It was only after Scottie Scheffler took on a brand-new, golf-specific physical routine that he started to dominate the game.Â
Scottie Scheffler has shot to the top of the PGA Tour rankings in the past few years, with 2022 being his big breakthrough. He’s maintained dominance ever since. He had been playing well coming out of the 2020-2021 season as a PGA Tour up-and-comer, but his final-round scoring average of 70.36 wasn’t good enough against the best players in the world.
Scheffler credits his golf-specific physical fitness routine – with GolfForever instructor Dr Troy Van Biezen – as the key factor in his breakthrough and sustained performance from 2022 until today. The idea of pursuing fitness for golf is relatively new in the golf world, with Tiger Woods often credited as bringing the idea into the mainstream. Today, almost all the top golfers in the world acknowledge that their physical fitness regimen is an essential component of their success while also helping to keep injuries at bay.
Scheffler recognised at the end of 2021 that he needed more strength and endurance to avoid fatigue during tournaments. He and Van Biezen designed and implemented a physical training program to address those concerns utilising everyday gym equipment as well as the new GolfForever Swing Trainer, and the results of that endeavour speak for themselves.
They put his training regimen in play on tour for the first time in January
2022 at the Farmers Insurance Open. Scheffler liked how he swung the club that week and it convinced him to stay with his new routine moving forward. Scheffler then won the WM Phoenix Open two weeks later and then shot to world No.1 with two more wins and a three-stroke victory at the Masters.
Scheffler’s training routine in the gym is geared towards building a strong, explosive, stable body that’s resistant to pain and injury – one that doesn’t fatigue or break down after multiple rounds of golf. Perhaps most importantly, he is following a training regimen that is specifically designed for a golfer’s needs rather than just your average weight-lifting routine. It is a routine that focuses on dynamic, symmetrical movement patterns that apply directly to the golf swing, while building endurance and resiliency in the parts of the body that are stressed the most during the swing.
AN UNNATURAL MOVEMENT
‘Golf fitness’, as it is now commonly referred to, can be undertaken by any golfer at any point in their life, and can lead to significant improvements including lower scores, reduced injuries, plus the stamina and endurance to play more golf at any age. It’s an important message to any golfer: working on your body is as important as working on your swing – and the right tools and program to optimise your body for golf can yield that long sought-after breakthrough in your game.
An important concept to understand is that the golf swing is a relatively unnatural movement for the human body that places extraordinary demands on the shoulders, hips, core and spine. It is an asymmetric, repetitive, explosive movement that necessitates physical training to maximise performance and prevent otherwise very likely injuries. Think of any athlete in any other sport and you’d be hard pressed not to acknowledge that those athletes are very likely to be following a fitness routine for their sport. The same should be true for golfers of all types and even a small amount of time spent preparing your body for golf can have a dramatic impact on your swing and game.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS IN GOLF FITNESS
It is critical to understand that not just any exercise routine will lead to these benefits. The wrong exercise strategy can be counterproductive to your golf game and your overall health. Here are some common misconceptions:
Misconception 1: You are not an athlete
Most everyday golfers don’t think of themselves as athletes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Golf is an athletic sport and a lack of preparation in the form of physical training will have a negative impact on your swing, score and your body. There are essential components to a golf fitness routine that are relatively easy to adopt and implement. Even if you are already an active exerciser, it is likely that you could be getting far more benefit for your golf game out of your workout sessions.
Misconception 2: Any workout will help my golf game
The specific exercises you do and the way you do them really do matter. If your goal is to develop clubhead speed, spending half your time in the gym doing bench presses with heavy weights isn’t going to help you reach your goal. In fact, some exercises may even make you worse at golf. You need to focus your workouts on golf-specific benefits with the least amount of risk to your health.
A body that’s symmetrical and balanced is one that’s most resilient to the wear and tear associated with the golf swing and the most adept at generating rotational force. A common mistake with golfers is to only train movements that directly mimic their swing, and only in the direction of their swing. Performing movements and exercises on only one side or in only one direction will create asymmetries and imbalances in the body over time. These imbalances manifest in ways such as short, tight muscles on one side of the body, joint compression in specific areas and overdeveloped muscles in other parts of the body – all of which cause joint damage, pain and limited range of motion. Performing exercises in both directions and on both sides of the body will keep your body flexible and mobile, both of which lead to a more powerful swing and help prevent injuries and relieve pain. (The six pillars of an optimal golf training program are outlined below.)
Misconception 3: Following a bodybuilder approach to golf fitness
Many people, particularly men, tend to focus their workouts on building muscles that are easy to see and look good aesthetically. For example, spending a lot of time on growing your ‘guns’ by doing bicep curls with heavy weights on a machine can lead to a decrease in upper body range of motion, an increased likelihood of golfer’s elbow and an overall inefficient workout because less time is devoted to the smaller muscles that are harder to see but far more important to golf and joint health.
Misconception 4: I’m tight because I don’t stretch enough – flexibility vs mobility
All golfers want to improve their range of motion, which leads to faster clubhead speed and more distance. Range of motion is determined by a golfer’s flexibility and mobility. What is the difference between mobility and flexibility? While both terms describe the movements of muscles and joints, there is a major difference between a passive range of motion (flexibility) and an active range of motion (mobility).
Flexibility typically means how far a muscle group or joint can be taken through its range of motion by a force acting upon it (such as what happens when you stretch). Mobility means how far you can actively take a group of muscles or joint through its range of motion by contracting those muscles and using your neurological system (such as with the golf swing) to move a limb or part of the body. Good mobility requires healthy muscles, neurologic control, balance and co-ordination – all working together as a system.
Good mobility, and hence good range of motion, requires many body systems working well together. Simply stretching on a regular basis will not significantly improve your range of motion. If the muscles and nervous system related to a particular joint aren’t healthy and functioning optimally, you can stretch all day and your range of motion will never significantly improve. The key to improving your range of motion is a combination of the right strength training to the right muscle groups along with range-of-motion exercises, balance training and stretching. If you don’t exercise with mobility in mind, you are far more likely to get injured, develop chronic pain and suffer a decrease in athletic ability in the things you love to do.
SIX PILLARS OF SCHEFFLER’S REGIMEN
A great golf fitness routine, such as the one Scheffler follows, should incorporate the six areas outlined below. These can all be combined into one 30 to 45-minute session that any golfer can do at home or in a gym, two to three times per week. Importantly, all exercises should be performed on both sides of the body, not just the dominant side, to prevent asymmetries that can result in injuries and poor swing mechanics.
1. Full body warm-up
Every golf fitness session should start with a five to 10-minute warm-up that prepares your body for the more challenging resistance exercises. This warm-up can usually be done with no equipment, or with a golf club or the GolfForever Swing Trainer in any area with enough space to lie down. The goals of the warm-up are to: get blood flowing to the important joints and muscle groups, rev up the neurological system, wake up important muscles and take your joints through your full range of motion. Think planks, hip circles, shoulder mobility drills, squats, etc.
2. Mobility-focused exercises
A good mobility workout routine for golfers will have these characteristics:
- Exercises that require multiple muscles to work together at the same time rather than just one muscle at a time
- Exercises that require movement of multiple joints at once rather than just one joint
- Exercises that work all planes of motion: front and back, side to side,
up and down, and rotation - Exercises that challenge your balance and co-ordination
- Examples include reverse lunge to side lunge and the squat press with the Swing Trainer.
3.Core stability exercises
The core can be thought of as all the muscles on the front, back and sides of your body between the hips and shoulders. The main job of the core is to act as a stable foundation upon which you can generate power from the hips and shoulders that is transmitted through the golf club into the ball. Exercises that train the core to be stable are ones in which the core stays still, such as side planks, planks and bird dogs. For added challenge, you can move the arms or legs while the core stays still and even add resistance to the arms or legs while maintaining that stable, still core.
4. Balance-focused exercises
Probably the most under-trained and underappreciated physical system in golf fitness is balance. Having good balance is critical to maintaining posture and position during the golf swing and to be consistent shot after shot. Balance naturally declines with age, but this can be prevented – and even improved – with balance-focused training. A balance component can be introduced to exercises simply by performing them on one leg, standing on an unstable surface such as a balance pad, or by having a staggered or narrow stance when performing exercises with resistance bands or the GolfForever Swing Trainer.
5. Glute activation and strength exercises
Most of us recall Tiger Woods’ famous statement about needing to activate his glutes. Glutes refers to a group of muscles in the buttocks. These are major force producers during the golf swing. These muscles are underdeveloped and under-utilised in almost every golfer. This is mainly due to all the sitting we do in our daily lives. The muscles in the buttocks are not meant to simply be cushions for sitting. Rather, they are some of the most important muscles for many common movements in everyday life – squatting, lifting, climbing stairs, as well as the golf swing. Sitting on these critical muscles, combined with a lack of exercising them, results in the humorously titled condition of ‘gluteal amnesia’, causing an inability to effectively contract the glutes and deconditioning of the muscles. Glute-activation exercises can be as simple as clam shells and other hip-focused movements.
6. Rotational power exercises
These are the exercises all golfers are attracted to because they look and feel like golf. These exercises use resistance with either resistance bands or the GolfForever Swing Trainer to load the core, hips and shoulders in ways that produce rotational power and speed. Ideally, they also require you to move with multiple joints in multiple ranges of motion and are done in both directions/both sides of the body for maximum efficacy. Examples include golfer’s impact and horizontal chop with the Swing Trainer and cylindrical rotation with resistance bands.
Dr Jeremy James, founder of GolfForever, is a sports performance and muscular skeletal pain expert. For information about the GolfForever Swing Trainer, visit newygolfstore.com.au
