Improve You’re Golf Swing With The Golfer’s Fore Exercise Program

Golf is a game of mobility and power. A golf swing requires hip and trunk dissociation, meaning the trunk and hips need to rotate smoothly and coordinated to create stored energy in the kinetic chain. This stored energy is released during the swing, producing powerful productive contact between the club head and the golf ball. Championship Sports Medicine just authored a really great Clinical Commentary in the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy - The Golfer’s Fore, Fore +, and Advanced Fore + Exercise Program: An Exercise Series and Injury Prevention Program for the Golfer. (1) This article outlines three golf specific programs with the following goals:

• Improve Performance

• Injury Prevention

• Improve golf-specific strength

• Improve golf-specific mobility

• Core activation

Although golf is seemingly a “relaxing pastime,” the demand of mobility and power is high and should not be underestimated. Overuse injuries are common, accounting for 82.6% of golf related injuries. (2)

“In amateur golfers the incidence of injury annually has been reported to be between 15.8% and 40.9%…”(3-6)

An international survey published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, provides a percentage breakdown of golf-related injuries by body region: (8)

• Low back 44%

• Wrist 44%

• Elbow 23%

• Neck 20%

• Shoulder 19%

These percentages change order in prevalence in amateur golfers with elbow injuries as the most common (24.9%) injury site. Second most common are shoulder injuries (18.6%) followed by low back injuries(15.2%). (8)

Golf Performance and injury prevention programs

**These programs are made and designed by Champion Sports Medicine and shared to us through the article The Golfer’s Fore, Fore +, and Advanced Fore + Exercise Program: An Exercise Series and Injury Prevention Program for the Golfer in the IJSPT (1)

Golfer’s Fore Program

Mobility Movements

1. Cross body stretch

2. Golf club around the world (CW/CCW)

3. Half kneeling thoracic rotation

4. Squat with rotation

Strengthening Exercises

1. Low row and reach in split lunge

2. PNF D1 and D2 flexion/extension in squat

3. Reverse wall slides in squat

4. Scap series

   a.     Prone T

   b.     Prone W

   c.     Modified robbery

5. Bridges (double and single leg)

6. Forward lunge with rotation

Core Exercises

1. Palloff press in squat

2. Bird dogs

3. Dead bugs

Golfer’s Fore+ program

Mobility Movements

1. Pec minor corner stretch

2. Cross body stretch

3. Golf club shoulder flexion

4. Golf club around the world (CW/CCW)

5. Kneeling hip flexor stretch

6. Half kneeling thoracic rotation

7. Squat with rotation

Strengthening Exercises

1. Low row and reach in split lunge

2. PNF D1 and D2 flexion/extension in squat

3. ER at 0 and 90 in squat

4. IR at 0 and 90 in squat

5. Reverse wall slides in squat

6. Scap series

   a.     Prone T

   b.     Prone W

   c.     Modified robbery

7. Bridges (double and single leg)

8. Lateral band walks

9. Forward lunge with rotation

Core Exercises

1. Palloff press in squat

2. Bird dogs

3. Dead bugs

Golfer’s advanced Fore+ program

Mobility Movements

1. Pec minor corner stretch

2. Cross body stretch

3. Golf club shoulder flexion

4. Golf club around the world (CW/CCW)

5. Kneeling hip flexor stretch

6. Half kneeling thoracic rotation

7. Squat with rotation

8. Resisted quadruped reach and rotation

Strengthening Exercises

1. Unilateral row and reach with lateral step down

2. PNF D1 and D2 flexion/extension in split lunge

3. ER at 0 and 90 in lunge

4. IR at 0 and 90 in lunge

5. Reverse wall slides with band

6. Scap series on stability ball

   a.     Prone I

   b. Prone T

   c. Prone Y

   d.     Prone W

   e. High row into ER

   f.     Modified robbery

7. Bridges (double and single leg) with banded resistance

8. Lateral band walks

9. Single leg RDL into march

10. Resisted forward lunge with rotation

Core activation

1.     Palloff press with elevation in split lunge

2.     Bird dog with row

3.     Dead bug with band

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Dealing with a golf-related injury? Interested in incorporating one of these programs into your golf warm-up? Book a session with our sports physical therapist or sports performance coach today!

References

1. Thomas ZM, Wilk KE. The Golfer’s Fore, Fore +, and Advanced Fore + Exercise Program: An Exercise Series and Injury Prevention Program for the Golfer. IJSPT. June 1, 2023:789-799.

2. Zouzias IC, Hendra J, Stodelle J, Limpisvasti O. Golf Injuries: Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment. J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2018;26(4):116-123.

3. Lee HJ, Yong-Seok J. Golf and injury incidence in recreational golfers: a retrospective study. JConvergence Inf Technol. 2013;8:522-528.

4. McHardy A, Pollard H, Luo K. One-Year follow-up study on golf injuries in Australian amateur golfers. Am J Sports Med. 2007;35(8):1354-1360.

5. Murray AD, Daines L, Archibald D, et al. The relationships between golf and health: a scoping review. Br J Sports Med. 2017;51(1):12-19.

6. Fradkin AJ, Windley TC, Myers JB, Sell TC, Lephart SM. Describing the epidemiology and associated age, gender and handicap comparisons of golfing injuries. Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot. 2007;14(4):264-266.

7. Barclay C, West S, Shoaib Q, Morrissey D, Langdown B. Injuries patterns among professional golfers: an international survey. Br J Sports Med. 2011;45(2):e1-e1.

8. Robinson PG, Murray IR, Duckworth AD, et al. Systematic review of musculoskeletal injuries in professional golfers. Br J Sports Med. 2019;53(1):13-18.

Disclaimer: This SciSport blog post is a summary of an article printed in an academic research journal. The purpose of this blog post is to provide readers with academic and educational content in an easy-to-understand format. We take no credit for the material and knowledge presented, and we encourage readers to take a look at the original source provided in the References section