How To Choose The Right Golf Exercise Book

Let’s get one thing clear right now about golf exercise programs. You don’t get fit for golf sitting on a machine in a gym. A treadmill or a bicycle won’t help you, so if you see a golf exercise book showing pictures of models sitting or walking on machines, don’t buy it. The writer knows nothing about golf fitness.

You may as well take any exercise book and change the title to whatever sport you want to target: athletic fitness, basketball fitness, football fitness, golf fitness – different titles for the same book. Nonsense!

Golfers Should Get Fit for Golf, Not for Rowing!

I have worked over 20 years as a certified professional exercise trainer, the last 10 being specifically golf exercise training, and time and time again I found one golf fitness book after another which could have been used for all sports and none! I decided to write my own golf exercise book so that golfers would have something to follow to help them get fit for golf, not for running or rowing.

The important exercise aspects for golf are very similar to those required in most other sports: strength, flexibility, endurance and nutrition. How you develop these attributes, however, depends on your sport. A golfer’s strength should be in the rotational movement of the swing, while a weight lifter’s should be predominantly in the legs, arms and back.

Know Where You Start.

Any golf exercise book should provide some instruction or chart on determining a starting point. A golfer needs to know where his weaknesses lie, and what aspects of his game to work on. Most golfers fail in their fitness program because they don’t know where to start – and that’s because they don’t know their current level of fitness.

Golfers have to know that they are doing the right thing for themselves. Any golf exercise book that provides the same exercise routines for everybody, and fails to provide a means of assessing a player’s current fitness level, is not worth a cent.

A good golf exercise book will also explain how any specific routine will help the golf swing. This knowledge gives the golfer more motivation.

Conquer Your Levels

Finally, a good exercise book for golf should be structured into levels, so that a golfer can progress from one level to the next. The initial assessment should determine the starting level. It’s no good just having a list of exercises without a means of allowing players to measure their progress. All exercises, fitness or not, must provide an incentive in the way of allowing participants to progress from one stage to another. All video games players know that!

So, if you are looking for a golf training book, check out its structure and make sure it is not based purely on standard ‘gym’ exercises; if so then it is not for you... it must be golf specific.

The right exercise book for golf can make an unbelievable difference to your game by focusing on the joints and muscles you use in golf . . . so go for it!

Mike Pedersen
Golf Performance Coach