Five exercises for golfers, from a physiotherapist who plays

Most golfers who come to us are not injured. They have simply reached a point where their body will not let them do what their coach is asking, and they want to know what to work on at home.

These five movements cover the restrictions we find most often. They are not a swing rebuild and they are not a warm up for the first tee. They are the ordinary groundwork that makes the middle back rotate, the hips work and the posture at address hold.

Before you start

These exercises are general guidance rather than a programme built for you. If any of them cause pain, stop. If you have an existing back, hip or knee problem, or you have had surgery in the past year, get individual advice first, because the right starting point is different for everybody.

The five

Standing squat, three sets of eight. Feet about shoulder width apart, arms out in front for balance. Bend at the knees and hips as though sitting down, keeping your knees tracking over your feet rather than falling inwards. You are not trying to get low. You are training the leg strength that holds your posture through the downswing.

Bridge, three sets of eight. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat. Tighten your buttock muscles and lift your hips clear of the floor. Do not push for height, and stop before your lower back arches. This one wakes up the glutes, which are usually doing far less than they should be.

Lower back rotation, eight to each side. Still on your back, knees bent and together, roll your knees slowly to one side as far as is comfortable, then the other. Keep it gentle. This is about easing stiffness, not stretching anything hard.

Middle back rotation with a club, eight to each side. Sit in a chair with a golf club or a broom handle held across your shoulders behind your back. Keep your feet flat on the floor and turn your upper body to each side in turn. This is the one most golfers find revealing, because the difference between the two sides is often obvious, and it is the restriction that most directly limits your turn.

Brugger's position, held for thirty seconds. Stand with your back to a wall, heels, hips and shoulders in contact with it. Turn both arms outwards, leading with your thumbs so your palms face forwards, and hold. It feels like very little and it works the muscles that hold your upper back out of a slouch. Make it harder by holding a resistance band between your hands.

How to use them

Little and often beats a heroic session once a week. Four or five times a week is realistic, and the whole set takes under ten minutes. Rotation exercises tend to ease within days. Strength takes six to eight weeks to show up in anything you would notice on the course, which is worth knowing before you decide it is not working.

If one side is much stiffer or weaker than the other, that asymmetry is usually where the useful conversation is, and it is a good reason to come in for an assessment rather than keep guessing.

When to get it looked at properly

If you are getting pain rather than stiffness, particularly lower back pain that settles between rounds and returns every time you play, exercises alone are unlikely to be the answer. The same goes for pain that wakes you at night or that spreads down a leg or an arm.

Martin Dyer runs golf assessments at our Haslemere clinic and builds individual programmes from what the assessment shows, which is a different thing from a general list like this one. Musculoskeletal physiotherapy and strength and conditioning programmes are the services behind that work, and our page on what happens at your first visit explains how an appointment runs.