Golf Fitness Equipment

There's a ton of golf fitness equipment on the market today. Finding the right equipment can be confusing. Maximize your golf training routine with these simple fitness tips.

The Gym Scene:

I bet you’ve walked into that new-to-you fitness center only to be overwhelmed by all that fancy, expensive looking machinery. These days most come with computer modules, all kinds of graphs and nifty buttons, not to mention magazine stands and personal TVs.

Your first temptation might be to just turn back around, open the door, and get your workout by running back to your car. The following pieces of golf fitness equipment won’t make you scurrying home, however.

The succeeding golf fitness equipment can either be part of your home gym or easily found at any regular fitness club, center or room. Moreover, each offer something as part of the main four factors needed for optimizing your golf strength training.

Golf Strength Training:

As discussed briefly in the golf strength exercises article, the four important factors to golf fitness training is strengthening the core muscles, the power to drive the ball, balance for better self-awareness and consistency, and stability for correct repetitive form and endurance.

These four factors can make or break your golf fitness routine. If your routine, then, focuses on these, you’re more likely to hit the ball father, more consistently, with proper form and physique.

There are a number of golf fitness agendas out there; each one varies on this or that exercise. However, you must remember that golf is a standing game. You are an athlete, and must strength train to improve your scores.

Unlike football, basketball or other sports, golf is unique in that a lot of your performance (and score) is based on your initial drive. Yes, there are exceptions to this, and putting is arguably very important too. However, if you can achieve more in the first drive —the standing, rotating position—then you’re likely to considerably improve your distance and score.

Golf strength training depends heavily on training the right muscles. You must, then, train your body to mimic the golf upswing and downswing. Proper golf fitness equipment is key.

Practical Golf Fitness Equipment

Your Core:

One of the often overlooked, yet best pieces of golf fitness equipment out there is the incline abdominal bench. This allows the user to sit at various incline levels and complete crunchers, sit-ups and back strengthening exercises. Essentially, one of the best core exercises you can do.

These can fit easily in the corner at home or found at any fitness center. Combine some knee/leg raises, and you really can’t get a better core workout.

One other piece of golf fitness equipment that trains your core muscles for long-term endurance is the rowing machine. Developed for training elite rowers, these machines have been around for years. The workout facilitates the entire core and should highly be considered a piece of golf’s finest fitness equipment.

Your Power:

Golf requires a lot of power from several muscles firing simultaneously. By it’s name alone, power can be attained or lost. For golf fitness, you should want to gain more power. The torso twist machine is usually found at newly equipped gyms. This allows you to strengthen your lower back and oblique muscles—an area often weakened by sedentary life styles and older age.

The machines are designed with weights that slide up and down as you twist either left or right. This exercise will strengthen your overall range of motion and rotational power.

 Your Balance:

One of the efficient methods for strengthening your balance is using a foam mat during your free-weight routine. If, for example, you hold a 2 pound weight in your right hand, you can lift your left leg. Holding this for several seconds and then switching is a great balance enhancer.

Doing leg lunges over foam mats, too, is a great way to build strength and balance in unison.

Your Stability:

As discussed earlier, stability is a part of balance. While there is several stability enhancing exercises out there, golf requires form-specific exercises. Using light free weights (or no weights at all) while standing on a half-sphere rubber dome keeps your stability in check.

Often, personal trainers will have golf athletes stand on one leg and then the other to increase stability, body awareness and ankle strength. Combining this exercise with a slide board - a board where you slide side to side - helps moving stability and equilibrium. With both exercises, nonetheless, you’re standing as you do in the game of golf.

Golf fitness equipment and more golf fitness tips.