These two exercises will strengthen your core and improve your golf posture

Posture is perhaps the most important building block in the golf swing. Without it, you could be afflicted by topped balls, low ball flight and lost distance.

One way to combat these tendencies is to strengthen your core. A strong core will enable you to create stability both in your posture and throughout your golf swing — a win for every aspect of your game.

GOLF contributing fitness editor Kolby Tullier has an impressive roster of Tour players in his stable, including Justin Thomas, Harold Varner III, Jessica Korda, Lexi Thompson and Jaye Marie Green, and suggests incorporating two simple moves into your fitness routine to improve your core strength and stability.

Side-plank leg lifts with dumbbell

This particular exercise is great for core activation and building right and left side stability, says Tullier.

Adding this move to your gym routine is an awesome way to help create strong golf posture throughout the swing.

Here’s how to do it: Get in a side-plank position on a mat and lift your leg as high as possible, then bring it back down in a controlled motion. For added difficulty, you can even hold a dumbbell like Jaye Marie Green in the picture to the left.

Plank leg raises

Plank leg raises are a great core exercise that elevate the common plank to a more dynamic and challenging exercise by lifting the leg, says Tullier. The move places a lot more demand on controlling the pelvis and lumbar spine in a neutral position without sliding right, left or dropping.

Here’s how to do it: Assume your usual plank position like Lexi Thompson does in the picture on the left, and raise each leg several times without resting it on the floor, then switch to the other leg.

If you commit to doing a few reps of these exercises on a regular basis, it won’t be long until your core is strengthened and your posture is rock-solid.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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