An Equinox Tier X Coach and TPI-certified golf expert shares how to incorporate three elements into your fitness routine to improve your golf performance.
Ever since Tiger Woods brought a sportsman’s mindset to golf and became an unbeatable force in the early 2000s, an increasing number of players have come to treat themselves as legit athletes — not just hobbyists, says Rachel Ma, a Tier X Coach and TPI-certified golf expert.
Instead of hitting the green all day every day, they’re working with physical therapists, swing coaches, and fitness trainers to level up their game. “This new generation of golfers — people like Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Rory McIlroy — has seen substantial, quantifiable benefits to their game by using performance science,” and training accordingly, notes Ma.
To enhance your own golf performance just like the pros, incorporate these three training elements into your fitness routine.
Cardio Conditioning
Unless you’re a serious golfer, you may not have the luxury of driving a golf cart around the course. Instead, you’ll need to walk all 18 holes, which can be exhausting if your cardiovascular system isn’t well-trained, says Ma. “[Cardio training] makes sure that you’re able to walk and have high energy for every hole, instead of being super tired near the end of the route and sacrificing your game.” This type of activity is particularly important if you’re playing a multiple-day tournament, as you won’t feel as winded by the final day of competition — usually a make-or-break day, says Ma.
As a rule of thumb, golfers should program cardio training three days a week and follow the 30-60-90 rule: Each week, your first session should last 30 minutes, your second 60 minutes, and your final 90 minutes, suggests Ma. Aim to train at a zone two intensity (a rating of perceived exertion of 5 to 6), which oxidizes fat, improves oxygen delivery and uptake to muscles, and can be sustained for longer periods. You’ll also want to opt for movement that mimics what you’ll do on the course, such as incline walking or stair climbing, she adds.
Mobility Work
People who hit the green on the weekends and hold down a desk job during the week generally have tight hip flexors and limited thoracic spine mobility, says Ma. Both of these joints need to be mobile in order for you to carry out your daily activities optimally and play your sport at your best. “The problem is that when the mobile joints aren't as mobile as they need to be, then the stable joints have to compensate for that and be mobile instead,” she explains.
For example, your lumbar spine, which is overall a stable joint, may become more mobile to make up for your lack of mobility in your hips and thoracic spine, she notes. If these mobility limitations aren’t corrected, the resulting compensations can ultimately lead to injury and discomfort, including low-back pain. “Rather than rotating around the ribcage or letting their hips do the rotation, your low back ends up doing it,” says Ma.
To support your hip and thoracic spine health, Ma recommends performing mobility drills as part of a pre-training warm-up. At the start of your workout, spend five to 20 minutes (depending on your current mobility levels) on mobility exercises that target the joints you’ll utilize in your training, such as the world’s greatest stretch, scorpion stretch, frog squats, and quadruped T-spine rotations, she suggests. Perform three of your favorite movements for one minute each, then repeat the circuit three times, she notes. If you're lacking foundational mobility and your schedule allows, consider dedicating one day a week solely to mobility drills, stretching, breathwork, and activating your most stubborn positions, Ma says.
Resistance Training
Along with cardio conditioning, you’ll want to dedicate three workouts a week to resistance training, focusing on building strength and power, says Ma. “A big part of golf is clubhead speed,” she explains. “Ultimately, the more force that your body is capable of producing and putting into the club, the faster you will swing, the further the ball will go, the less effort you will need to put into that swing, and the more accurate your swing will be. You'll be able to hone in on the technique and form a little bit more.”
The exact components of your resistance training workouts should be based on your strengths, weaknesses, and exercise history, says Ma. Golfers with weightlifting backgrounds might prioritize lateral and rotational movements previously overlooked, while players who stayed active solely with multi-planar sports would focus more on basic strength movements, she adds. To help determine your current abilities and needs, a TPI-certified trainer will screen you on 16 movements that incorporate rotation, mobility, and single-leg stability — “all these little things that can get compromised in day-to-day living that are also that are very, very important for someone's golf swing,” says Ma.
Your coach may also guide you through a series of tests on a Proteus Motion system, which assesses strength, power, and acceleration in all planes of motion and is available at Equinox Flatiron. “It’s the perfect tool for going to that next level beyond movement and actually testing performance for golfers,” says Ma.
Regardless of your assessment results, you’ll typically want to practice basic resistance exercises that help you build full-body strength, such as the deadlift, squat, bench press, row, shoulder press, lat pull-down, plank, and dead bug, says Ma. “There are ways to make exercises more golf-specific by making them unilateral, changing the plane of motion (a lateral lunge is more similar to the weight shift and stability requirements in a golf swing), or adding a reciprocal element (a one-arm row while the other arm presses to encourage T-spine rotation),” she says. “But these variations are often progressions — it’s important to master the basics first, then add the golf-specific layer when you're ready.”
You’ll also benefit from performing explosive movements, such as single-arm kettlebell swings, snatches, lateral bounds, single-leg box jumps, and rotational medicine ball slams, which train similar movement patterns to the club swing and build power, suggests Ma. Aim to perform four sets of three to five reps, taking two to three minutes of rest in between sets. As you power through your reps, remember to “train with intention, go hard on each rep, and do it at the beginning of the session when the body is freshest to drive the appropriate adaptation,” she notes.
Most importantly, says Ma, choose exercises — plus mobility drills and cardio workouts — you enjoy, which will help you stay motivated and stick with your program in the long run.