If you can’t get out to practice due to cold weather, try this golf fitness exercise to strengthen all the key golf swing muscles.
This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates a kneeling around-the-world transition to a single-arm kettlebell swing that allows for more control and stability over your center of mass.
Everyone knows that elite athletes can control their center of mass. Golfers require strong and stable core muscles to maintain balance and control during the swing. This exercise targets the core, particularly the transversus abdominis, obliques and erector spine which are essential for rotational stability and power.
The movement also engages the lower back, forearms, glutes and hamstrings.
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DeChambeau says he’s discovered the right balance.
There was a time when Bryson DeChambeau’s body transformation was as much a part of his storyline as his golf accomplishments.
Using something called Muscle Activation Technique, the SMU product put 40 pounds of muscle on his 6-foot-1 frame, something that helped him break through for his first major championship at Winged Foot as he won the 2020 U.S. Open.
In 2021, DeChambeau looked as if he could start at nose tackle for an NFL team. But by the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, where he doubled his number of major titles by edging Rory McIlroy, the 30-year-old looked more like a running back or a safety.
In advance of the LIV Golf Team Championship, which will take place from Sept. 20-22 at Maridoe Golf Club outside of Dallas, DeChambeau looked back at that era with a different lens than most.
While most would have used words like brawny or burly to describe DeChambeau’s physique during that timeframe, he felt the added weight made him look different.
“You can say I was fat,” he said. “It’s okay.”
Now svelte and as popular as ever, DeChambeau is happy he worked through his experiment, one that saw him claim to drink at least a half-dozen protein shakes per day while consuming 3,500 calories. But he now says he feels stronger in his current state.
“Ultimately, I’m always going to see things through. If I believe in something, I’m going to see it through to the end. If there was anything that didn’t work, I will take that out of the picture, which I have,” he said. “There are things that didn’t work, obviously, and I’m now down to a weight where I feel like I can sustain this for the rest of my life and just continue to get incrementally stronger over the course of time because I do feel stronger than I was when I was at the height of my weight gain.
“I wouldn’t say that that weight gain is what attributed to strength. I feel like it was a test to see how fast I could grow, and there were ramifications to that.”
Bryson DeChambeau at The Old White at the Greenbrier. (Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports)
Although he’s not grinding in the gym the way he once did, fitness still plays a vital role in DeChambeau’s life. He feels now, however, that he’s discovered the right balance.
“I figured it out. I’m now in a place where I’m super comfortable, and I continue to get a little bit stronger, albeit I’m not speed training every day, I’m not going at it every day,” he said. “I still have that speed inherently in me, and whenever I want to, I can get to 205 ball speed within 15 balls. That reserve is still there. It’s just I don’t push it very often because I don’t want to injure or hurt anything, and it takes a while to get to those speeds consistently.
“Again, my focus is transition to winning tournaments and being competitive in major championships and winning them.”
In his first 18 starts on the PGA Tour after golf returned from COVID, DeChambeau won three times – including that 2020 U.S. Open – and had seven other top 10s – including a tie for third in the Charles Schwab Challenge and a tie for fourth in the PGA Championship.
That led some like Rory McIlroy to consider similar measures in an attempt to stay on an even plane.
DeChambeau understood why someone as fiery as McIlroy would want to make sure he didn’t lose an edge.
“I think there’s a ton of respect in that. I don’t think it’s anything more than him seeing a potential and going, okay, am I missing something? As competitive as he is, as competitive as we all are, I think they were looking at it from a perspective of, man, I don’t want to get left behind,” DeChambeau said. “That’s in a positive way. That’s not in a negative way at all. It was like, wow, I want to see if I can do that, too.”
Everyone loves a golf-specific exercise that checks all the boxes.
This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek and her trainer Jon Freed, demonstrate the quadruple plank kettlebell pull-through as an excellent workout for golfers due to several reasons.
Golfers require strong and stable core muscles to maintain balance and control during the swing. This exercise targets the core, particularly the transverse abdomens and obliques, which are essential for rotational stability and power.
The movement mimics the rotational aspects of a golf swing. As you pull the kettlebell across your body, you engage the muscles that are crucial for generating rotational force, helping to improve the power and accuracy of your swing.
The exercise emphasizes resisting rotation, which is vital for maintaining proper form and preventing injury during the dynamic motions of golf.
The quadruped position also challenges your balance and coordination.
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This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek and Bradley Borne from Lab 18 are in the gym demonstrating a quick and easy dynamic warm up that can be done anywhere with just a golf club. This exercise is great for extension and rotation.
This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek and Bradley Borne from Lab 18, are in the gym demonstrating how to improve shoulder mobility and rotation. This exercise is great for golf because you are getting external and core rotation.
To win at Royal Liverpool, golfers need to have their bodies primed for competition, and that starts with recovery.
Driving from Los Angeles Country Club in California to TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, covers 3,055 miles and would, according to Google Maps, take you about 58 hours to complete by car.
Needless to say, after Rory McIlroy lost the U.S. Open by one shot to Wyndham Clark, emptied his locker and packed his bags on Sunday, he was not hitting the road and driving to the following week’s Travelers Championship. McIlroy stayed in Los Angeles that night, had a few glasses of red wine with dinner and headed to bed before flying east on Monday morning. However, the four-time major winner went home to Florida instead of Connecticut to see his family, get some rest and recover.
“I try to get into the time zone where I’m going as quickly as possible,” McIlroy said Wednesday evening at TPC River Highlands. “I didn’t do a good job of that on Monday night because I started watching TV, and all of a sudden it was midnight [in Florida] and it was 9 p.m. back there and I didn’t feel tired.”
Many of the game’s best players have descended upon Royal Liverpool Golf Club after flying across Asia, Africa, and Europe. They have come from Australia, South America and North America too, and must recover quickly to be at their best on Thursday and contend for the Claret Jug.
Mobility can be a great place to start in your training.
As most of the country is beginning to defrost after a long winter, your body may not be used to playing long rounds of golf or even practicing.
In preparation to swinging a club in the cold weather, many golfers fail to properly warm-up for a range session or their round and that can be a recipe for injury.
Common injuries among golfers affect the back, knees, wrists, shoulders and more. The back is not designed to rotate for a golf swing, so mobility can be a great place to start in your training.
Members of the NYU Langone Health Sports Performance Center team spoke to Golfweek’s fitness guru Averee Dovsek and gave some helpful tips on preventing injuries for golfers.
Everyone is on the hunt for more power in the golf swing and half the battle comes from lower body strength.
Everyone is on the hunt for more power in the golf swing and half the battle of speed comes from lower body strength.
Golfweek’s Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to do a plyometric box jump, which will help with lower body strength and will get players to use the ground during their golf swing. Start on a low box and work up to a higher box. Rushing into higher boxes off the bat could result in injury.
Exercises using a medicine ball can be a great start in developing a better turn, weight transfer and pivot.
Averee Dovsek is in the gym demonstrating a medicine ball rotational throw that helps with rotational power in the golf swing.
Many people are looking to gain speed in 2023 and this exercise is a great place to start. A lot of speed comes from your lower body and the rotation you can make, so a medicine ball is a great tool to increase your power and get comfortable with rotating.
