Golf muscles

I have read on this forum the benefits of having an exercise regime to improve your golf and overall fitness on the course. I fully support these from both a golf point of view and also because of the wide health benefits gained from exercise.

A part of the body that is often overlooked when golf swing fitness is measured are the hands. I watched an old TV documentary (1970s) called "This Game of Golf" with the legendary Henry Cotton. He had a group of young players on the range at his Penina Course where they went for Henry's expert advice. He said to one, who turned out to be a decent golfer, Howard Clark something along the lines "your nothing if you've not got good hands", as Howard was hitting away at a car tyre to improve his hand and arm strength. Others in the film, one I recognised as Warren Humphreys and I am sure one was also Nick Faldo.

So the key message from this thread is that I feel it would be beneficial for all golfers to develop their hand strength. Henry Cotton recommended dangling from door frames, finger tip press ups and swinging and Indian bat whilst watching the TV (who said golfers in the 1930s did not have conditioning, Henry also skipped to improve leg strength). Whilst you don't have tofollow these ideas, all golfers should try to improve theeir hand strenght. I used two training devices. I used a Poweraball gyrating device and also a Gripp squeezing ball.

What I have found with these is that the club feels a lot lighter in my hands and I don't need to grip the club as firmly as before which I put down to the increased strenghth and flexibilty in the hands and forearm muscles. My swing also seems to have freed up.

is forearm strength the same thing as hand strength? not to sound sarcastic but i have never heard of hand strength before though i have heard forearm strength.

basball pitchers have great forearm strength, just ask a pitcher how to improve forearm strength. as they use a suprizingly similar method to pitch. they use a windup and weight transfer and propel their hand with their body then release with their hands using their forearms strength.

a good exersize for forearms would be to tie a weight to a string and let the wieght hand a few feet and tie the other end to a stick and roll the stick in your hand to roll up the weight as if reving a motorcycle.......(http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/g...arm-wrist.html an exersize ball is good, but that seems to be easy to to hundreds of reps becuase of lack of resistance, that will give you a bit of strength but more stamina..... for explosive strength, you want to less reps. so you can add as much weigh tas you can handle to do 8-12 reps.

correct me if i'm wrong drbrian

Hey Rackster,

I'm not sure if developing a strong grip or strong forearms is or isn't beneficial in golf. Most people don't train either well or often and its the "weak" link in strength training. If you want to train grip there are three types, pinch, crush, and support. Each grip uses different methods and there are literally dozens of ways to train.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

what is pinch, cruch and support, and why muscle to they trian......

i would think a strong forearm would be benificial, i believe that is hwy villeges hits so far, that guy is ripped. not a strong grip, but doesn't a strong forearm let you release faster?
http://www.golfdigest.com/search/ind...rvillagas.html

Hey Igsky,
Like I said before I am not sure why a strong grip or forearm is beneficial to the golf swing. I broke the hamate bone in my left hand playing softball. It took almost 6 months to feel "normal" and be able to swing hard again.

The hand works in conjunction with the forearm. If you are training grip you are training the forearm as well. I think that you could have a very strong grip, muscular forearms but a weak core and the transfer of power to the ball would be lost. But a person who is fingernail to toenail strong (in relation to power output) would still have an advantage in developing clubhead speed.

The issue of strength in the hands or forearms is not that simple. Strong hands allow you to have the club more in the fingers rather than the flat of your hand but strong wrists/forearms allows less clubhead twist or wristbreak in the rough. So it's a good thing?

Well too a point!

Too much muscle in the wrists can have an adverse affect.

Swing speed and good rotation is reliant on flexibility even in the wrists - some say problems start in the hands (often too tight!). Try this - clench your fist as tight as you can and now see how difficult it is to rotate your hand about your wrist. Now relax the hands and try the same - it should feel more flexible but importantly you now have a greater range of motion.

Also remeber that the lower arms and wrists contain extensors and flexsors therefore any exercise needs to be symmetrical. The motorbike reving should also be done forwards and backwards, and with the palms face up.

Hope this helps.