Pre-Season Golf Fitness Tips with Shannon Heffernan
3 Exercises to Improve your Golf Movement
Side Lying Open Books
This is a great exercise to feel the separation of the upper body from the lower body. It is also a great exercise to improve your upper back mobility for a better backswing.By holding your knees and lower body still, breathe in through your ribs and belly. Breathe out as your rotate your chest away. Feel like you are turning from your upper back and not your arm. Hold at the end range of motion for 1 breath. Repeat 3 times on each side.
Cats/Dogs
This exercise helps to mobilize the entire spine. Proper spinal mobility is essential for a good set up posture and for maintaining your posture through the swing. Start in a neutral spine.When moving into the rounded, “cat” position think about rounding or tucking one vertebrae at a time starting from the tailbone and working up to your head. You will need to engage your abdominals and your glutes to control the rounding movement though your lower back.Continue the rounding up to your upper back, finishing with tucking your chin in. Then, to move into the “dog", start by pulling your chest up and extending your upper back. Then, progress the extension one vertebra at a time down to your tailbone. Repeat this exercise 2-3 times.
Hip Hinging
Hip hinging can help you to get grounded, stable and athletic in your golf posture. It is also an important exercise for transferring power in the downswing.Stand tall with a dowel or club along your back with it touching between your shoulder blades and your tailbone. To hinge, push your hips behind your heels until you get a hamstring stretch.Once you feel the stretch, try and come back to standing using your hips and squeeze your glutes to finish the movement.Repeat 5-10 times.
DM Golf Performance Inc.