Many golfers now talk about the need for greater fitness for golf in order to play better. There is no questioning the fact that being more fit for golf can enhance your game especially when it comes to walking the course and maintaining your energy levels.
Gary Player was perhaps the most notable golfer when he came to fitness. There is no questioning the fact that his fitness contributed to his longevity. It was only in his later years that he stated, “I’m exercising profusely, but it’s very difficult at 73 to build strength. The golf course is so long. It is just so long. I mean, I’m hitting a wood to almost every single hole.”
It is still possible to build strength in the latter years but it becomes more difficult to maintain strength and other components of fitness at an optimal level in the elderly years. If you are trying to maintain or develop greater fitness to play better golf or to maintain a high level of play in the senior years it is important that you do more golf specific exercises.
The exercises at this time should have a direct effect on your golf game. Just being fit in the senior years is good but it is not the key to improving or maintaining a better game. The key is to do specialized (dynamic correspondence) strength exercises that duplicate the joint actions that occur in the swing. In this way you maintain or develop strength as it is used in the swing.
Just being in shape by exercising to maintain or improve your fitness for golf is great for feeling better and allowing you to keep playing. But it is not the answer to improving your golf swing or any specific joint actions that you want to improve in the swing.
By doing strength exercises specific to the golf swing you will be able to not only drive the ball further, but bring your your game to a higher level. The concept of doing specialized strength (dynamic correspondence) exercises has been around for many years but is relatively new to the golf world. In essence these exercises duplicate the same neuromuscular pathway and develop strength in the same range of motion as seen in execution of the swing.
By doing these specialized strength exercises golfers are able to continue playing the game well into the senior years and some even improve their game. Most golfers are capable of maintaining high-level play for many years . A major plus factor is that they do not get injured!
For more information on specialized strength exercises for golf see Explosive Golf. It has explanations and descriptions with photos of exercises that duplicate every joint action in each phase of the swing. To see execution of the exercises, see the Explosive Golf DVD.