The golf swing is a complex movement pattern that involves virtually the entire body.
Years ago a number of studies were conducted to determine which muscle groups are most heavily involved in the golf swing.
The folks over at Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) have then expanded on these studies to break down what they feel are the most important muscles.
They’ve then built up some of their training protocols around those findings.
TPI suggests that the king of all muscle groups utilized in the golf swing are the Glutes, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius.
They suggest that the glutes play a significant role in maintaining lower body and core stability through the golf swing. I remember years ago when Tiger used to mention “firing his glutes” in the golf swing.
TPI also suggests that the muscles around your mid-section, such as your abdominals and your internal and external obliques, are the queen of the muscle groups used in the golf swing.
Other muscle groups identified as active in the golf swing include the calves, hamstrings, lower back, muscles of the chest (mainly the pectoralis major), the lats, and obviously the shoulders, forearms and the muscles in the hands.
As you can see, virtually every significant muscle group is engaged in the golf swing.
Exercise selection for the muscles used in the golf swing
What is interesting to me is the exercise selection suggested for training the king and queen muscle groups.
TPI offers four exercises for training the glutes… 2 leg bridge, 1 leg bridge, duck walks and side leg lifts.
For the abdominals and obliques, they offer four more exercises.
Here’s the issue… none of these exercises can be loaded with much weight, if any at all.
So, are they actually getting strong, or are they simply getting better conditioned?
I would argue for the latter.
Yes, if you haven’t done a particular exercise ever, or even in just a few weeks, you will feel sore, and that makes you think you will get strong.
Consider this… how long has it been since you did any pushups? Assuming you’ve done no bench pressing either, I can guarantee that if you do three sets of pushups to failure today, you will feel sore tomorrow.
If you keep doing them, you will get stronger. Eventually, however, it turns into a conditioning exercise and you will not get much stronger, no matter how many reps you can do.
Now, imagine what kind of a program they would offer to include all of the other muscles utilized in the golf swing as listed above?
Do you really need as many as four exercises per muscle group? Imagine how much time that would take to train your entire body.
I have news for you… you only need four or five exercises altogether to train all of the muscle groups engaged in the golf swing.
You guessed it… the squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press and just for good measure, chin ups.
By training these exercises, you strengthen every single muscle group that is used in the golf swing.
And, you will get far stronger training these exercises consistently compared to targeting each muscle group with exercises that use little to no weight.
The extra added benefit is that you will be better able to handle other activities away from golf.
Just as an example…
My wife recently traveled to Bologna, Italy for an Italian immersion class. Because she was to be there for two weeks, she was lugging around a big suitcase that probably weighed about fifty pounds.
When you travel by train there, your suitcase goes into an overhead compartment. She is petite and doesn’t do much training, so she needed help.
In one instance, a young man helped her easily.
In another instance, she received help from a man closer to her age (she is 61) and he clearly struggled she said.
Imagine other activities where strength is needed.
So, why train literally dozens of exercises to help with golf, when you only need a handful that will actually be more effective in making you strong and more functional for everyday life?
Legitimate strength training is the better choice.
Now, get to work!
