Golf Fitness every Golf Swing needs!

The five kettlebell exercises that you need to build a better golf swing. Today, we are going to look at posture, rotation, sequencing, stability, and balance. This is how you build a better golf swing.

Going to improve your biomechanics, lessen your injury likelihood, and help you to make a more powerful, effortless golf swing every time you get to the course. >> [music] [music] >> Starting out with posture. This is a movement that not too many golfers, or people in general, use, but they really should.

This is the Jefferson curl. This is going to be very slow and controlled with a mid to light weight kettlebell. And what we're looking at is moving all the way through the spine.

You know how the spine is comprised, lots of segments. What we want to do is go segment by segment from the top down to work on that flexion to improve your posture. So, I've got a 16 kg, 35 lb kettlebell here.

I'm on a raised platform, and here, we're not hinging from the hip. We're trying to roll down from the top of the spine. So, you go from the head, rolling down forwards, really exaggerate that feeling.

It's quite strange the first time you do it. As you work all the way through the spine, that kettlebell is going to go past the level that you're on, and you're going to feel it in the hamstrings, you're going to feel it all the way through the hips, the lower back, all the way through the spine. And what you're doing in this position is just relaxing, trying to allow that lengthening to happen, bit of decompression, get everything feeling good.

So, you're going to hold for 10 seconds, then you're going to come back up. Don't just stand, go from the bottom this time to the top. So, it's this curl, this rounded movement is actually what you're working on.

And yes, it might look strange, but this is incredibly impactful if you want to work through a great range of motion, strengthen the spine, build your ability, and allow a range of motion that improves your golf swing. One more time, we go from the head down through the neck into the middle of the back. We're rounding down in control, full contact through the feet.

We extend that range of motion down. And this is freeing up your body more than you can think. All the way back up, stay nice slow movement through the segments.

And now we take that to the golf swing. Posture in the golf swing. This is all about getting synced up and connected to the ground, so that your movement has a solid foundation.

We can get too rounded, which is going to restrict the motion of the shoulders and how far the club can travel. You can also get into too much extension, where we stick out the backside, or we arch our head back. Again, you're not going to be able to make any real rotational patterns work consistently well.

So, what we're looking at is stacking our body above the feet. Basically, get comfortable, feel your feet against the ground, set your neutral spine position by really engaging the quads, the glutes, and all of the big muscles, so that when you get over the ball, your arms are hanging freely, we can feel the ground through both feet, we're not excessively tilted in either direction. And then once we have that position set, that becomes the base for your entire swing.

And if you continue to work with the kettlebell, work in your mobility, we can retain those spinal angles in the best way possible through each golf swing. We've set that posture, we've set that neutral spine. Now, we look at rotation and really focusing in on the core and your ability to move around that spine that we've now put in a good position.

For this, we use the rotational chop. We're in this split stance position, which is a great place for golfers to work from because your body has to actively work to stabilize asymmetrically, with each side of the body doing a different thing. Then we get the kettlebell.

I've got the same weight here. You can vary this more. The simple rule for lifting weights as a golfer, as anybody else, is to lift the most challenging weight with excellent form and good speed.

Okay? Progress over time. For this one, we're going to hold the kettlebell upside down.

It's a lot easier to work through this range of motion in doing so, and it's that rotational pattern that we're focusing on. So, we're going to load down towards the trail leg. Then we're going to use the strength of the core and the power to go up and around that lead leg.

And you can see how much that's really working everything in the upper body. Plus you got that lower body stability. We get some reps there.

We control. Work that nice rotational pattern, and we're using that movement through the spine. Now turning into rotational force.

And the better you can move as a golfer, the more you're going to be able to load into that backswing. And then deliver real power down into the ball. And we're always going to work both sides.

So, as we swap, we stabilize. And it's that power up and over the lead leg that really gets this done. So, start with a weight that allows you to move with excellent form, and then take this rotation into the swing so it's effortless, more stable, and more balanced as you deliver power and consistency into the ball.

Rotation in the golf swing. You'll know that you have to rotate when you hit the ball. But, are you doing it effectively?

And can you improve it by using that kettlebell swing? Yes, you can. So, rotation, generally speaking, we're looking for that 90° shoulder turn.

Some players can go more. Some will be restricted, but can make a good golf swing anyways. But, what we want to focus on is the use of the ground as the anchor to build consistent rotation.

Because as we did with the weight, once we load off the ball, we have to be able to push into the ground so the trail hip sets a stable position, and it's going to turn roughly half as much as the shoulders. So, if we load into that hip at 45°, turn the shoulders to 90, You're going to be in an excellent biomechanical position to then unwind, release, and then see the same on the other side of the ball. And that really is one of the biggest keys to look for in your golf swing.

When you are practicing the movement, we want to feel as though the focus goes to the backswing, knowing that if we load and rotate through the core, we can unwind and deliver that back to the ball effortlessly and consistently. So, as you can see, we are getting more dynamic as we work through, and now we get into your sequence. That kinematic sequence is how you move in the golf swing.

We're talking from the ground up and then back down into the ball. So, we've got two levels here, and this is the rotational swing. So, level one, we're going to take our golf posture, and we're going to go into the rotational swing itself.

And we've talked about this one before. If you're new to the channel, make sure it's not just arms trying to move over the hips. We're really going to match the mechanics of the golf swing.

We're going to load into the hips, load into the ground, and then react in the opposite direction. You can see there, when we fire the hip and push into the ground, that push, that rotation, all of the power is coming from the ground. If we try to lift this up with the arms, you can see we can barely get it to head height.

If we use the ground, if we use our hips like you need to do in the golf swing, we immediately see that kettlebell accelerate and create power in that rotational pattern. Now, this is huge because if you can sequence like that in the golf swing, you're going to hit the ball so much better and so much further with less effort. That's what we're all looking for.

That is what you are training for. And if you are at a high level, you can take this up a notch. You can go to the step-to-sway.

So, here, we're going to add in a step before the swing, and this enhances that ground reaction force even further. So, feet together, step, load, and swing. Feet together, step, load, swing.

And that is huge force. If you are able to do that with great form, with consistency, and on both sides of the body, we're going to transfer that into incredible performance in the swing. Sequencing for speed, ball striking, and consistency.

This really does follow on exactly what we just talked about with rotation. Now that we've trained it through the ground, so we know when to fire the hips, we just build on that to create a repeatable pattern. So, in terms of sequencing, it comes down to that rotation we just talked about.

If we load against the ground, naturally, the muscles will turn against that stability and stretch. We know that when a muscle stretches to its range of motion, it then returns. So, if we do this correctly, if we can load against the ground, naturally, our body is going to change direction.

So many golfers come into issues when they get to the top and pull down with the arms. That over-the-top motion causes a slice, causes a lack of distance, and basically ruins your game. If we can load and rotate, and then trust the hips to fire and generate force into the club head, if we allow the sequencing to continue, the hips will fire, the club head will get back to the ball at the bottom of the swing arc, and that is consistent ball striking.

It's not about timing the hands, it's not about being able to control it. What we're looking to do is create the most repeatable swing possible, so the swing impacts the ball at the same point as often as possible. Okay, we're rotating better, we're creating more speed, we're getting super dynamic.

Now, we add stability, because if you can't be stable, you can't be consistent. For this, we go to a heavier kettlebell. Right here, we got 32 kilos, 70 lbs, and this is the kettlebell swing.

Super simple, super effective, and one of the best things a golfer can do. So, here we are going into that hip hinge, which means we're focusing on the glutes, the hamstrings, and pushing into the ground with the big muscles, so our posterior chain is on go and strong all the time. So, make sure you do this well.

Too many people squat down into the swing, and if we squat and then try and swing, we really can't fire the hips, okay? What we're looking for is this really defined hinge pattern, so the kettlebell is going to stay high up the thigh. We're going to keep our chest up, and then you're going to push through the ground.

So, it's two really nice short range of motion, powerful reps. Again, all of the power is coming from the ground through into the upper body. Because if we try to lift this without the legs, it's not going to happen.

Just like in your golf swing. If we swing all arms, you're not transferring the energy, you're not stable, you're not going to be consistent. Use this over time with a heavier weight, increasing reps, you get stronger legs, a stronger back, and then a stronger golf swing.

If we're going to be able to use the ground, if we're going to apply the club to the ball at the bottom of the swing out the same way time after time, we not only need great rotation, we also need stability. That's where that strength comes in. That's where the kettlebell swing strengthens up the lower body and the posterior chain, so that your posture, repeatability is always on point.

And you can feel that in your impact position. So, if you stand there with the golf club and mimic the impact position, you can feel how much pressure there is through the glutes, how we're extending the lead leg, and how we have to stay in this tilt with an active core to retain stability. If we can't do that, we get that dreaded early extension.

As soon as you stand up, that's a weakness in the glutes, the hips are too tight, and then no power in the club head. So, as you train the kettlebell swing, your lower body, specifically the glutes, can not only load and create that power, they also deliver the stability needed to get into the back of the ball, compress your irons, and rip your driver. We've worked on posture, rotation, sequencing, stability, and now we're going to balance and the finish position.

For that, we're back to the lighter kettlebell, and this is going to be the rotational push press. So, focusing more on the upper body here, and as you can see with these five movements, we literally work on everything. You're going to be more mobile, more stable, stronger, sequencing and rotating better, and then you can deliver all of the force that you want into your golf swing.

This is a great way to finish it off. So, we take the kettlebell into that front rack hold. You can see here, it's resting on the bicep and the forearm.

The hand is here ready to go. What we're working on here is that rotation down, creating torque against the ground like you do in your golf swing. We're going to fire the hips, press up and through.

Okay? If you can match this sequence with a balanced position and great overhead mechanics, everything else is going to make sense, and all of a sudden you have five kettlebell exercises for a workout that's always going to improve your golf swing. So, we load down, rotate, and press.

The more you can then slow down on the way back, the better. Rotate, and [snorts] press. Always in control.

And you [snorts] can even see the mechanics here match up to your golf swing. We're trying to peak, we're trying to fire the hips, balance at the end, and that is going to be incredibly impactful. All right, if you put all of these together and work on this way work on the swing the way we are looking at, you're going to get consistent results, your body's going to feel good, there's going to be less injuries, and better golf.

As we know, because Scottie Scheffler ruined the idea that you have to finish in perfect balance every single time. What we have to do is we balance enough through the swing to get that excellent impact position to match the face to the path for the ball desired ball flight. And then afterwards, we just got to unwind and slow down.

That is the function of the follow-through. It's to slow the club down and not injure your body. So, what you'll see in my swing is this big clearing of the left foot.

Now, I try to push as hard as possible through the ball to get that lead leg extension instead of that collapse towards the target. That allows me to clear the lead hip, allow the face to turn through, and gets me swinging a little bit more to the left as a right-handed player so I can hit the cut consistently. As you can see with that rotational push press, it's about delivery of force using the ground and then being able to accept that force and slow down so your swing is stable, efficient, and injury-proof as you deliver a lot of force.

We'll give it one more good swing here. So, we align to the target. I like to play that little cut.

You're going to see that lead leg move, but we're still going to retain that balance. See, you just a couple yards of fade. That leg pushes out.

That allows me to clear, gives me extra speed, feels really good, and I stay balanced even at high speed. So, we're going to combine all of those kettlebell movements to build up your posture, your backswing sequencing, and then stability and balance through the ball and to the finish of your swing. With any training, you need to start at a weight where you can hit those movements with perfect form.

Build up over time, increase the intensity, and then always practice in the swing. Think about how those movements transfer. Feel the footwork.

Practice your swing. Think about the skill aspect, and always be improving your body so that you can increase the skill level, and then you see the real results when you get out on the course. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure you head over to the DRVN app now.

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