This question comes up so often from both parents and juniors themselves.
My daughter needs to get stronger
Or
Dude! I need to get stronger, what should I do?
“Stronger” is very vague depending on who we’re talking about. It’s easy for a 8/9 year old to get stronger than they were 6 months ago because of hormones and growing. Simply adding little amounts of strength exercises into their routine will accomplish this.
In this article I want to address the 15/16 year old golfer both boys and girls, because this is where the magic happens.
You see there is the hormone released by the body called testosterone, boys will get more than girls, but this is what you need to really increase strength and keep it.
Getting stronger is one thing, applying it to the swing and hitting the ball farther is another. Although the more overall strength you have, the better off you’ll be when transferring energy to the golf ball.
Having the ability to bench more weight is not the same as being able to deadlift heavier when it comes to the golf swing. Throwing a medicine ball with more velocity is far more important than how much weight you can curl. I think you’re understanding the point here.
So where should you start?
Set a foundation! Hopefully you’ve had some sort of exercise at a younger age(10-12), resistance training is great, but even bodyweight exercises will set you apart here. If you haven’t that’s okay, you’ll just need to dedicate 6-10 weeks of creating that foundation.
A strength foundation means you know, ballistically, how to fire the muscles that will stabilize and support the joints that are put under stress when the resistance is added.
When it comes to getting stronger you need to put your larger muscles under stress so they can break down and create the ability to handle more load. When in the gym and using resistance training you are breaking down the muscles and while you rest the muscles are repairing and getting stronger.
This is why sleep and nutrition are so important. I’ll cover that in a separate article.
The muscles that are most important in creating your foundation are the following:
The Gluteus Maximus and The Gluteus Minimus (Butt Cheeks)
The Core (Abdominals, Internal and External Obliques and the Transverse Abdominis)
The Scapular Muscles in the Upper Back (Rhomboids and Trapezius Groups)
The Shoulder Group (Rotator Cuff and Deltoids)
The foundation is set by first understanding how to use/fire these muscles. It does not come naturally at first, but learning how to activate them without even thinking about it is the goal here.
The neuromuscular system is the part of the brain that tells which muscles to fire and if you’ve never used them or understand how to use them is hard to recruit them when you need them.
So, a simple routine that fires those much needed muscles with little to no resistance is the foundation program everyone needs.
Once you’ve created that foundation performing any type of resistance training will be more effective and safer because those important muscles are now protecting the joints, while the big muscles are doing the work and getting bigger and stronger.
You’ll see the effectiveness in the golf swing by better sequencing, a solid lower body, and stronger posture throughout the swing.