Top 6 Best Video Exercises to Build Your Strength for Golf

Greater Turn, Greater Power, Greater Distance

Taking the time to twist, stretch, and strengthen your body has an untold number of benefits to your overall health and well-being - but you're not here for that. You want to learn how to strategically build strength in certain areas to smash those soaring, monster shots.

While weight lifting does have its benefits, exercises that actually help you hit the ball higher and further focus on the following aspects:

• Builds abdominal and core strength to support the muscles along the spine

• Develops a strong, athletic posture

• Cultivates a mobile upper body over a stable lower body

By focusing on the core, wrists, shoulders, and legs with the exercises in this guide, you'll be able to hit all of those points to improve your rotation and therefore increase how much power and distance you get on your swing.

Exercises in This Guide

• Locust Pose
• Roll Down Exercise
• Reverse Warrior w/ Golf Club
• Full Body Planks
• Oblique Twists w/ Golf Club
• Boat Pose

Locust Pose

We know that core strength is important for golf; a misconception though is thinking that the core equals the abdominal muscles alone.

When thinking about the core, we want to think about the muscles that encompass the entire torso. So yes, that does include the abdominals, but it includes the back muscles as well.

Try this exercise to strengthen the muscles that support your spine, helping give you an overall improved posture and a stronger core.

1. Come all the way down onto your belly, extending your legs long behind you, take your feet a little bit wider than your hips
2. Extend your arms in front of you
   
3. Lower your gaze to the floor so the back of your neck stays long, think about drawing your belly button towards your spine
   
4. Step one is to alternate legs - So as you start to inhale, lift your right arm and your left leg, exhale to release
   
5. Switch sides, inhale life the left arm and the right leg, exhale release
   
6. Continue to switch, changing sides, working the entire posterior chain, reaching actively in opposite directions
   
7. If you feel good here and you want to take it one step further, as you inhale, lift both arms and both legs, continuing to reach, and then release
   

Roll Down Exercise

Abdominal strength is critical for developing a strong athletic posture, and can also determine how much power and distance you get on your swing.

A roll down exercise can help strengthen the core muscles while also mobilizing the spine

1. Come to a seated position and grab a golf club
2. Sitting up tall, making sure you're sitting evenly on your sit bones, right beneath the hips
   
3. Hold the club out in front of you, hands are a little bit wider than the shoulders, and plug the shoulders back into their sockets
   
4. From here, tuck your tailbone under, scoop the belly, start to roll down
   
5. Pause about halfway and keep your feet on the floor
   
6. Use your core muscles to lift yourself back up and lengthen your spine
   
7. If you feel any lower back pain, pause once you start to feel the pain, back out of it, and that’s your limit
   
8. Repeat this process 4-5 times
   

Reverse Warrior with Golf Club

In order to maximize distance in your swing, you need to cultivate a mobile upper body over a stable lower body.

Try this Warrior Two variation to help build strength in the lower body while stretching and strengthening the upper body.

1. With your golf club handy we’ll step into a Warrior Two stance
2. Have your right foot forward, left foot back, right toes are facing away from you, left toes are facing forward
   
3. Bend into the right knee making sure the knee is in line with the toes, making sure also that your knee is pressing toward  the outer edge of the foot
   
4. If you feel like, or notice, that the knee is collapsing inward, actively press it out or adjust the position of the toes
   
5. From here, take your club out in front of you a little bit wider than the shoulders
   
6. Reach the club overhead and lift up through the right arm like you’re pressing the club away from you, lengthening through the right side of the waist
   
7. Try not to completely collapse into the left waist, rather keep it lengthened, opening up through the right ribs, and breathe
   
8. Come back up to center, lower the club down, repeat
   
9. Repeat this process on the other side
   

Full Body Planks

Planks are an incredible full body workout to help you build strength in the core and the upper body. They also build stability in the wrists and the shoulders, two common areas of injury for golfers.

Try these plank variations to build strength along the entire body, improve your posture, and increase your distance.

1. We’ll start by coming into a classic high plank
2. Shoulders are stacked over the wrists, fingers are spread wide and ground down through all ten knuckles
   
3. Step your feet back making sure that your hips are in line with your torso. You’re not lifting them up, you're not dipping them down. Keep them in line, core drawn in
   
4. While you're here, keep your head in line with your spine as the crown of your head reaches forward and your heels are spiking back
   
5. If this is too much on the wrists, drop down onto your forearms, bringing your elbows down to where your palms just were
   
6. In this position, make sure that your forearms stay parallel. If they start to go out to the side, you may sink down and risk shoulder injury - so keep the shoulders right over the elbows
   
7. You can always drop down to the knees and the forearms or on your hands
   

Oblique Twists with Golf Club

When turning in your golf swing, the oblique muscles, or the abdominal muscles that run alongside the waist, play a major role in determining how much rotation you get, and therefore how much distance you create.

A roll down exercise with an oblique twist can help strengthen the oblique muscles, translating to greater turn, greater power, and greater distance.

1. Come into a seated position, grab your golf club, and hold it out in front of you. Hands are a little bit wider than the shoulders, feet are hip-width apart
2. Start to scoop your belly, round your spine, pause about halfway down
   
3. If you’re experiencing any lower back discomfort, just sit up a little taller
   
4. From here, dip the club to one side, squeezing the muscles in the waist, the oblique muscles
   
5. Come back through center
   
6. Take it to the other side
   
7. Return to center
   
8. Use your core strength to pull you up and sit up tall
   
9. Repeat and try to keep your heels on the ground throughout
   

Boat Pose

Developing a strong and stable core can not only help support the muscles along the spine, but it can also improve your posture and help you hit the ball further.

Try this exercise to challenge your core strength.

1. Start in a seated position with your feet in front of you, hip width apart
2. Bring your hands behind your shoulders
   
3. If your wrists feel healthy today, you can have your fingertips facing your body Otherwise, turn your hands out or behind you
   
4. Draw your core in, sit up tall, think about reaching your heart forward
   
5. From here, step one is to just lift one leg at a time using your core muscles to lift the leg up and keeping your spine long
   
6. If you want to add on from here, you can lift both legs up
   
7. As soon as you start to notice the spine round, reset, lengthen up
   
8. From here, you can bring your hands behind your legs, being mindful not to grip your legs but to just use it as balance
   
9. Lift your heart up and hold
   
10. To add on from here, take the arms away from the legs and hold
    
11. To take it even further, you can lengthen the legs away from you
    
12. If you start to feel this a little too much in your hip flexors, bend the knees and bring it back down
    

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