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Pull That Golf Swing Into Shape

By Robert Mottram, PT, ATC

Have you noticed lately the posture of the top golfers? Their heads, chests and buttocks are tall and straighter than many older players. There are biomechanical as well as safety reasons for this athletic posture. To help develop this position pro golfers use pulling exercises to promote this good posture by targeting the back muscles.

Unfortunately, pulling exercises are often under utilized by amateur golfers in weight training programs compared to pushing exercises. Chest pressing, shoulder pressing, and anterior deltoid and triceps isolation exercises often times far outnumber pulling movements. Even worse, when pushing exercises are coupled with poor posture (forward head, rounded shoulders, excessive upper back forward bend) it interferes with the golf swing and increases the chance of injury. Common golf injuries occur in the shoulder joint, shoulder girdle, and neck. Nerve impingement syndromes and neck sprain/strains are top on the list. Programs that have an equal or greater number of pulling versus pushing exercises will help reduce the risk of these injuries.

Secondary injuries occur within the low back area, particularly sprain/strains and disc injuries. These injuries do not develop solely because of poor muscular balance and bad exercise selection. More often than not, people do not appropriately stabilize the spine, pelvis, and lower extremities when performing the pulling movement or golf swing. The incidence of back injuries could be lower if exercisers were properly instructed and trained using functional pulling movements that integrate the core and legs. We are aware of the need for a well-balanced exercise routines that include pulling exercises, but it is equally important to examine the type of pulling exercises that the golfer is practicing.

A common pulling exercise is the seated row exercise, which is traditionally performed on a variety of machines where the torso is supported by a chest pad in the seated position. There is no question that these exercises target the large back muscles and will help people look better with their shirt off or in low cut dress from the back, but do nothing as far as integrating the core and legs. A step in the right direction is performing the traditional seated cable rowing exercise. At least with this exercise, the spinal erectors and the supporting cast of core musculature are activated. The problem still exists that individuals are sitting on their buttocks when training this pulling movement. If these are the only type of rowing exercises they perform, they are more likely to suffer a back injury when having to perform a functional pulling motion on their feet. We must remember that most of your day spent on the golf course, and in real life, is on your feet, bent forward, and involve the core and lower extremities. We often have to perform the pulling motion in a semi lunge position such as when lifting the rake out of the bunker, or in a bent over position as when picking the golf bag out of the trunk of your car.

It is important that golfers learn to stabilize the spine effectively prior to and during pulling exercises to avoid injury to the spine. Realizing the importance of activating the internal corset ("inner abdominal unit") and assume ideal posture prior to and during the pulling motion will help protect the spine, and make the pulling exercise and golf swing more effective.

Here are some the key points to locking in the inner unit for your pulling exercise and your set up position at address. Draw the belly button up and in toward the spine (think skinny), lift the ribcage, expand the chest, keep the head/neck and lumbar spine in neutral alignment. We prefer you have more extension in the back. When you expand the chest and slightly draw in the shoulder blade(s) toward the spine, you activate many stability muscles round the shoulder blades, spine and abdominal areas.

Now you are set to pull the weight, or pull the "trigger" on the first tee.