The golf season has started again. Golf is a sport that has become popular as never before, and not without a reason. The sport combines experiences in nature, relaxation, fresh air and exercises in competing with yourself and controlling your body for the perfection of the golf swing. Everybody can join in and as one of the few sports, in golf everybody can play against each other.
However, golf swings are characterised by one-sided moving patterns, since the golf swing is always performed to the same side, which often results in imbalance in your body both as regards strength and flexibility. Eventually, this can cause unnecessary pain and sick days at your job.

Unfortunately, many golf players only prioritise the exercise on the golf course and forget about the basic exercise, which enables the body to handle the strain that a golf swing actually causes. They forget about the exercise that provides balance in strength, flexibility etc. In worst case, this can result in injuries from excessive load or acute injuries that force you to stop golfing for a while, or burden you with pain and discomfort after every practice. The strain of the spine in the stooped position of the golf swing is incredibly great. When further rotation in the swing is added, the strain of the spine becomes very big. This results in a large number of golf players having back and shoulder problems in the longer run.
This is why: The better you prepare your body for the swings, the better you become at the actual golf game – also as regards your basic exercise without the golf clubs.

”A perfect golf swing is tantamount to an optimum teamwork between flexibility, stability, co-ordination, balance and strength in all joints and muscles of the body, at any given time in the golf swing” (quote Tomas Pilsborg – basic golf coach)

Which are the physical demands for a golf swing?

• Normal mobility in legs, back and arms. Many people have a reduced mobility due to the fact that we sit still a lot every day.
• The ability of being stable in all joints that are involved in the golf swing (more or less in every joint of the body)
• The ability of transferring your weight from one leg to another with optimum balance.
• Strength, especially explosive strength.
• Endurance, not to become tired in the muscles after having walked only half of the course. You should be able to drive as far on the 18th hole as on the first.

The most common golf injuries

• Golfer’s elbow (inflammation in tendons around the elbow).
• Reduced mobility due to excessive load (muscles and joints become stiff and have difficulties in moving) Reduced mobility = reduced force in the golf swing.
• Tendovaginitis in forearm
• Reduced stability in joints due to lack of mobility in other joints. If some joints are to stiff, the other joints would have to move correspondingly more = too great mobility in these joints = instability = great risk of injuries.
• Pain in shoulder, often due to reduced rotation in the spine. Therefore, shoulder joints must be very flexible to complete the swing.
• Neck pain, caused by reduced mobility and stability.

To have a good start, be prepared from home and continue to perform the exercises throughout the entire season. The exercises indicated below are meant as a start; after 4-6 weeks, you must do other exercises in order to continue developing yourself. In that connection, we recommend you to contact a coach specialised in basic golf training whom can instruct you in relation to the new exercises.

Goodmornings (for legs and back)

Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Pull abdomen in and straighten your back completely. Bend slightly in your knees. Lean upper part of the body forwards, while keeping your legs completely stiff. Lean forwards as far as you can while keeping back straight. When your back starts to bend, stretch your knees again. If necessary, take a barbell on your neck or a dumbbell in your hand to increase the load. Repeat the exercise 2-3 times with 10-15 repetitions.

Leg bending exercise (for legs and buttocks)

Stand with your legs slightly apart and with feet pointing to the side. Straighten you back and pull abdomen in. Place your hands behind your neck and press elbows backwards. Bend your knees as far down as you can while still keeping the back completely straight. As soon as your back begins to bend, stretch your knees out again. If necessary, take a barbell on your neck or a dumbbell in your hand to increase the load. Repeat the exercise 2-3 times with 10-15 repetitions.

Reverse woodchop (for abdomen, back, hips and shoulders)

Stand with your legs rather apart and place an elastic band around one foot. Grasp the ends of the elastic band with your hands. Pull your abdomen in and stretch your back completely. Pull the elastic band diagonally against your body and lift your arm above the head. Lower down to initial position. Look straight ahead during the entire exercise. Repeat the exercise 2-3 times with 10-15 repetitions to each side.

Bent-over row

Hold a dumbbell or the similar in your hands. Stand with feet shoulder distance apart. Pull abdomen in and bend slightly in your knees. Lean upper part of the body forwards and keep your back completely straight. Let your arms hang downwards towards the floor, where after you pull elbows up towards the ceiling and think of bringing shoulders together. Lower down to initial position and repeat the exercise 2-3 times with 8-12 repetitions. It is of great importance to pull abdomen in during the entire exercise.

Warming up and stretching out

Warm-up is always important, regardless of the type of sport and exercise that you choose. A warm-up must always be specifically aimed at the sport that you are about to perform, in order to prepare the body to the activity it is about to perform. For this reason, you cannot settle with a run and then walk directly to the tee, even though your body feels warm. Golf stipulates great demands to the mobility of shoulders, spine and hips, why these must be taken into account during the warm-up.

Hip rotation

Stand with your legs shoulder distance apart and place your hands just above the pockets of your trousers. Rotate your hips in circles that become greater and greater. Repeat the exercise 12-15 times and rotate the other way around for 12-15 times. The exercise warms up and flexes the muscles around your pelvis and hips, which are very strained from every swing that you perform.

Weight transfer

Stand with legs shoulder distance apart, and place your hands just above the pockets of your trousers. Transfer the body weight to one leg, so the opposite knee falls slightly down and inwards. Repeat the exercise from side to side. The exercise flexes the joints in the lower part of the body and helps with the rotation of your swings.

Weight transfer and rotation of upper part of the body

Stand with legs shoulder distance apart and stretch your arm in front of you. Pull navel in slightly towards the spine to stabilise around your spine. Move your right hand to the right side, still in shoulder height. Move your left arm to the right arm while the weight is transferred to the right leg (just like the previous exercise). Move left arm to the left side, move your right arm along and transfer the weight to the left leg. Look slightly downwards during the entire exercise, as if you are looking after the golf ball. Perform the exercise faster and faster.

A golf swing is a rotation. The movement that occurs every time you perform a swing is a rotation of the spine, the hips and shoulders, regardless of which type of swing you perform. If there are locations where your flexibility in the rotation movement is bad, it will be reflected in your swing with the golf club and your technique becomes poor. In the long run, you can experience strain injuries, in shape of pain in your shoulder joint or muscles around the joint, above the lower back, in the neck or hips. This is why, it is of great importance to maintain the muscles flexible that have an impact on your rotations.

If your muscles in your pelvis area are not flexible enough, you must compensate for the reduced flexibility by placing strain on the spine or shoulder for performing a proper swing. If you continue in this way for a longer period of time, you risk getting pain in for example shoulder or lower back. However, the injury occurred because you are not flexible enough in a completely different place.

90/90 Hip Stretch

Sit on the floor with both legs bent to 90 degrees. Place hands against the floor and lean forwards as far as you can. Hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds and repeat the exercise with the other leg in front. The exercise increases the flexibility in hips, around the pelvis and in the lower part of your back.

Rear thighs

Stand with one leg slightly in front of the other and straighten your back completely. Lean forwards over the front leg and don’t stop until you can feel that your back starts to bend. Repeat the exercise to the opposite side. The exercise increases flexibility in the lower part of your body and around your hips.

Shoulder stretch

Stand with the back against a door (or similar), where there is something to grab with your hand. Grab the handle behind your back and lean your body against the door. Pull the handle down with your hand, and feel the stretch in your shoulder. Hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds and repeat the exercise to the other side.

Warm-up – is it worth your while to skip it?

The best drive is tantamount to an optimum teamwork between flexibility, stability, co-ordination, balance and strength in all joints and muscles of the body, at any given time in the golf swing. However, a lot can go wrong if the body is not ready to fine-adjust, co-ordinate, develop force and if every muscles, joints and ligaments must co-operate. Just like in other sports, the body needs to be warmed up and the warm-up must be specific in relation to the sport that you are about to perform. Just like you don’t run to warm up for swimming, it is not sufficient to walk to the tee and expect the body to be ready for fight. The golf game stipulates great demands to the mobility of your shoulders, spine and hips, why it is important to warm these muscle groups up thoroughly.

And then we have the stretching exercises…

In this category, there is also a tradition of skipping and walking directly to the 19th hole. This is as well a bad investment, if you want to improve your handicap and avoid injuries. Stretching exercises do not make your muscles less sore, but elongation provide you with more flexible muscles and flexibility is what it takes to perform the perfect swing. A body that sits down or stands up for several hours every day, is likely to have reduced mobility in many of the body’s joints and muscles, especially around the spine, pelvis and shoulders. It is recommendable to always stretching exercises after a day on the golf course!