Revamp Your Golf Swing with These 5 Easy Moves

If you want to get a more powerful swing to dominate this season, our trainers are here to help! These 5 easy exercises are trainer-approved and will help you learn how to efficiently, effectively, and correctly train your body to perform better on the golf course (and in your day-to-day activities!)

Remember, these moves should be completed after a warm-up or stretching session and should be done with a safe amount of weight to avoid injury.

Keep reading or watch the video below as O2 Personal Trainer Ben Payne from O2 Fitness Friendly Center in Greensboro walks you through how to perform each exercise and the ways each move helps improve your swing's strength, power, and accuracy!

1. Palloff Press

When you swing, the rotation from your legs moves quickly up your body to twist your pelvis, but the speed from your hip rotation decreases rapidly as it moves up toward the trunk of your body. This move will train your core to continue the speed and the strength from your legs and hip rotation up through your core to your arms, resulting in a faster, stronger impact of the club head on the ball.

How to do a Palloff Press:

1. Anchor a resistance band to a wall or a bar. Be sure to pick a resistance band that is challenging but allows you to maintain proper form.
2. Hold the band in the center of your chest and press it out directly in front of you.
3. Brace your core and keep your hips straight forward as you rotate the side.
4. Continue to brace your core and maintain proper form to do a slow and controlled rotation back to the center.

TIP: This move can be done just as a press for those with limited mobility. This exercise can be easily done on a cable machine at O2!

2. Kneeling Wood Chop

This exercise works to strengthen your core and obliques by activating the muscles used when rotating your torso during your swing. The control required from your core to complete this exercise helps you practice and improve your weight transfer and tempo for a more powerful golf swing. Good weight transfer is crucial to maintaining a strong, stable stance during your swing. Having poor weight transfer affects your ability to make powerful contact with the ball, hit straight, and stay balanced during your swing.

This move will strengthen your core, help you get a more powerful swing, and effectively work out your back, shoulders, and glutes simultaneously. Talk about a triple threat!

How to do a Kneeling Woodchop:

1. Find a half lunge position with about a foot of space between your heel and knee.
2. Grab a medicine ball or dumbbell. Brace your core and find a balanced stance.
3. Bring the weight up to a full extension crossing the body.
4. In one slow, controlled movement, ease the ball back down.

TIP: To make this movement more challenging, raise your back knee off the ground and continue the movement in a standing lunge. This exercise can also be done on the cable machine or in reverse. Always pick a weight that is challenging but allows you to maintain proper form!

3. Kettlebell Bottoms Up (External Rotation)

You may be familiar with using a kettlebell, but using one bottoms-up is a whole other beast. By simply holding the weight up, you're forced to practice posture control and proper spine alignment to keep the weight up without failure. Centering your body and mind on the movement is the only way to see success with this move. Practicing mental focus and body awareness on and off the course is a great way to step up your golf game!

The most common injuries for golfers are in the shoulders and the lower back. This move works to effectively strengthen your shoulders while improving your shoulder mobility to not only give you a stronger swing but a lower risk of injury. Improving your shoulder mobility will help you avoid the tension that causes your weight to shift backward and throws off your swing, which will result in an explosive hit that's sure to go far and leave your shoulders intact.

How to do a Kettlebell Rotation (Bottoms Up):

1. Grab a kettlebell at the handle and bring your arm up to a 90-degree angle.
2. Rotate your body by keeping your hips and shoulders in line with each other, but without moving your elbow.
3. Rotate back in when you have reached a full shoulder extension.

TIP: Keep your core braced and avoid arching your back as you complete a rotation. Remember not to move your elbow up, down, or with you as you rotate.

4. Wall Angel Stretch

The Wall Angel stretch is the best move for improving your shoulder mobility! When your shoulders become weak or too tight, it becomes more and more difficult to maintain the posture necessary for a powerful and accurate swing. This stretch is a good way to reset your body and remind you of what a good upright posture feels like.

So if you find yourself experiencing difficulties when performing the stretch, you'll want to explore more exercises to loosen and strengthen your shoulders to help improve your golf swing!

How to do a Wall Angel Stretch:

1. Stand against a wall and press your heels, butt, and upper back flat against the wall.
2. Hold your arms up with your elbows and thumbs touching the wall.
3. Keeping your core tight, extend your arms without letting your position against the wall change.
4. Bring your arms back down slowly.

TIP: If you're having difficulties maintaining a neutral spine, try lying face-up on the ground instead of standing against a wall to prevent your back from arching. You can also practice this stretch one arm at a time and reap the same benefits!

5. Thoracic Rotation

Thoracic mobility helps avoid stiffness and pain while allowing you to put more power and rotation into your swing. The thoracic region of your spine is one of the few mobile joints that rotate as you swing. If your mobility is limited, you will encounter a break in the flow of your swing that limits its power and accuracy. This stretch is a great way to stay loose and mobile for the most powerful swing possible!

How to do a Thoracic Rotation:

1. Get on all fours and place a ball on the outside of your arms.
2. Take the backside of your hand and place it on top of the ball.
3. Push your arm until you reach a full rotation and feel a stretch in your lower back.
4. When you cannot stretch any further, return to the center and repeat the movement.

TIP: Brace your core and stabilize your body while doing this rotation. Avoid twisting from your hips or letting your hips fall to the side while you rotate.

Before you hit the greens...

Back, shoulder, and core-focused exercises are a great way to improve your golf swing quickly! These 5 easy exercises are focused on building the strength and mobility that you need to get a more powerful and accurate golf swing. If you're ready to beat the competition this season, contact our personal training team for additional tips that can improve your game!