How to Integrate Weight Training Properly into Your Golf Exercise Program

Are you too confused about weight training for golf?

There are many opinions in the golf world on whether weight training is beneficial or counter-productive to the golf swing.

On the PGA Tour it is a well-known fact that the majority of professional golfers are implementing golf fitness exercises into their training regimen. The goal of such golf fitness exercises is to improve their play on the golf course.

First and foremost, as a professional strength and conditioning coach on the PGA Tour, I see the benefits of a golf specific exercise program are well documented.

The confusion for most amateur golfers probably centers around what specific training modalities and exercises should they include in their golf fitness programs and what are the professional golfers doing.

I get a lot of questions on how are the professional golfers programs set-up, what specific exercises do they incorporate in their programs, and are the exercises in such programs similar to those found in local health clubs. A lot of people ask me if they should include actual dumbbell and barbell exercises into their golf exercise program.

The goal of this article is to provide you information on what the components, modalities, and exercises that compromise a good golf fitness program.

I will also provide you with a breakdown and sequence of a good golf fitness program.

First and foremost, I need to define a few terms to help you create an understanding of the basic goals of a golf fitness program. The main goal of a golf fitness program should be to improve your golf game through the development of your physical body. In order for you to meet this goal, the golf exercises within your program must develop the body relative to the golf swing.

At this point, I must explain a few things about the biomechanics of the golf swing. The golf swing is a total body athletic activity. Meaning the entire body is utilized to swing the golf club. Just as in baseball, you do not throw with only you’re your, but rather your entire body. The same is true of the golf swing; you swing the golf club with your entire body. This in the world of strength and conditioning is defined as an “integrated total body athletic action”.

The golf swing is easily defined as an athletic action incorporating the entire body to execute. Knowing this point, a golf fitness program must incorporate exercises for the entire body. A term we like to call “integration”. Integration is the utilization of exercises that incorporate the entire body. For example, the golf swing incorporates a rotational movement of the core (abdominals, lower back, hips, and obliques). An integrated golf specific exercise incorporating all these muscles would be a physio-ball Russian Twist in which all these muscles are working in a rotational pattern.