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Strength For Golf

By Diane Rochon

In the snowy sections of North America as winter begins to wane, there are those who eagerly await the opening of their favorite golf course. They reminisce about last year’s beauty shots and missed putts. These are people who sometimes can’t remember where they have placed their car keys, but can go into great detail about the exact direction of the wind and the lay of the green on their most infamous shot. These are true golf enthusiasts!

Golf enthusiasts pour over magazines, books and videos for any tip to improve their game. They drool over hints on anything – their grip, mental game or the clothes on their back. Oh and the clubs! Clubs may as well be miracle granting religious artifacts for the reverence paid them. Interestingly enough, the average recreational golfer, in all his/her research for that certain something to break 90, 80 or 100, either passes by or totally misses a key piece of information known by the pros. Exercise - cardiovascular endurance, stretching and strength training - improves anyone’s game.

I have met many a golfer who is afraid to step into a weight room to give strength training a try. You can’t blame them actually. It is easy to misunderstand the concept of strength training for golf when your mental picture of you on weights is your head on top of Mr. or Miss Olympia’s body. However, I’m not talking bodybuilding here. I’m talking about sport-specific conditioning for golf.

Sport-specific conditioning focuses on functional training of athletes (of whatever level) to meet the demands of their activity. Training a lineman for football is not the same as training a cross-country mountain biker. And mountain bike conditioning is not the same as preparing for the greens. Each sport has a different set of skill sets. A well designed golf-focused exercise program takes into account the demands of the game, helping the golfer achieve personal success.

For all you Tiger Woods “wannabes” out there, a good golf-conditioning program should focus on:

Scared you will need to spend hours in the gym? A now famous 1995 study led by Wayne Westcott, PhD showed that a modest general strengthening program could significantly improve golf performance. In the study, master golfers trained for 1 set of 8 – 12 reps on selected exercises (about 30 –40 minutes), 3 days per week, for 8 weeks.

The results of the study showed an increase club head speed by as much as 5 mph in these serious golfers (equates to approximately an extra 15 yards). What is particularly important is that during the time the subjects were participating in the study they did not practice their golf. A follow-up study by Westcott also found the same results.

My advice to golfers everywhere - by all means get the best instruction you can to develop your skills and purchase the right equipment for you. But, most importantly, back up the golf pro’s teachings and the fancy clubs with the most important tool you have to make your golf game great – your body.

About the Author:

Diana Rochon, BPE, CSCS, NCCP, IDEA Elite PFT is the Director of Dynamic Core Fitness in Whistler, BC, Canada. To learn more check out www.dynamiccorefitness.ca