Improve Your Golf Game with Pilates

Can you improve your golf game with Pilates? You bet! The passion golfers have for their sport often reminds me of the passion runners have for running. They’ll get out no matter the weather to take part in their favourite activity, sometimes even when it hurts. Like running (and many other sports), golfing has a lot of repetitive movements which can not only hamper your performance but even cause injuries. Pilates can assist with both; helping you get stronger and more mobile so you can keep hitting the links all year round. 

Improve Imbalances

Golf has you working one side of your body over and over again. You’re swinging and rotating from the same side of your body maybe hundreds of times each game as you drive, chip, and putt your way around the course. The more often you golf, the more likely you are to create an imbalance in strength from one side of the body to the other. 

A great way to counteract these imbalances is with strength training. Functional weight training is a great way to do this, but so is Pilates. Pilates also has the benefit of exercises that improve your flexibility and mobility while you build your strength. A great way to improve your strength with Pilates is to use the leg springs one leg at a time. The wunda chair also has good exercises that have you working on one leg at a time while balancing on the other. This type of work will improve your golf game with Pilates exercises that help to strengthen the stabilizer  muscles of your hip, knees, and ankles while also strengthening your core. 

Gain Power

In many sports, you need to rotate your body to throw a ball, hit a puck, punch, swing a bat, etc. People will often do these actions with just their arms, which can cause shoulder, elbow, and/or wrist injuries. If instead, you rotate your body through the movement, you’ll have less chance of injury and have more power behind your swing. Pilates teaches you to move from your center and power your movements from your core.  

I’m not a big golfer, but the last time I was out I noticed my shoulders were getting tired. It was because I was only using my arms! I started repeating to myself “Move from your center: use your core”, during my swing and I immediately felt relief. 

Move With Ease

Golf is a great sport to keep your body moving, with all the rotating, bending, and walking. But if you don’t work on that mobility and flexibility, you’ll notice it deteriorating over time. Can you bend over to pick up your ball without tipping over, one leg kicked out behind you? How about squatting down on the green to see your line for your putt? If these types of movements are hard for you, you can improve your golf game with Pilates. 

Your body is all connected, from your head to your feet, starting with your spine. In Pilates, there is a lot of focus on the spine and these connections, with side bending, rotating, and lengthening of the spine. In fact, most Pilates exercises start by moving the spine, though they extend into your neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. Can you imagine how smooth your golf swing would be if you were more flexible, mobile, and strong through all those joints? 

Full Body Strength

Pilates focuses on core strength but it’s truly full body strengthening. As I mentioned above, most of our movements in pilates are initiated from the spine, which is supported by the core. When you focus on lengthening your spine in a tall back but also in flexion, extension, side bending and rotation, your core automatically turns on. Then all of your muscles start working when you add springs, movements of the arms or legs, or balancing to these spine shapes.

Go The Distance

Golfers spend a lot of time walking, even if you use a cart. This means you’re going to want to have good posture and strong legs and feet. A strong core will help to maintain a good posture, even as you start to get tired. If you keep your legs strong, walking will be easier too. Pilates exercises on the mat will build leg strength, and even more so on the apparatus with the resistance of the springs. 

Pilates can even help with foot pain, whether it’s temporary or long-term soreness. Working on foot and ankle mobility, strengthening the arches, stretching the feet, and strengthening the legs and glutes can all help you avoid foot pain or injury. Pilates footwork on the reformer and chair and exercises like elephant and stomach massage are all great ones to help you with your feet.  

There are so many ways to improve your golf game with Pilates! With better flexibility, mobility, and strength, you’ll see benefits in your movements, have fewer injuries, and maybe even shave a few strokes off your game.