The Best Exercises to Help Strengthen Your Golf Game

Working on technique and getting out on the range, putting green, and course whenever possible is important to improve your golf game. While those are the essentials, there are also things you can do off the golf course to improve your game. That includes key strength training and mobility exercises. 

This article will cover our top exercises for strengthening your golf game. We’ll start with strength training exercises to build your power and explosiveness. Then, we’ll cover some mobility exercises that will improve your form, stability, and rotation of your swing. Keep reading to get all the details. 

Best Strength Training Exercises for Golf

First up, here are our top five weight-lifting exercises you can perform at home or the gym to strengthen your golf game. 

Lunges with Rotation

• Body parts worked: Legs and core
• Weights needed: Medicine ball, dumbbell, weight plate, or bodyweight
• Additional equipment needed: None
• Recommended sets and reps: 5 sets of 10-20 reps

Your golf swing requires strong leg drive and rotation to make good impact. If you struggle to flip your hips and rotate through on swings, this will be the exercise for you. 

Directions:

1. Standing upright, holding your weight of choice (or with hands clasped together in front of you), take one extended step forward with your right leg.   
2. Lower down until your back knee nearly touches the ground. 
3. Hold that position and rotate your body to the right until you feel a full stretch on your right side. 
4. Stand back upright and repeat stepping forward with the left leg. 

Bulgarian Split Squat

• Body parts worked: Legs and core
• Weights needed: Dumbbells, kettlebells, weight plates, barbell, or bodyweight
• Additional equipment needed: Bench, plyo box, and/or power rack
• Recommended sets and reps: 5 sets of 10-15 reps

The Bulgarian split squat is another exercise that will build your leg drive and core stability. It also gives a bonus of helping with mobility since it requires some lower body flexibility to perform it correctly. 

It’s another versatile exercise that can be done anywhere using weights or body weight. You can even load up a barbell and go pretty heavy on these to build some extra strength. 

Directions:

1. Stand upright, holding weights at your side (if using them), or unrack a barbell from a power rack and hold it on your back like you would for regular squats. 
2. Place one leg back on a bench or plyo box. 
3. Squat down until the front leg is at a 90-degree angle. 

Bent Over Rows

• Body parts worked: Back and core
• Weights needed: Dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbell and weight plates
• Additional equipment needed: Power rack (optional if using a barbell)
• Recommended sets and reps: 5 sets of 10-15 reps

Many golfers don’t realize that a strong back contributes a lot to your golf swing. An exercise like bent over rows builds important postural muscles in your back that help you use better (and more stable) form. 

Directions:

1. Holding your choice of weights, keep your core tight and push the weight back in your hips while lowering your upper body to a 45-degree angle. 
2. Pull the weights up toward the side of your stomach, or nearly touch your stomach if using a barbell, until you feel a full contraction in your back muscles.   

Woodchops 

• Body parts worked: Core
• Weights needed: Dumbbell, resistance band, or cable machine
• Additional equipment needed: None
• Recommended sets and reps: 4 sets of 15-20 reps

The woodchop uses many of the primary movers and stabilization muscles in your core that the golf swing does. So it’s a perfect core exercise that will transfer nicely to your golf game. 

Directions:

1. Hold your weight of choice to the left side of your body. 
2. Rotate the weight up and over to the right while keeping your arms straight.  
3. Do the desired number of reps and then repeat with the other side. 

Kettlebell Swing

• Body parts worked: Glutes, hamstrings, and core
• Weights needed: Kettlebell
• Additional equipment needed: None
• Recommended sets and reps: 5 sets of 20-25 reps

Practicing your hip hinge and working the muscles in your posterior chain will strengthen the stability of your swing. The kettlebell swing is the perfect exercise for that since it forces you to be stable while swinging a heavy weight out in front of you. 

Directions:

1. Start with the weight in both hands. Then, push the weight back in your hips and lower your upper body to a 45-degree angle. 
2. Snap your hips forward while swinging the kettlebell up to shoulder height. 

Best Mobility Exercises for Golf

Now that we’ve covered the strength aspects, let’s finish with five excellent mobility exercises that will improve your posture, form, and rotation for golf. 

Cat & Cow

• Body parts worked: Core
• Equipment needed: None
• Recommended sets and reps: 4 sets of 10 reps

Many golfers struggle with core control and stability during their swing. You’ll notice it impacts your accuracy quite a bit. The cat and cow exercise will help with this. 

Directions:

1. Get on the ground on your hands and knees. Your back should be straight, and your legs should be bent at a 90-degree angle. 
2. Round your shoulders down, tuck in your core, and round your lower back. This is the “cow” portion. 
3. Then, bring your shoulders back, extend your core, and drop your lower back down for the “cat” portion. 

90/90 Stretch

• Body parts worked: Lower body
• Equipment needed: None
• Recommended sets and reps: 1-3 sets holding for 30 seconds

If you’re struggling to rotate through on your swing, it might be due to poor hip mobility. Lack of hip rotation can lead to less impact or poor accuracy where you slice or hook shots. The 90/90 stretch will help fix that. 

Directions:

1. Sitting on the ground, bring one leg in front of you at a 90-degree angle. Put the other leg out to the side and behind you at a 90-degree angle. 
2. Bend forward over the front leg until you feel a good stretch and hold for the desired time. 

Backswing Trail Leg Loading with Band

• Body parts worked: Shoulders and lower body
• Equipment needed: Resistance band
• Recommended sets and reps: 3 sets of 10 reps

If you’re struggling to hit straight shots, it could be due to poor mobility on your backswing, causing you to be misaligned. You may also not be loading up enough on shots to hit with good contact. This exercise will stretch the muscles involved in the backswing to help with that. 

Directions:

1. Place your front foot on one end of the resistance band. 
2. Holding the other end of the band, swing back like you would for your golf backswing. 
3. Hold that top position for a few seconds while focusing on loading up the swing with your trail leg. 

Couch Stretch

• Body parts worked: Quads and glutes
• Equipment needed: Couch or wall
• Recommended sets and reps: 1-3 sets holding for 30 seconds

If you’re having trouble rotating through on shots or feel like your stance isn’t stable, stretching your quads and glutes will help. The couch stretch is another great choice for that. 

Directions:

1. Start kneeling and place the shin of your back leg up against a couch or wall. 
2. Lean forward until you feel a good stretch in the quad of the back leg and the glute on that side. 

Band Shoulder Passover

• Body parts worked: Shoulders
• Equipment needed: Resistance band
• Recommended sets and reps: 3 sets of 10-20 reps

Shoulder mobility is crucial for your golf swing. The band shoulder passover is a great warm-up that’ll help with that. Do it before your workouts or even before you leave for a round of golf. 

Directions: 

1. Hold a resistance band with one hand on each side. 
2. Bring the band up over your head, rotating your shoulders and bringing it back down behind your back. 

Conclusion

There you have it, some great strength and mobility exercises to improve your golf game. 

If you’ve been struggling to rotate through on shots or feel like you aren’t making solid contact on the ball, give these exercises a try. You can add them to a workout routine you’re already doing or do them as a standalone workout once or twice a week. You should see great results from doing these consistently. 

Now all that’s left to do is get out there and start training!

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