Golf is a high-impact sporting activity, just like hockey and football. However, most people tend to ignore this fact until they overuse some muscles, thus causing imbalances that lead to muscle injuries, i.e., tears and pulls and body pains. All professional golfers perform regular exercises for golf, including tiger woods pilates, to become fit and improve their game performance. Pilates exercises for golf play a significant role in preventing injuries, improving flexibility and injury recovery among players.
Is pilates good for golf?
Generally, Pilates exercises will help players improve their bodies and game performance. Professional golfers like Tiger Woods use pilates to get better in the game and reduce injuries.
Pilates and golf go hand in hand. Typically, they share most fundamentals, including centering, proper body alignment, breathing, concentration, and fluidity. Golfers need body stability to perform better in the game. The role of body stability is to ensure proper movements and reduce the risk of injury. Poor stability will compromise balance and coordination.
How to perform Pilates exercises for golf? Step by step
Whether you’re a beginner or a professional player, it’s essential to integrate pilates exercises for golf during training. Having 2-3 sessions every week will help you improve your spinal mobility, balance, core stability, and agility. Below are some best pilates exercises for golf:
1. Pelvic tilt
The pelvic tilt is among the easiest pilates for golf exercises that assists in improving coordination and mobility in the player’s hips, pelvis, and lumbar spine. That is essential, especially during golf swings, since power must be transferred to the upper body. Below are the steps to perform pelvic tilt:
- Lie on your back on a flat surface
- Keep your knees bent and arms by your side
- Inhale while tilting your pelvis away from the rib cage
- Then exhale slowly as you tilt the pelvis back until you touch the floor
- Repeat the procedure 10-20 times
2. Side-lying leg circles
The main role of side-lying leg circles is to improve the golf player’s mobility, core stability, and balance. When there’s low hip mobility, both your backswing and downswing will be affected. To perform this exercise, you need to:
- Lie down on your side on a flat surface
- Extend your supporting arm over the head
- Lift your top leg as far as possible as you inhale slowly
- Exhale slowly as you circle the lifted leg while keeping your body still
- Repeat 8-10 circles and change perform on your other leg
3. Chest lift
The main role of this exercise is to build spinal stability and abdominal strength. To perform a chest lift, follow the following steps:
- Lie on your back on a flat surface
- Ensure your pelvis is in a neutral position
- Keep your hands under your head
- Pull the elbows slowly towards each other
- Lift your chest slowly up and down
4. Bridge
This pilates exercise helps to strengthen the gluteals, thus improving stability and power during a golf swing. Various bridge exercise variations include the basic bridge that’s mostly recommended for beginners. To perform bridge, you need to:
- Lie on your back on a flat surface
- Keep your knees bent and arms by your side
- Lift one foot slightly from the floor surface without shifting the position of your hips.
- Return the foot to the surface while inhaling and life the other one as you exhale
- Repeat the same as many times as you can
5. Side leg lifts
Most golfers perform this pilates exercise to strengthen their hips stabilizer. The exercise is a bit easy and involves the following steps:
- Lie on one side while ensuring your body is straight
- Align the top and bottom parts of your hip
- Lift your leg repeatedly and ensure it doesn’t go higher than the hip
- Repeat the same on the other leg
These are some of the top pilates exercises for golf. You can also consider performing quadruped rotations, spine twist to saw, and single thigh stretch.
Benefits of pilates for golfers
Most golfers have realized the importance of Pilates exercises in improving strength, body control, balance, and overall performance. Additionally, if you engage in pilates for golfers exercises, you’ll avoid all unnecessary issues that come with playing this sport, including pain in the shoulders and the back. Below are some top benefits of pilates for golfers:
a. Improves core strength
It’s essential to have core strength when playing golf. That not only helps to prevent injury while playing but also improves performance. Having a strong core also helps improve power, thus controlling the player’s swing. Core strength can also improve body posture and reduce neck and back pressure that results in pain.
b. Enhances stability and balance
A golfer will only make a powerful and effective swing if there’s great body stability and balance. Pilates exercises for golf help with spine and pelvic alignment to make movements easier. Pilates exercises like a double leg stretch, leg circles, and side leg lifts strengthen leg muscles, thus improving stability. A player needs to have strong glutes, hamstrings, and quads to make powerful and efficient shots. They also strengthen weak muscles and improve muscular imbalances.
c. Improves control
It becomes easier to control the golf club and ball when there’s better body balance. Pilates for golfers exercises usually strengthens core muscles, i.e., Pelvic, back, and deep abdominal muscles. That further improves body posture and makes movements easier. These exercises also lengthen group muscles mainly found in the back, arms, shoulders, and legs, thus improving range of motion and flexibility.
d. Reduces the risk of back strain
Golfers usually overuse back muscles when swinging the club. That majorly results in back strain. Pilates helps engage the abdominal muscles, thus reducing the risk of straining or injuring your back. That also makes it easier to create more accurate and powerful shots without any fear of getting back strains.
e. Improves flexibility
Pilates for golfers exercises helps improve flexibility. Flexibility determines how a player makes a compact and powerful swing. If you’re flexible, reaching full motion range becomes easier, thus reaching maximum distance.
These are some top benefits of pilates exercises for golf. If you want to improve your overall golfing performance, you should consider trying out the different pilates exercises. If you don’t know how to go about the exercises, you can consider finding a trainer to help you. Apart from improving performance, you’ll also avoid injuries that can interfere with your daily routines. After all, you’ve got your personal life to live apart from golf.