Why not start adding strength training to your weekly routine? This may reduce your risk of a golf injury and could well add some yards to your drive.

Does this story resonate with you?

I see a familiar pattern from golfers when they see me in the clinic with a golf injury. They have gone from playing golf once per week to multiple times per week after they retire.

This sudden increase in the time spent on the golf course results in a significant increase in their weekly step count. In addition, the number of times they swing their golf club rises, especially if they throw in a couple of driving range sessions.

Whilst the majority of people can cope with this sudden change, some of my patients have reacted badly. An area of their body has become sensitised and painfull. The common sites of a golf injury are in the knees, back, shoulders or elbows.

Read my post on Load Tolerance, to find out why a sudden increase can result in pain.

Should you rest a golf injury?

How you react to your painful and sensitised knee/elbow/back can determine how much time you will be able to spend on the course over the coming months.

Most people will get away with doing what comes naturally. They rest for a few days/weeks until the area stops hurting and return to golf without an issue.

However, rest also allows your muscles to decondition. This can result in you:

• Becoming dependant on a buggy.
• Being limited to 9 holes.
• Requiring a new gadget to pick your ball out the hole.
• Watching your handicap rise.
• Becoming generally frustrated with the game altogether.

The golfing retirement you planned starts to look nothing like you envisioned.

Act now to reduce your risk of a golf injury!

I generally don’t like using scaremongering to get my point across. As said above, most people will get away with not doing anything else but playing golf as their form of exercise and activity.

But many don’t and they end up following the pattern above. So I would argue, ‘Why would you take the risk?‘ Add another form of exercise to your weekly routine.

Golf has some amazing health benefits. Just take a look at the image below.

Now let’s take a look at the recommended activity guidelines.

Golf is brilliant because it generally exceeds the 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity recommended per week.

Strength Training for Golf

But look at the red circle in the middle. We should all be doing 2 sessions per week where we work on building strength.

The reason this is recommended is that stronger muscles, bones and joints create a more resilient and robust body. This, in turn, allows you to better tolerate sudden changes in time spent on the golf course.

Could being stronger add distance to your drive?

The short answer is yes. Swinging a golf club requires your muscles to produce a force that moves the club in order to hit the ball.

Stronger muscles can produce a larger force. This increased force can move the club at higher speeds. A club hitting the ball at a higher speed will result in it traveling a further distance (hopefully in the right direction).

What exercises should you do?

I am not going to give you a recipe to follow, I like my readers to try and think for themselves. You can start by reading…

7 Functional Movements: Progressions, Regressions and Modifying around Pain

Then think about what movements are used within golf.

• Hinge at the hips to set up your stance.
• Rotate your body during the swing.
• Squat – to pick up and place your ball.
• Gait – walking the course. Up&down hills and over uneven surfaces.
• Pull – As you transition from backswing to downswing.

Pick 5 exercises – one of each of the above – Hinge, Rotate, Squat, Gait, Pull.

You could pick 3 on one day and 3 on another within the week (I realise there are only 5 movements so you could do one of them twice).

Next, read What are Reps and Sets to work out how many of each exercise to do. When doing each exercise you should work till failure, where you can’t perform another repetition. I would start with 10-15 repetitions and as you feel confident, increase the resistance to reach failure at 5-6 repetitions.

Please note this should not aggravate or cause you pain. If you are unsure of where to start then please seek out help. For anyone near the Birmingham area, I am more than happy to help, go to https://christileyphysiotherapy.com/ for more information.

How much time do you spend warming up?

Be honest, what does your warm-up routine involve?

• The walk to the first tee?
• 5 minutes on the putting green?
• A few swings in the nets?
• 30 balls on the driving range?

I’d encourage you to take 5-10 minutes to go through a warm-up routine that targets all the muscles that you are about to use over the next few hours.

Get in touch

Have you ever had a golf injury? How did it impact you?

Are you already doing strength training with golf in mind? What are your favorite exercises to do?

Comment below and let me know.

This post was written by myself, Chris Tiley, a physiotherapist based out of Movement Therapy Clinics in Harborne, Birmingham. For more information on how I can help you visit christileyphysiotherapy.com

Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that everything I recommend is because I honestly believe they are all helpful and useful to assist you in achieving your goal in becoming stronger, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel that you need them or believe that they will help you achieve your goals.