How do you best use your exercise program to help your golf game? (From Coach George Antonio)

This article is a guest contribution from George Antonio, a new coach at Extension Fitness.

George has been a personal trainer for 15 plus years.

He holds a Certificate 4 in Fitness and also a qualification with the Titleist Performance Institute, which means he specialises in golf mobility and strength training.

He is known for keeping middle age and older adults ‘flushing it on the course’ while staying pain free!

How do you best use your exercise program to help your golf game?

Let’s start with this fact:

- Our body’s limitations will lead to technique compensations when we swing the golf club.

If your body is limited in certain moments then your golf swing technique will be flawed.

For example if your glute medius (outer hip muscle) is weak on either side of your body then you will ‘slide’ during your golf swing instead of rotating completely. This throws your technique out of whack and will generally make it very hard to achieve the desired result of the golf shot.

This same limitation will also cause the rest of the body to compensate in a way it is not designed to do.

Which leads to my second fact:

- Our body’s limitations will lead to injuries when we swing the golf club. 

I will use golfers elbow as my example.

If your wrist is restricted and your shoulder muscles are inflexible, the joint in the middle, the elbow, will feel the pain and take an impact it is not designed for. 

This is because the golf swing best functions with a mobile / stable (strong) pattern.

Explaining this simply:

- The wrist needs to be mobile;

- The next joint in the chain (the elbow) needs to be stable;

- And then the next joint in the chain is the shoulder which needs to be mobile.

This pattern goes through the whole body not just our arms.

Finally the third fact I would like to address: The golf swing will cause imbalances in our body that must be balanced out in the gym.

The golf swing is a single sided movement. We swing the club in a right sided or left sided stance. This repetitive movement on one side of the body clearly causes imbalances. These imbalances show up in the tightness we feel over time. 

The tightness is the body saying I am restricted and if ignored will only lead to more tightness. The end result will be a short golf swing or the body will perform compensations to keep a normal length swing.

Either of these results place too much stress on joints and ligaments. 

I always prescribe golfers to perform standing rotational exercises on the opposite side of their body. For example a right handed golfer would focus on exercises that rotate from left to right.

The great thing is that the once we start this drill, an instant (yet temporary) change in flexibility can be achieved. The golfer gets a better sense of what "normal" feels like. Then, over time, greater strength, flexibility and symmetry in the spine can be achieved.

The benefits extend beyond the golf course. Golf specific programs develop a body not only suitable for the golf course but also everyday life. They work on all things from hip hinging, rotational strength and thoracic mobility (upper back). 

As an example, gaining flexibility and strength through your back for the sake of your golf swing will help you last longer shovelling sand or chopping wood, and reduce the likelihood that you strain your back or get really sore from doing that sort of thing.

All programs also include 10 minutes home based warm up routine to complete before you play.