What Women Golfers Want: Fitness That Works

After having a dormant golf game all winter thanks to the abundant snow, I'm starting to plan for the long-awaited spring. To get me ready to hit the golf course, I did some research on women’s golf fitness. Here is a great article with some really easy exercises you can start now to ensure you’ll be ready to hit the course in the coming months. Enjoy!
- Jen

Annika Sorenstam leads the field of women golfers who improve their games by becoming more fit. While you may not have access to the same trainers or time as Annika and the other pros, you can still get great fitness results with only a few simple exercises. Women golfers typically need more work in the area of upper body, wrist, ankles and hip area strength than their male counterparts.

Here are a few simple exercises that will greatly improve your game and don’t require a gym or trainer.

1) One of the best exercises for overall strength for golf is the typical pushup. A counter-top – incline – pushup works well also. You can do them with your elbows out for chest strength; then do them with your elbows rubbing your sides to work the triceps. Work up to 20 pushups. Golf benefit: Good for upper body strength and shoulder and spinal stability -- two of the most important factors for insuring proper swing plane control during the entire swing.

2) For more upper body strength, perform a Lat Press Down using your club. Get in address position on one leg. Drop 10 degrees more with a straight back. Extend out your opposite arm with your club on the floor for support. Press down on the club with your arm to raise your body to an erect position. Work up to 20 times with each arm while standing on the opposite leg. Golf benefit: This strengthens your lats which are the main upper body muscles that bring your arm around for your swing. The single leg address position stance builds spinal stability and strengthens the major muscles of your ankle, knees and hips.

3) For wrist strength, hold your club in one hand while standing on the opposite leg. Rotate your wrist to move your club left and right and back and forth like you are painting with it. Repeat 20 times each direction. Golf benefit: The stance works your spinal stability and ankles, knees and hips like the previous exercise. The wrist movements strengthen your wrists for better club face control at impact. It also strengthens your wrists in the event you hit a hard object (the ground, rock, root, etc.)

4) Finally, perform a Hip Flexor Stretch. Tight hip flexors are the root cause of a number of muscle imbalances, swing faults and back pain issues. To stretch, place your right foot on the first step of any stairway. Place your left foot three stairs up. Hold onto the railings if you need help to balance, drop your pelvis toward the steps between your feet with your back straight up or even extend it backwards if you can. Switch feet and repeat on the other side. (You can also switch sides as you attempt to walk up the stairs to get a good strengthening workout for your legs.) Perform 3 times on each side, once every day.Always follow any back extension (bending backwards like in the hip flexor stretch) with a forward bend or flexion. Stand and roll down so that your palms are on the floor with your knees bent, much like you would bend over to tie your shoes while standing. Keeping your palms on the floor, try to straighten your legs. This will stretch your back and hamstrings. Golf benefit: Improves posture, reduces back pressure, allows abdominals to tighten, allows back and gluts (your buttocks) to strengthen and hamstrings to release. This also improves your setup, golf posture, back endurance, range of motion for your legs and hips during backswing and your ability to stay in the proper swing plane throughout your entire swing.

Ladies, these are just a few of the many “no special equipment needed” and “do anywhere” exercises that you can perform to build a stronger and more flexible body to improve your golf game. You can easily incorporate the pushups and hip flexor stretches into your daily routine whenever you are near a countertop (I do mine in the bathroom or kitchen) and a stairway (when I go to an upper floor in an office or at home). Here’s to a better you and a better game! Article By: Alan Smith
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