Golf Fitness Tip

As usual, I've spent a good bit of time in the last week browsing the other golf fitness sites online, as well as other fitness sites. One of the popular focal points of fitness training these days involves working your core. The core is essentially the mid to lower back, the abdominals and the muscles around the rib cage.

The primary importance of the core in the golf swing, and in other physical activities, is to provide stability to the spine. With that in mind, it is clearly an important group of muscles and all fitness trainers can agree with that.

What I disagree with is the importance of these particular muscles in the generation of power to your golf swing. I see quite a few exercises on these websites that involve some twisting motions in an effort to strengthen the core, with the idea that this will generate more power in your golf swing.

The problem is that these muscles are actually quite small compared to the bigger muscles in your legs and upper torso (chest, shoulders and upper back). Therefore, they play a very small role in the actual generation of power in your golf swing.

However, these trainers have a paid audience and want to show you an exercise you likely have not seen before. This is how they feel that they earn their money. Drawing you in with a "golf specific" exercise, which in the concept of the golf swing, does little to generate power.

If you have read my website and articles I have published to date, the most important exercises to generate power in your golf swing involve STRETCHING! In order to have a powerful golf swing, you must have the flexibility to make that full turn in your golf swing that allows you to swing with a wide arc. This will allow you to develop the centrifugal power in your swing that will allow you to hit those big tee shots.

After flexibility, the most important exercises for generating power in your swing will involve the legs. The legs are the platform for your golf swing, and involve the biggest and most powerful muscles of the body. And, after this, I would rank the core as the next most important group of muscles to exercise due solely to their importance in protecting your back.

As I've also stated on my website, you do not have to be a big, muscular person to hit the golf ball a long way. For example, take a look at Charles Howell III and his stats on PGATour.com. He stands 5'11 and weighs 155 pounds, yet his average driving distance on tour in 2008 was over 293 yards! So, not only is he not exceptionally tall, but he is not heavy, nor exceptionally strong. However, he has a big golf swing, and that is due to flexibility....you can see his swing on Youtube at the following link.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG66HlzdG2k


Anyhow, in order to work your core muscles, there are plenty of normal exercises that require no equipment and you can do at home. I've got a whole host of exercises you can learn at PowerGolfTraining.net. Check it out!

Scott Cole
www.powergolftraining.net