Top 5 Dumbbell Exercises for Golf Swing Training

The five dumbbell movements golfers need to include in their offseason training. These five exercises are going to help you improve your golf swing. And we're going to break it down for you.

The first movement is for your setup. The second, we look at the back swing, then we go into the down swing, how to create more power at impact, and then how to be more balanced into the follow through. So, you need all five, and we're going to help you to get them into your training, to transfer them into your swing.

So you can improve your game and play better when it matters. To work on your posture, we are going to use a crossbody Bulgarian split squat. The key here is that we're trying to strengthen your posterior chain, maintain a neutral spine, and improve your posture by being more connected and more stable all the way through the exercise.

So, in terms of how to execute this, we need something to rest the foot on. You can work through lunge variations as well, [snorts] but you're going to find a platform. If you really want to work on this, sit down into a 90 degree position, stand up tall, take one step, and then bring that foot back.

That's going to give you a good distance to the platform, and that allows you to work a full range of motion as we work through. The main thing is we don't want to see this chest really losing position. You can see how we're not maintaining a neutral spine.

Want to keep the eyes fixed forwards. We're working the lead knee over the foot. Drive down into that full range of motion and push into the ground.

Now, clearly, [snorts] we're building that lower body stability. We're building lower body strength, but also by using the crossbody position, the dumbbell in the opposing hand to the leg that is working, we're syncing up the whole body, and we're improving your connection from the ground through the core into the upper body, which is vital for your swing. So as you then work on that strength and that stability, we can improve your posture by maintaining that neutral spine, engaging the core, and building up the overall connection of how your body works.

Now, one question before we go on is how much weight to use. Two ways to look at this. Number one, use the heaviest weight that you can whilst maintaining excellent form.

Number two is that use different weights relative to what you are trying to achieve. Higher reps, higher volume, you're obviously going to take that weight down. If we're looking for power, strength, we're going to take that weight up.

Form is number one. And then look at how many reps you need. All right, but this linked into your posture will improve your posterior chain, the big muscles, and get you set up over the ball with confidence and a great position.

Exercise two is the hip separator. You're going to do this one down on the ground. And the key here is upper body stability and rotation through the torso.

That is key if you want to get a solid back swing. Because if you think about exercise one, we're more stable in the ground. We're working the big muscles.

The legs are firing. Now we have our posture. In exercise two, we're working on your rotation so that when you get to the top of the swing, that foundation is still there.

And then you're more stable in the upper body and you've hit that rotational pattern. So again, when we work through this movement, this is very slow and controlled. You're not trying to move quickly.

This is all about range of motion and control. So take a lying position with your feet flat down, holding that dumbbell up. And whenever you're in a static position, make sure you really solidify through the joints.

Any weakness is going to compromise the whole movement. So push up, stabilize the wrist, through the elbow, through to the shoulder. Take your opposing arm out, and you're going to turn the legs away from that dumbbell.

So, it's in my right hand. I'm rotating to the left side. We got a big stretch across the whole body, but this shoulder is staying super stable.

And then we return to center. Nice and controlled. Feel the body rotate.

Control through the shoulder. And this is huge for the back swing. You're obviously going to change arms as well.

You can change in any way you want to. Rotate it away. Pushing up to maintain that stability in the shoulder and working through the core.

Working through the torso to create that rotation, that stretch that you need for an excellent back swing. And if we look at the back swing over here, it really is about turning against the lower body. We want to feel as though we wind up behind the ball.

We get a big stretch across the big muscles through the back in the upper body to create that rotational loading that gives you that easy power. This here is going to help you to separate. It's going to help you to load those muscles.

And if you add it to exercise one, you got an excellent platform already to build a better golf swing. Okay, we're stable. We're starting to rotate through the upper body.

Now, we're looking at the down swing. And the key in the down swing is staying connected to the ground. How we work down to push out of the ground and maximize those ground reaction forces.

All right. So, an incredible way to look at this is the loaded jump. This is explosive.

This works into your rotational patterns because this is all about vertical force. All right? So, if you want to be able to separate and use the ground on the way down, this is the force that we're looking for because we're trying to load and then explode up and through.

All right? So, again, use weights that are suitable for you. You can work on this over time.

Sometimes go lighter, sometimes heavier, and just understand those performance elements. It's why you need a good program. It's why you need the DRVN app.

So right here we got a couple of 22 lbers, 10 kilos each. And what I'm looking to do first of all is really work into the ground. This isn't just a case of trying to jump with dumbbells.

The key aspect here, especially for your down swing, is understanding how to load into the ground, how to load your legs, and then fire in the opposing direction. Okay? Because the more force we can put down, the more force we can put up.

All right? So from here, we're in a nice tall posture. We got both dumbbells.

We're really going to compress into the ground and then maximize the acceleration. Big breath in. Focus on the landing as well.

You need to be able to decelerate and with load that's going to be really beneficial. And again, so you're going really explosive reps every single time. Keep your form.

Feel your feet pushing through the ground and get faster every single rep. Now, in your golf swing, as we just said, we're loaded against the ground. We'll rotate to the top.

Now, on our way down, whilst we unwind, if we can go down into the ball and push, that's how you see people hit it so far. All right, that's why these movements work so well together. This is going to enhance your down swing, enhance your power through the ball, and then you're going to start to feel how fast you can move the club when your body works correctly.

That's why we're training. That's why using these dumbbell movements and that's how we improve the down swing into the impact position. Now, a huge correlation to your power output is upper body strength.

All right? And these workout exercises are put together specifically. These are five exercises that you can use to really work on your swing and they all work together.

Like we said, number one, we're looking at lower body stability, balance, and strength. Number two, we're rotating through the upper body and improving your overhead stability. Number three, we're maxing out your acceleration and vertical force.

So number four, we're looking at upper body power output with the alternating bench press. Right? The alternating aspect means that we have to coordinate a little bit better through the core and in the upper body.

Again, that connection, that focus really does help. Now, when you work through the bench press, like with anything else, if we're really trying to build power, we want to be slow down and fast up. Okay?

Slow eccentric, fast concentric. You're loading the musculature and then you're accelerating. So that's what we're really going to focus on here.

And again, you can load this up in different ways relative to what you're trying to achieve. Heavier, you're going to be onto strength. That challenging, but some maximal is going to be power.

And then lighter and faster is how you work your speed. But here, keep that core engaged. Working both dumbbells up at once.

We're going to lower one. Slow down, fast up. Slow down, fast up.

Every single time. Feel how you load the chest. Feel how you load the powerful muscles.

And again, keep that upper the dumbbell that's maintained in that held position. Really load the joint, stay stable, and fire across the whole system. So, here we're working that upper body output.

And because we've already worked our rotation, the vertical force, this is all about how we really release the hands into the ball, maximize the strike, maximize the speed into impact, as well as squaring the face so you make effortless power more consistent to hit better drives, hit better divots, and basically improve your swing all the way through the back. Our final exercise is for the follow through, but this is also about stability, balance, and rotation all the way through the swing. It's the split stance rotational chop.

It's one of our favorite exercises to engage through the core and the upper body while stabilizing through the lower. Okay, it's huge for your rotational pattern. And again, a dumbbell is an awesome way to get this done.

So, we go into this kneeling pattern. From here, we really want to load down into that trail side. And then we're working up and over that lead side.

Again, under such load for rotation is going to make you more durable, more connected, more aware of your movement patterns. It's going to improve your game all around from a physical viewpoint. All right, so from here, we [snorts] really do load.

Make sure you're solid against the ground with that front foot. Work through the core up and around. Work that full range of motion.

This shouldn't just be the arms. You really should feel as though you can work your core, work the upper body, and create a stronger system all the way around. Now, this exercise really does bring it all together.

Again, to go from the top, we're more stable. Were power more powerful in the lower body. Then we understood how to load and turn through the upper body, integrating vertical force, which is maximizing your ground reaction forces in the swing, hitting that bench press for upper body power output.

This brings it all together. We're rotating around the system. We're loaded.

We're improving. And these five exercises are incredibly powerful for your golf swing training because what we're trying to achieve is everything we just talked about. We want you standing over the ball, feeling connected, confident, and stable.

We then want you to be able to load and turn into the back swing, staying in position, loading for excellent energy and power transfer, and then pushing out of the ground as you change direction, adding that upper body power to really deliver the strike and a perfect rotational pattern with load, durability, strength, everything that's going to lead to a better golf swing. Now, you need to apply these to your training over the off season and during the season as well. But if you want to really put these into the best program possible, head over to the DRVN app, get the right program for you, work on progressive overload, increasing difficulty all this off season, and as soon as we get into 2026, you pull the clubs out, start to work on that game.

The body's going to be able to offer so much more. So you can practice more, deliver more speed, deliver more consistency, and then that skill aspect is so much easier to acquire. That's how you improve a game.

That's how we do things here at DRVN. Appreciate you taking the time to watch these movements today. Hit like, hit subscribe, tell your friends, and then go get your reps.