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Many golfers may think they don’t need a fitness regimen in order to improve their game, and this thinking could not be any further from the truth. Most importantly, frequent exercise will help a person play the game they love throughout their lives. In addition, there are other added health benefits. Frequent exercise will also help you to achieve better all-around play on the course, including such benefits as better flexibility, strength, stamina, balance, injury prevention and coordination. All of which could lead to a longer drive, more consistency with irons, and faster swing speeds. This in turn, hopefully, will help lower your scores. We all know less strokes means less wear and tear on the body.

Speaking from some personal experience, I have found consistent exercise makes it easier for me to swing a golf club. I never feel like I have to try too hard, and I can hit the ball with plenty of control and distance with what feels like 80-90% effort rather than going all out on every swing. This has kept me injury free, and more importantly has improved my ball striking. I may not hit the same scores each round, and of course some days are better than others. What I do know is I can leave the course knowing I will not be in any pain; will have a clear thought process and I can play multiple rounds per week. Also, if you’re as practice obsessed as I am, the fitness portion is an absolute necessity as it allows me to be at the range consistently each week, but not overdoing it.

Hopefully, I have gotten you excited about exercising in order to improve your golf game. I truly believe a golfer of any level will see increased performance on the course if they put in a moderate amount of effort each week doing the right kinds of exercises. The best piece of advice I could give anyone who is interested in starting is to take things slowly at first. You can start with light workouts 3 times a week with a NexGen Fitness trainer. This will ease you into a routine and more importantly not burn you out. One of the hardest things about exercise is sticking with it. However, if you make a commitment to improving your health and your golf game, I think you will see some great results that will make it worth it. The exercises can be as basic as it gets and not something you may think has to be so difficult in order to achieve results on the golf course.

-Chris Monteleone | ACE-CPT