What Exercises Help Your Golf Swing?

A more powerful and consistent golf swing doesn’t come from a secret tip or a magical new club, it comes from a body that’s prepared to make the move. The right mix of strength, mobility, and stability gives you the foundation to swing freely and athletically. This guide will walk you through the exact exercises that translate directly to a better swing on the course, explaining not just a handful of good ideas to think about, but how to perform each movement correctly.

The Core Connection: Your Swing’s Engine Room

Forget trying to generate power just with your arms. The real engine of your golf swing is your core. It’s the critical link that transfers energy from your lower body to your upper body, allowing you to rotate with force and stability. A strong core keeps your posture steady from address to finish, preventing common faults like swaying or standing up out of the shot at impact. Think of it as the solid axle around which your body turns.

Exercise 1: The Plank

The plank is a fundamental exercise for a reason. It builds immense isometric strength in your entire core, teaching your a better way to hold your golf posture and stabilize your spine throughout the swing.

• How to do it: Start on the floor on your hands and knees. Lower onto your forearms, ensuring your elbows are directly under your shoulders. Extend your legs straight back, coming onto the balls of your feet. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels.
• The feel: Brace your abs as if you're about to be punched in the stomach. Squeeze your glutes and quads. Don’t let your hips sag or rise too high. You should feel tension throughout your midsection.
• Reps and Sets: Aim for 3 sets, holding for 30-60 seconds each. If you feel your form breaking down, stop, rest, and start a new set.

Exercise 2: Russian Twists

This exercise directly mimics the rotational demands of the golf swing. It strengthens your obliques, the muscles on the sides of your abdomen that are primarily responsible for turning your torso.

• How to do it: Sit on the floor with your knees bent and heels on the ground. Lean back slightly until you feel your abs engage, keeping your back straight. Clasp your hands together in front of your chest (or hold a light weight or medicine ball).
• The movement: Rotate your torso from side to side, touching your hands (or the weight) to the floor beside your hips. Keep your hips as still as possible, the rotation should come from your in your trunk, not from wiggling your legs. For an added challenge, lift your heels off the floor.
• Reps and Sets: Perform 3 sets of 10-15 twists to each side.

Unlocking Power: Rotational Mobility

Power in golf comes from rotation. A powerful swing requires you to separate your upper body from your lower body during the backswing, creating a "stretch" or "coil" that stores energy. This is largely dependent on having good mobility in your thoracic spine (your mid-to-upper back). If this area is tight, your body will compensate by swaying your hips or lifting your arms, both of which drain power and consistency.

Exercise 1: Seated Thoracic Rotations

This is a fantastic way to isolate and improve the rotation in your back without letting your hips get involved, much like you want to in a good golf swing takeaway.

• How to do it: Sit on your knees with your glutes resting on your heels. Place one hand behind your head, elbow pointing out to the side. Place your other hand on the floor in front of you for support.
• The movement: Try to touch the elbow of your raised arm to the opposite forearm on the floor. Then, reverse the movement, rotating your chest and opening up as far as you can, pointing that elbow toward the ceiling. Follow your elbow with your eyes.
• Reps and Sets: Do 3 sets of 10-12 rotations on each side. Move slowly and control the motion – this is a stretch, not a speed drill.

Exercise 2: Medicine Ball Rotational Throws

Once you have the mobility, you need to teach your body to use it with speed and power. This exercise is one of the best for developing explosive rotational force.

• How to do it: Stand a few feet away from a solid concrete or brick wall, with your side facing it. Hold a medium-weight medicine ball with both hands in front of your chest.
• The movement: Get into your golf posture. Rotate your torso away from the wall, like a backswing. Then, explosively rotate your hips and torso toward the wall, throwing the ball as hard as you can against it. Catch the ball on the rebound and smoothly transition into the next rep.
• Reps and Sets: Perform 3 sets of 8-10 throws on each side. Focus on the hip drive generating the power.

Building a Base: Hip & Glute Strength

Your hips and glutes are the foundation of your power. The ground is where the force begins, and strong glutes help you transition that force through your legs, into your a stable core, and finally out to the club head. Strong hips also allow you to maintain your swing posture and angles without your lower back taking over and causing pain.

Exercise 1: Goblet Squats

Squats are the king of lower-body strength. The goblet version is particularly good for golfers because holding the weight in front forces you to keep your chest up and engage your core, reinforcing good posture.

• How to do it: Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes pointing slightly outward. Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell vertically against your chest with both hands.
• The movement: Keeping your chest up and back straight, push your hips back and bend your knees as if you are sitting down in a chair. Go as low as you can without your back rounding, then drive back up to the starting position by pushing through your heels and squeezing your glutes.
• Reps and Sets: Complete 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.

Exercise 2: Glute Bridges

Many amateur golfers have "inactive" glutes, meaning they don't fire properly during the swing. This exercise helps wake them up and teaches them to extend your hips, which is a significant power source in the downswing.

• How to do it: Lie on your back with your knees bent and arms by your sides with your palms down. Walk your heels in so your they a few a inches from your fingertips.
• The movement: Drive through your heels and lift your hips toward the ceiling until your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Squeeze your glutes hard at the top and pause for a second before slowly lowering a little bit. That's one rep.
• Reps and Sets: Do 3 sets of 15-20 reps with a noticeable pause at the top of each.

Range & Release: Shoulder and Wrist Flexibility

To achieve a full backswing and whip the club through impact requires having free movement in your shoulders and wrists. Tight shoulders will limit your turn, while stiff wrists can prevent you from setting the club properly and releasing it with speed.

Exercise 1: Wall Slides

This move helps improve posture and upward rotation of the shoulder blades, which is important for getting your arms to the top of the backswing without restriction.

• How to do it: Stand with your back flat against a wall. Tuck your hips under so your to hold the connection between your lower back and the walls. Place your forearms against the wall in a sort of “goalpost” shape.
• The movement: Keeping your wrists, elbows, and forearms pressed into the wall, slowly slide your arms up overhead. Go as high as you can without letting your back arch away from the wall or your forearms popping off the wall. Slowly lower back to the starting point.
• Reps and Sets: Perform 3 sets of 10 slow and controlled repetitions.

Exercise 2: Wrist Supination and Pronation

The gentle rotation of the forearms and wrists is a subtle but important part of a swing - it controls the clubface. This simple exercise helps improve your feel and control of A few light weight dumbbell's could probably improve the range here.

• How to do it: Sit in a chair and rest your forearm on your thigh, with your hand hanging off your knee. Hold a very light dumbbell (really like 2 to 5 lbs tops should do the trick).
• The Movement: Start with your palm facing down (pronation). Slowly rotate your forearm so that your palm faces up (supination), then slowly rotate it back down. Keep the movement centred in your forearm, not just your wrist or shoulder.
-

Complete 3 sets of 15 rotations on each arm."

Final Thoughts

By regularly including these exercises in your fitness routine, you're not just getting stronger, but you're teaching your body a new ability a way to apply that force, control, and mobility on an actual golf course in a real swing on a real golf course. You’re building a body capable of producing a more efficient, athletic. repeatable, safe, and powerful golf swing, and thats a great investment of you would like to move past the novice golf stage.

Of course, building a better body for golf a solid first step and is only a single part of of having an actual full round. When you're out there on the actual turf, you're not usually standing perfectly, hitting ball that is perfect positioned a perfectly clean shot on the golf course is so rare, things often don’t ever seem to workout that way.

. Making better on-course decisions and managing the tricky lies the course throws at you is often times more important to the success of your golf game then "how good your swing is at practice'". That's why we created our app, Caddie AI. It gives you a tour-level caddie right in your pocket. If "you snap a photo of the predicament you find yourself in and ask it how to hit a great shot from there. Caddie AI AI can and then give an accurate personalized opinion with recommendations on on how to use hit an amazing sot from anwhere on the course.". Caddie AI AI, which gives our players pro-level, and on course strategy on right now, with step but step easy for all of our playsers in their golf games to play with confidence.