When people think about the golf swing these days, often the first thing that comes to mind is distance and how to hit it farther thanks to the Bryson effect. But very few people think about what they need to work on in the gym to help them achieve their goals on the course.
And even if they do think about working out to maximize their swing’s power and potential, stability hardly ever comes up despite it being a key ingredient to a good golf swing.
According to Christina Kim‘s trainer, Ryan Blackburn, stability is far too often overlooked by golfers at every level — to their detriment. That’s because stability allows your body to maintain its position as you control which muscles move around a joint. In the golf swing, it means maintaining your posture, spine angle and more as you rotate back and through impact.
At its heart, the golf swing is one giant rotary motion around your spine, making your body’s ability to maintain position as you rotate incredibly important. That’s why this month’s Home Fitness series is focused on helping you build a more stable body for your swing to rotate around.
In week one’s episode, Blackburn focused on overall stability.
In week two, Blackburn turns up the difficulty and focuses on your core stability through dynamic motion, which is essential to a good golf swing. Your core plays a huge part helping you transfer power as you transition from the backswing to the downswing to impact. It also helps stabilize your body and keep your back healthy by supporting you as you swing a club. In other words, the importance of core stability to the golf swing can’t be understated.
So without further adieu, check out Blackburn’s core stability workout.
Core Stability Workout
Shoulder Taps: Start on all fours and lift your knees about an inch off the ground. Slowly alternate reaching one hand to the opposite shoulder, doing three sets of 10 reps. This exercise is great for building core and cross-body stability, as well as protecting your lower back and efficiently transferring force through your spine while maintaining spine angle.
Single Leg Side Reach: Get your balance on one foot, and keeping your opposite foot low to the ground, reach it as far as you can side to side without losing your balance. Let your head and upper body lean in the opposite direction to maintain a nice long line from the top of your head to your foot. This drill really helps build stability around your ankles, knees, hips, and spine in the frontal plane, which helps us transition weight side-to-side in the golf swing. Perform three sets of 10 reps per side.
Palloff Lunge: Using a cable machine or a resistance band, have the cable or band directly out to your side. Hold it in your hands directly in front of your sternum and begin stepping forward and dropping into a lunge. Alternate legs and only lunge as deep as you feel comfortable. Perform three sets of six reps per side. This is great for building rotational stability over a dynamic lower body, helping you more efficiently transfer force from the lower body through the core to your arms and club.
Remember, a stable golf swing is a strong golf swing so check back next week for episode three in the Home Practice: Stability series.
