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How to build your own golf workout
Over the past decade Golf Digest has offered hundreds of different exercises (and variations of them) that would benefit your body and your golf game. But how do you cull all that information down to build a manageable workout? Let me make it easier for you.
The framework for a good golf workout should be as follows:
1.) Do a push exercise.
2.) Do a pull exercise.
3.) Do a lower-body exercise.
4.) Do a core exercise
You can choose from literally dozens of moves that fit one of these four boxes and, if you're really serious about getting in golf shape, you should vary your choices from one workout to the next. An example: If you do planks for your core requirement one day, the next time you hit the gym, try doing medicine ball throws.
There are two more things to remember:
1.) Blend strength-training exercises with mobility work; you want to be stable enough to swing with a good range of motion.
2.) Vary exercises so you move in all three planes that the body can move (side to side, front to back, rotationally).
If you can remember these simple instructions, you can literally chose as many or as few exercises as you like. And if you're wondering about improving cardiovascular health, then do these moves with very short breaks in between. For example, my 20-in-20 workout challenges you to keep moving to get 20 sets of various exercises (within the above framework) done in 20 minutes.
To see a sample of how to build a golf workout under the above parameters, watch Belen Mozo use a bench to hit three of the four piece of framework. She does a one-arm, stability bench press for her push exercise, side plank hip circles for her core, and a Bulgarian squat for her lower-body move. For a fourth move, she could have done a bent over dumbbell row. It's that simple.