Golf Stretch 7 - Pec stretch (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Stretch 7 - Pec stretch (Video) - by Pete Styles The pec stretch is a beneficial exercise for stretching the chest muscles, which can help improve shoulder mobility and posture in your golf swing. Here's how you can perform the pec stretch:
  1. Stand upright with good posture, keeping your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Extend your arms out to the sides, parallel to the ground.
  3. Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle so that your forearms are pointing forward and your palms are facing forward.
  4. Take a step forward with your right foot, maintaining a stable stance.
  5. Slowly rotate your body to the left, leading with your torso while keeping your hips facing forward.
  6. Feel the stretch in your right pectoral muscle as you rotate.
  7. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds, breathing deeply and relaxing into the stretch.
  8. Return to the starting position and repeat the stretch on the other side, stepping forward with your left foot and rotating your body to the right.
  9. Perform several repetitions on each side, gradually increasing the range of motion as you feel more comfortable.
  10. Remember to maintain good posture and avoid any excessive twisting or jerking movements.
The pec stretch helps to counteract the tightness in the chest muscles that can result from hunching over during the golf swing. It promotes better shoulder mobility, allowing for a more unrestricted and fluid swing motion. Incorporating this stretch into your warm-up routine before playing golf or as part of your regular stretching routine can be beneficial. As with any stretching exercise, it's important to listen to your body and not push beyond your comfortable range of motion. If you experience any pain or discomfort, modify the stretch or consult with a healthcare professional. I think another area where golfers will often find they're trying to do the right movement as instructed but are struggling to actually achieve the right movement due to physical limitations again happens around the top of the shoulders and the posture so setting up to the golf ball, they tend to arch and roll here, dipping the chin and the neck in and they really can’t open themselves up to be in a proper posture position. And sort of modern life leads to this problem because we drive cars with our hands forwards. We work and compete with our hands forward. We sleep curled up in a ball shoulders in the wrong sort of positions so get quite tight around the pecs and if you're a guy or a girl that likes to go to the gym and work out a lot, often the sort of big pec muscle is quite a good show of "I go to the gym. I work out. Look how strong I am." But it's not great for golf because again pectoral muscles pull and get tight and we end up more of this position causing the rounded shoulder position, not a good position to actually turn into the top of the backswing. So opening up and having flexibility around the pectoral muscle is really, really important for your golf. Particularly if you struggle with the crucifix exercise, the last exercise in this series, it might show signs of tightness in the pecs so one area that I’d like you to work on is actually stretching that out. If you could find a vertical wall, I want you to place your arm up against the wall so it sits at about 90 degrees and then actually just push yourself forwards. I’m just going to do it up against the side of the building here so you can see this. It sits at 90 degrees here. I’ll just put my left leg forwards and just lean into it, kind of leave my shoulder in front of my elbow and just pull that stretch across. That works really nicely. If you've got a doorframe, you can actually do this on both arms at the same time. Pretty much leave your arms on either side of the doorframe and try and work your body through it. Pull into this position. It opens up your whole chest position. So again, it's holding that stretch for maybe 10, 15 seconds. Avoid bouncing or overstretching. Start off lightly and then do it a little bit more. After you've done that exercise, then take your golf posture and just feel that if you can set up to the golf ball feeling like your shoulders are pulled back a little bit more behind you, use the chest rather than the shoulders coming in front of the chest and rounding off in this position. It should definitely help you next time you go to the golf course to get the proper posture to improve your golf swing. 2012-09-19

The pec stretch is a beneficial exercise for stretching the chest muscles, which can help improve shoulder mobility and posture in your golf swing. Here's how you can perform the pec stretch:

  1. Stand upright with good posture, keeping your feet shoulder-width apart.
  2. Extend your arms out to the sides, parallel to the ground.
  3. Bend your elbows at a 90-degree angle so that your forearms are pointing forward and your palms are facing forward.
  4. Take a step forward with your right foot, maintaining a stable stance.
  5. Slowly rotate your body to the left, leading with your torso while keeping your hips facing forward.
  6. Feel the stretch in your right pectoral muscle as you rotate.
  7. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds, breathing deeply and relaxing into the stretch.
  8. Return to the starting position and repeat the stretch on the other side, stepping forward with your left foot and rotating your body to the right.
  9. Perform several repetitions on each side, gradually increasing the range of motion as you feel more comfortable.
  10. Remember to maintain good posture and avoid any excessive twisting or jerking movements.

The pec stretch helps to counteract the tightness in the chest muscles that can result from hunching over during the golf swing. It promotes better shoulder mobility, allowing for a more unrestricted and fluid swing motion. Incorporating this stretch into your warm-up routine before playing golf or as part of your regular stretching routine can be beneficial. As with any stretching exercise, it's important to listen to your body and not push beyond your comfortable range of motion. If you experience any pain or discomfort, modify the stretch or consult with a healthcare professional.

I think another area where golfers will often find they're trying to do the right movement as instructed but are struggling to actually achieve the right movement due to physical limitations again happens around the top of the shoulders and the posture so setting up to the golf ball, they tend to arch and roll here, dipping the chin and the neck in and they really can’t open themselves up to be in a proper posture position. And sort of modern life leads to this problem because we drive cars with our hands forwards. We work and compete with our hands forward. We sleep curled up in a ball shoulders in the wrong sort of positions so get quite tight around the pecs and if you're a guy or a girl that likes to go to the gym and work out a lot, often the sort of big pec muscle is quite a good show of “I go to the gym. I work out. Look how strong I am.” But it's not great for golf because again pectoral muscles pull and get tight and we end up more of this position causing the rounded shoulder position, not a good position to actually turn into the top of the backswing. So opening up and having flexibility around the pectoral muscle is really, really important for your golf.

Particularly if you struggle with the crucifix exercise, the last exercise in this series, it might show signs of tightness in the pecs so one area that I’d like you to work on is actually stretching that out. If you could find a vertical wall, I want you to place your arm up against the wall so it sits at about 90 degrees and then actually just push yourself forwards. I’m just going to do it up against the side of the building here so you can see this. It sits at 90 degrees here. I’ll just put my left leg forwards and just lean into it, kind of leave my shoulder in front of my elbow and just pull that stretch across. That works really nicely. If you've got a doorframe, you can actually do this on both arms at the same time. Pretty much leave your arms on either side of the doorframe and try and work your body through it. Pull into this position. It opens up your whole chest position. So again, it's holding that stretch for maybe 10, 15 seconds. Avoid bouncing or overstretching. Start off lightly and then do it a little bit more. After you've done that exercise, then take your golf posture and just feel that if you can set up to the golf ball feeling like your shoulders are pulled back a little bit more behind you, use the chest rather than the shoulders coming in front of the chest and rounding off in this position. It should definitely help you next time you go to the golf course to get the proper posture to improve your golf swing.