How to Incorporate Golf Fitness In Your Exercise Routine

Why Do I Need Golf Fitness?

As a golfer, you might be wondering about the importance of golf fitness in your exercise routine. Even though it can be a relaxing game, it still requires a lot of motion and mobility throughout each round. If you think about it, the golf swing is a very complex movement that challenges athletes in all planes of movement. Ensuring that you have proper mobility and range of motion throughout each of the planes is crucial to being successful on the golf course & can drastically improve your enjoyment of the game. Improving your movement along all three dimensions can also reduce your risk of injury. When looking to include a golf fitness related elements in your workout routine, try to include movements that take you through all three planes of movement. 

• Sagittal Plane
• Frontal Plane
• Transverse Plane

In order to best understand how to incorporate golf fitness in your exercise routine, let’s take a deeper look at what that means for each plane of movement.

Sagittal Plane

The sagittal plane divides the body in half vertically, into right and left sections.  Some common movements in this plane include:  

• Front step ups
• Tricep pushdowns
• Vertical jumps
• Forward lunges

Incorporating exercises like these that fall into the sagittal plane focus on improving your flexion and extension of your muscles. This will lead to increased strength, mobility, and movement through your golf swing.

Frontal Plane

The frontal plane divides the body into anterior and posterior sections. Movements or exercises that you could add to your routine in this plane include:  

• Side bends
• Side lunges
• Lateral raises

Incorporating exercises like these that focus on the frontal plane assist and strengthen your body’s side to side movements, which is critical to your golf swing.

Transverse Plane

Lastly and usually the most neglected plane of movement is the transverse plane.  The transverse plane divides the body into top and bottom sections and includes all rotational exercises.  A few examples of exercises in the transverse plane are:

• Russian twists
• Throwing
• Swinging a club

Incorporating exercises that focus on the transverse plane help toward improving your body’s rotation and motion in your joints, which are crucial for your golf game.

To really to take your golf game and fitness to a new level, doing exercises that involve more than one plane of motion (i.e. a combination of a front Lunge with a torso twist) will really prepare you for the demands of the game. If you are serious about taking your game to new levels, I would recommend getting assessed by a qualified golf fitness professional to determine what areas are holding you back and have a program put into place to address those areas specifically.  To find out more about SMART Golf & Fitness’ screening process, click here. If you are ready to take your game to the next level, contact our team today to get started.