Fitness challenge: How strong is your lower body? See if you can do this exercise
To say lower-body strength is an important factor in generating swing speed is kind of like saying water is an important factor in staying hydrated. Simply put, no matter how much weight you can curl with your biceps, no matter how fast you can swing your arms, no matter how light your driver is, it's your legs, hips and glutes that do much of the real work in powering a golf swing.
That's why Andrea Doddato, one of Golf Digest's Best Fitness Trainers in America, spends a great deal of time with her clients focusing on these areas. For average players, improvements in mobility, stability, strength and power of the lower body can make a huge difference in the force applied to the golf ball. While a tour pro might see a swing speed gain of a few miles per hour after some dedicated lower-body training, amateurs can pick up a lot more speed simply because they are starting from a much greater deficit.
The beauty is, Doddato says her clients report back that even though they are hitting the ball significantly farther after training, it doesn't feel like they are swinging harder. That's because the legs are doing a lot more work.
This is not the perfect test of lower-body function and strength, but one way to check yours is by doing this five-part exercise without losing your balance. "The best part is, you can do it anywhere," says Doddato, a Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer.
Your challenge? Do one rep on each leg without falling over. If you can do one or more reps, your lower body is more than up for the task of providing more power to your swing. You probably just need to work on technique with a golf instructor. If you can't, you now have an incentive to get in the gym and work on this and other lower-body exercises—you can pick up considerable yardage off the tee.
Oh, and if it's too easy, try doing it while holding a light weight.
STEP ONE: Stand tall on one leg with a soft platform like a box or cushioned chair behind the opposite leg (it can be higher than the one displayed here). Hold this stance in balance.
STEP TWO: While balancing on one leg, sit back into the platform until the glute on the opposite side touches it.
STEP THREE: Stand back up from the sitting position and then bend the elevated leg until the shin bone is parallel with the ground.
STEP FOUR: Still balancing on the same leg, hinge forward from your hip joints until your torso is parallel with the ground and your elevated leg is extended behind you. You should be able to reach down close to the floor.
STEP FIVE: Return to the original stork-stand position and start over on the opposite leg (bonus points if you can do a few or more reps on each leg).