Improve Flexibility For Perfect Posture, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Improve Flexibility For Perfect Posture, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now one thing I often hear from golfers is that they're not really swinging that well today and often the execution is the fact that they got a bit stiff. I missed it, I can't really swing, my back's all in pain. So keeping good physical fitness, good flexibility is great for your golf game, particularly for your good posture. It's very difficult to get yourself into a good posture position if you don’t have good flexibility, particularly around your core.

So there's a couple of exercises that I'd like you to try on a daily basis and particularly those days you're going to go and play golf to really get loosened up. The first one is a very simple side stretch. So my feet nice and shoulder with the part, facing forward, maybe into a mirror where my cameras, you're going to have a mirror there. Keep the hips nicely far forward, one arm up above your head and then just stretch it over as far as you can reaching down to the opposite side. And then the other arm straight up and holding it over and going over.

Now it's very important you hold that position for maybe five to ten seconds. And you do three or four on either side. And that will hopefully give you a good flexibility down the side of your body as you're loosening up. Now a good exercise again for golf is a triceps stretch. The triceps are quite important in a golf swing, particularly if you're winding up on your back swing, if you tighten your triceps, you can struggle. So clasp your hands over the back of your head and just try and drop your hands downwards behind you this way. Tightening this muscle here or stretching this muscle here, trying to get a little bit more flexibility through there. Then hopefully when you make your swing, you will find that swing easier because you're a little bit more warmed up through this area.

Now we know the golf swing is a rotational exercise, turning from left to right and back through again. So if we can get a good flexibility through the spine, that's really going to help up as well. So again, squeeze out, look to your mirror, one arm after in front of you. Pulling that arm across your body turning this way. But try and keep your head facing back into the mirror. You really feel like you're looking over your shoulder. And you can hold that position again five, ten seconds in that position. Maybe try and do six or eight of these, pulling this arm around, keeping your head faced on and then likewise the opposite direction holding on to left again, keeping the spine turned. Try not to involve your legs or your knees too much, it's quite easy to turn everything if you get your legs involved. But you will weaken the stretch or you'll loosen the stretch so nice and tight pulling across this way.

Well more just to get the core and the lower back working a little bit, would be to do just hip rotations. So put your hands on your hips there and just slowly work them around; forwards, backwards, left and right. And as you get a bit more comfortable, start to widen out those circles a little bit. And you'll often see that the exercises that we use for golf are mimicking some of the movements you have in a golf swing. So you've got good posture, you've got a good rotation, you've got a good stretch down through your left tricep here. And then you've got a good hip movement coming through the ball. So if you got to the golf course in the morning and you're feeling a bit stiff and a bit tight, try and incorporate that little simple stretching exercise into your daily routine. And it will pay dividends the next time you're on the golf course.

 2012-05-04

Now one thing I often hear from golfers is that they're not really swinging that well today and often the execution is the fact that they got a bit stiff. I missed it, I can't really swing, my back's all in pain. So keeping good physical fitness, good flexibility is great for your golf game, particularly for your good posture. It's very difficult to get yourself into a good posture position if you don’t have good flexibility, particularly around your core.

So there's a couple of exercises that I'd like you to try on a daily basis and particularly those days you're going to go and play golf to really get loosened up. The first one is a very simple side stretch. So my feet nice and shoulder with the part, facing forward, maybe into a mirror where my cameras, you're going to have a mirror there. Keep the hips nicely far forward, one arm up above your head and then just stretch it over as far as you can reaching down to the opposite side. And then the other arm straight up and holding it over and going over.

Now it's very important you hold that position for maybe five to ten seconds. And you do three or four on either side. And that will hopefully give you a good flexibility down the side of your body as you're loosening up. Now a good exercise again for golf is a triceps stretch. The triceps are quite important in a golf swing, particularly if you're winding up on your back swing, if you tighten your triceps, you can struggle. So clasp your hands over the back of your head and just try and drop your hands downwards behind you this way. Tightening this muscle here or stretching this muscle here, trying to get a little bit more flexibility through there. Then hopefully when you make your swing, you will find that swing easier because you're a little bit more warmed up through this area.

Now we know the golf swing is a rotational exercise, turning from left to right and back through again. So if we can get a good flexibility through the spine, that's really going to help up as well. So again, squeeze out, look to your mirror, one arm after in front of you. Pulling that arm across your body turning this way. But try and keep your head facing back into the mirror. You really feel like you're looking over your shoulder. And you can hold that position again five, ten seconds in that position. Maybe try and do six or eight of these, pulling this arm around, keeping your head faced on and then likewise the opposite direction holding on to left again, keeping the spine turned. Try not to involve your legs or your knees too much, it's quite easy to turn everything if you get your legs involved. But you will weaken the stretch or you'll loosen the stretch so nice and tight pulling across this way.

Well more just to get the core and the lower back working a little bit, would be to do just hip rotations. So put your hands on your hips there and just slowly work them around; forwards, backwards, left and right. And as you get a bit more comfortable, start to widen out those circles a little bit. And you'll often see that the exercises that we use for golf are mimicking some of the movements you have in a golf swing. So you've got good posture, you've got a good rotation, you've got a good stretch down through your left tricep here. And then you've got a good hip movement coming through the ball. So if you got to the golf course in the morning and you're feeling a bit stiff and a bit tight, try and incorporate that little simple stretching exercise into your daily routine. And it will pay dividends the next time you're on the golf course.