Golf strength exercises: a 2-day plan you can keep

6 lifts, 2 days a week, 8 weeks. Load the lifts so the last rep is hard but still clean, and keep one fast rotational throw in the week. The general strength work builds the force your legs push into the ground, and the fast movement is the part that seems to carry that force into the swing.

Uthoff, Sommerfield and Pichardo (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 2021) turned up 4,557 results and kept 20 training studies. General resistance training on its own averaged a 1.6 percent gain in clubhead speed and 4.8 percent in hitting distance. General training combined with golf-specific work averaged 4.1 percent and 5.2 percent. Their read on what worked: 8-week programs using golf-specific movements at high velocity, 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 15 reps.

One honest limit: that's a systematic review, not a meta-analysis, so those are averages across studies with different golfers and different launch monitors. Only 1 of the 20 tested golf-specific training by itself.

This literature was mostly run on golfers like you. Smith, Callister and Lubans (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2011) reviewed 13 conditioning studies, 9 of which used middle-aged to older male recreational golfers. All but 2 measured clubhead speed, and those reported increases.

Which exercises earn a place is the job of the 8 golf exercises worth doing twice a week. The loading is what follows.

Two days a week is enough for the strength part

Grgic and colleagues (Sports Medicine, 2018) pooled 22 studies comparing training frequencies. Strength effect sizes climbed with frequency: 0.74 at once a week, 0.82 at twice, 0.93 at three times, 1.08 at four or more. Then the volume-equated subgroup showed no significant effect of frequency at all (p = 0.421).

Frequency was mostly carrying volume. Spread the same weekly work across 2 days or across 4 and the pooled studies found no significant strength difference. Two is our coaching choice, because nothing in that data asks a 55-year-old for four.

Frequency was significant in young adults (p = 0.024) and not in middle-aged and older adults (p = 0.093), which is the split that applies to this blog. Most of the pooled studies used untrained participants.

Lifting won't cost you your turn

Alizadeh and colleagues (Sports Medicine, 2023) pooled 55 papers and found resistance training raised range of motion with an effect size of 0.73 (p < 0.001). Against stretch training there was no significant difference (0.08, p = 0.79). Their conclusion was that stretching before or after a lifting session may not be needed to improve flexibility.

Training with body mass only was the exception, with no significant range of motion gain. External load through a full range is what moved those numbers.

Mobility still earns its own slot in the week, and the stretches post covers that side.

The 6 lifts, split across 2 days

Nothing here should pinch or produce sharp pain. Stop the movement that does and see a physio before you try it again. Run the sets and reps below from day one. For the first 2 weeks pick a load light enough to finish every set with 3 reps left over; the load cues in each item are where you want to be by week 3.

Day A

1. Goblet squat. 3 sets of 8. One dumbbell held at your chest, heels flat, chest tall. Pick a weight where rep 8 is hard and rep 9 would still look the same.
2. One-arm dumbbell row. 3 sets of 10 per side. Free hand on a bench, back flat, pull the dumbbell to your hip rather than your shoulder.
3. Rotational medicine ball throw. 3 sets of 5 per side, side-on to a solid wall, back foot driving. This is the high-velocity slot Uthoff's review singled out, so if the throw slows down the ball is too heavy. The slow version of the same turn is the half-kneeling rotation.

Day B

4. Romanian deadlift. 3 sets of 8. Soft knees, push the hips back until the hamstrings load, stand up with a flat back. Start lighter than your squat.
5. Split squat. 3 sets of 8 per leg. Back knee straight down toward the floor, front shin near vertical. Add a dumbbell in each hand once bodyweight stops being hard.
6. Pallof press. 3 sets of 8 per side, holding 3 seconds at the end of each rep. Go up a band only when all 3 holds stay steady.

Both days run about 30 minutes.

How to add weight over 8 weeks

Add weight one exercise at a time, when that exercise is clean. Once it gives you every rep across all 3 sets with something left in the tank, two sessions running, put its weight up by about 5 percent and expect it to feel hard again.

The throw never gets heavier on that schedule. Ours stays where the golfer can still throw fast, usually 4 to 8 pounds, and goes up one step only while the throw still looks quick at the heavier weight.

Keep both lifting days at least 2 days clear of a round that matters. No trial we can find has tested heavy lifting the day before golf, so that spacing is our coaching view rather than a finding. Hellström (Sports Medicine, 2009) reviewed elite golf and concluded that fitness training can increase and perhaps decrease clubhead speed depending on the method and the player. Read that as a caution about program choice.

What to do tomorrow

Run Day A once at a light starting weight and write down every load you used. That page is the whole progression, so check it at the top of every session. Re-test after 8 weeks on the same range with the same club.

FitCaddie's Distance & Speed program is the guided version of the same 8 weeks: ground force, hip drive and rotational core at 10 to 15 minutes a day, with the mobility built in.

Sources

• Uthoff A, Sommerfield LM, Pichardo AW. Effects of resistance training methods on golf clubhead speed and hitting distance: a systematic review. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. 2021;35(9):2651-2660. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000004085
• Smith CJ, Callister R, Lubans DR. A systematic review of strength and conditioning programmes designed to improve fitness characteristics in golfers. Journal of Sports Sciences. 2011;29(9):933-943. doi:10.1080/02640414.2011.571273
• Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Davies TB, Lazinica B, Krieger JW, Pedisic Z. Effect of resistance training frequency on gains in muscular strength: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2018;48(5):1207-1220. doi:10.1007/s40279-018-0872-x
• Alizadeh S, Daneshjoo A, Zahiri A, et al. Resistance training induces improvements in range of motion: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2023;53(3):707-722. doi:10.1007/s40279-022-01804-x
• Hellström J. Competitive elite golf: a review of the relationships between playing results, technique and physique. Sports Medicine. 2009;39(9):723-741. doi:10.2165/11315200-000000000-00000