How to Eliminate Lower Body Movement in Golf

You might think that to eliminate lower body movement in golf is somewhat of an anachronism to good golfers, yet instability in the lower body can lead to a loss of control in the muscles of the lower back, the hips and the knees. Your lower body is the base from which your most powerful shots are made, and you don't want it wobbling about!

There are many muscles used in a golf swing, from the feet to the neck, and each must play its part in ensuring that your swing is not only effective, bit consistent for shot after shot. This involves good control of all parts of your body, and lower body movement is not necessarily a good thing even though lower body muscles and joints are used in your swing.

In fact, the lower body is of extreme importance in your golf swing because that is where most of it originates. Your upper body is all show: it is the lower body that does the work. There was a time when most golf exercises concentrated on building up the muscles in your shoulders, chest and arms, but is now recognized that these have only a small part to play in the swings of the better golfers, whether they are simply good amateurs or top tour professionals.

Golf exercise and training is now more of a science than it ever was before, and it is science that dictates which muscles and joints are responsible for each element of your swing. Stability of your lower body during your swing is just as essential as is the rotational strength and speed of your abdominal and lower back muscles that provide the power. Each of these can only be developed by the adoption of exercises designed to develop the flexibility and strength in your upper body and abdomen that enable you to keep your body static throughout your swing up to the point of the follow through.

Each muscle group should be able to rotate and move independently. You do not want your whole lower body moving when the rotation should start and end at your waist, with only the necessary movement of your legs and feet. You have to keep a stable base that your spine and upper body can coil against, ready to unleash all that potential energy in one explosive rotational movement.

If you can keep your lower body stable, you will tend to rotate it along with your upper body, or to lock your right knee to keep you from moving excessively, or even falling over! Your feet should keep contact with the ground while your upper body pivots at the waist, and for this you need a degree of leg strength that will only come from exercise designed to promote it. You can do this using closed-chain exercises that involve your feet being in contact with the floor while you carry out twisting exercises.

For example, take a golf club and hold it with both arms over your shoulders. Keeping your feet, legs and the rest of your lower body absolutely still, twist to one side and hold for about three second. Then do the same to the other side. Start with three of four repetitions and build up to about a dozen. This will not only strengthen the muscles you use to rotate your body, but will also do so without any lower body movement.

You can to the same thing while sitting on a chair with a weight held out in front of you. What this type of exercise does is to train your body to twist your upper body without moving below the waist, and also to build up flexibility and strength in the joints and muscles you use to achieve that.

The elimination of lower body movement in your swing will enable you to use your energy during the downswing where it is most needed. After the strike you can then transfer that energy farther down to your hips and legs in a full follow through. However, complete lack of movement up until the point of strike is essential for a grooved swing with maximum power.

The way to eliminate lower body movement in golf is to train using exercise routines designed to strengthen the muscles you use in your swing, and maintain a stable lower body base. There are many ways in which to achieve that, though the important factor is that you must have a stable base from which to swing.

By Andre Sanchez

How to Eliminate Lower Body Movement in Golf was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com

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