routine and hit some easy shots on the range. Go on youtube, there are plenty of videos showing good stretching routines for golf.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Assistant Pro at my place and his brother run fitness classes (in the function room) during the winter months.

I do a lot of energetic thinking

 

[ademac]

My fitness work isnt necessarily targeted towards golf as I just tend to keep myself in good shape.
I do yoga every day and that is somewhat targeted towards helping with my golf.

 

[Fish]

A brisk walk from the car park to the putting green, couple of swipes with the weapon then 18 holes of exercise to make way for a few pints and a ruby, I didn’t know it was supposed to be the other way around 🤔

 

[HankMarvin]

A brisk walk from the car park to the putting green, couple of swipes with the weapon then 18 holes of exercise to make way for a few pints and a ruby, I didn’t know it was supposed to be the other way around 🤔

That's why it's all going wrong. I thought you wanted to get that handicap down ?

 

[jpxpro]

last september i joined a gym who have a TPI trained specialist PT, each week they do a golf synergy class which is very good, i now take the exercises from that and do my own routine at gym 3 or 4 times a week, ive noticed big improvements in my flexiibilty and mobility my swing speed has increased and i feel better, i can now get round 18 holes without issue and dont feel need to drink 2 bottles of lucozade

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I keep meaning to get into yoga, but I haven't even done the most basic research to get started yet. My job involves sitting behind a desk all day so I lack some flexibility in hamstrings, etc, from sitting still all day. My general fitness should be fine enough for golf though as I play football several times a week and go to the gym on some of the other days.

I'm only just started and HID got me this for Christmas https://www.waterstones.com/book/yoga-for-golfers/katherine-roberts/9780071428705

Need to get into it more. Flicked through and done a couple of the basic exercises but need to be more rigid with my time when I get in from work and set aside 30-45 minutes to get into it properly

 

[User101]

Just joined the gym tonight online, I'm knackered just filling in the form :whoo:

 

[Jimaroid]

You not still out on the MTB Cabby?