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| Glutes are key when it comes to the golf swing. The gluteal muscles (which include three muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) are essential for power and stability during the golf swing. Many golfers’ glutes can be inhibited, while the hamstrings and/or the lower back try to take over their job.
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| For stretching to be beneficial to your game, you should simulate the golf swing as much as possible. Most teaching professionals cringe when they see golfers put a club behind their shoulders blades and start twisting back and forth. This may feel good, but it has no real benefit. Here’s a stretch to help improve your extension on the backswing and follow-through:
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| Strength training exercises, important for increasing muscle strength and bone mass, require the addition of weight or resistance to challenge the muscles. But some people think that free weights and machines leave them tight in the shoulders and chest, so it is recommend by many golf specific trainers to use resistance bands instead.
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| Most people think that the benefits of golf fitness are reserved for maximizing driving power along with preventing or reducing injury and rehabilitation. Few would consider fitness as a means of improving their putting stroke. By defining the specific skills and fundamentals that are required of putting, an exercise program can be created to improve the putting motion, making you a better putter.
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| If you are like most golfers, you probably own an oversized driver. Titanium and graphite have allowed club manufactures to build larger, lighter and longer drivers with clubheads measuring as much as 460 cubic centimeters.
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| We all know the importance of pre-round stretching, but did you know that you should also take the time to stretch during the round as well? Stretching while you play can help prevent you from tightening up during the round.
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| What is the common theme amongst all professional golfers and low handicappers? It is not the shape of their swing; there is no perfect way to swing. All highly skilled golfers finish in perfect balance. To gain perfect balance, you need to have a stable base and eliminate excessive lower body movement.
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| To create power and speed in your golf swing, it is important to stretch and strengthen your core muscles or trunk. Your core consists of muscles in your abdominal, back, hips and chest. A strong, flexible core allows you to turn your trunk for a complete range of motion.
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| We all know that we should warm up properly before we hit the first tee, but don’t always have time. Skipping the warm up makes us susceptible to poor results and risk of injury. Stop with the excuses; everyone can find at least five minutes to warm up before the first tee.
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| Making short putts is all about keeping the putterface square throughout your stroke. The key to keeping the putterface square is to have the arms and putter act as one unit throughout stroke, like a pendulum. Many shorts putts are missed when the hands become overactive at the moment of impact, twisting the putterface out of alignment. To stabilize your hands and keep your putterface square, to make more short putts, try the following drill:
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| The time you spend sitting in a golf cart while you play golf could be making you fat. You may think that you are getting enough exercise while play golf, however, if you ride in a cart, you are eliminating the benefits of golf as exercise. Add a hotdog, chips, a soda or a couple of beers at the turn and you may actually be taking in more calories than you are burning.
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| Stretching is one of the easiest and fastest ways to improve your golf swing and game. Not only will stretching improve your flexibility to increase your range of motion in your muscles and joints, to help you make a better shoulder and hip turn, but stretching on a daily basis can help you improve your balance, prevent injuries, increase your circulation and improve muscles coordination.
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| Balance is one of the most important aspects of the golf swing: affecting almost every phase in the swing. Having good balance helps your body to turn and shift weight more effectively, helps in making a smooth transition from the backswing to the downswing and allows your body to create more clubhead speed. Balance is just like muscle strength, you need to work at it or you will lose it. | | | 
| We all know that developing and maintaining functional fitness is a critical component to playing our best. We usually promise ourselves that we’ll spend more time on improving our golf fitness during the “off-season”. But the challenge for most of us, even for the tour pros, is making the time to exercise and having access to the right equipment.
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| Stretching is one of the easiest and fastest ways to improve your golf swing and game. Not only will stretching improve your flexibility to increase your range of motion in your muscles and joints, to help you make a better shoulder turn, but stretching on a daily basis can help you improve your balance, prevent injuries, increase your circulation and improve muscles coordination. Stretching does not require equipment or a change of clothes. Stretching habits can be slowly worked into a multi-tasking routine.
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| For many of you, it has been a few months since your last golf outing, so it is even more important for you to warm up your body before you play to prevent injuries and regain balance and swing tempo that you may have lost during the off-season. Balance is one of the most important aspects of the golf swing: affecting almost every phase in the swing.
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| To prepare your body for the stresses that it will undergo while you play and practice more often, you should start to incorporate rotational exercises into you golf fitness routine. Focusing your attention on your midsection will help you increase the torque or twisting force your core muscles can produce. Here is an exampleof a torso rotational exercise:
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| The Russian twist develops the mid-section of your body. Its movement pattern is cross-specific to the rotation that occurs in your golf swing. It develops strength, endurance, and power in the lower back, abdominals, and obliques- all of which are used in the golf swing.
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| To improve your tee shots and to get more distance, try hitting the ball straighter instead of trying to swing harder. Concentrate on hitting the ball in the sweetspot of the clubface. If you have ever hit the sweetspot on your club, you know that these shots fly farther than the shots you hit off center, in the heel or toe. For every quarter inch you hit the ball outside the sweetspot, you lose 10 yards of distance.
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| For many, the 2009 golf season is just around the corner. Hopefully you have been working to increase your strength and flexibility over the past several months and are now ready to get prepared for the season. If you haven’t been as diligent as you would have liked performing your off-season golf fitness routine, don’t despair; there is still time to prepare your body for the upcoming season. To prepare your body for the stresses that it will undergo while you play and practice more often.
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Training golfers to play better and safer one body at a time. 
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