10 Best Chest Exercises for Golfers

It’s a common misconception among the golfer community that golfers do not need to lift weights like other sports need to.

While it is true that too much weight lifting can hurt your game as a golfer, the pro golfers understand the importance off adding a golf fitness routine to their training and the benefits to their golf game that result from working out.

Flexibility exercises and strength training exercises have proven to benefit the golf swing making it more powerful, faster clubhead speed, and more stability to prevent overstraining from the excessive twists and torque that occurs in golf swings.

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The Importance of a Chest Workout to Golfers

To help you build a better golf swing you need a strong chest, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or woman.

For golfers with poor posture, pulling and pushing exercises meant to strengthen the chest will do a great job in increasing your stability and posture.

There are many types of pulling exercises you can do as a golfer to optimize your posture.

Chest exercises for golfers are not meant for building the chest muscles but for toning and strengthening. That means not all chest exercises build chest muscles.

Below are some chest exercises that help golfers strengthen their chest and improving their golfing skills.

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Top 10 Golf Chest Exercises

#1: Dips

While this exercise is mostly done at the gym, it can also be done at home sitting down in front of a chair. It is suitable for strengthening the chest and the shoulders.

How to do it

• Grab the parallel bars manual leg lift machine
• Lock your elbows and push up your hands to raise your body off the ground
• Lower yourself down ensuring you don’t touch the floor
• Raise your body and lower again repeating sets of 10 to 20 reps.

#2: Incline Flies

This exercise is meant to work both your chest and shoulders. It is meant for toning and not for adding extra muscles.

How to do it

• Sit on an incline bench with your feet one shoulder’s width apart and lying flat on the floor
• Bend your shoulders slightly with two dumbbells on your hands, raise your two hands together and let them meet in the middle.
• Turn your wrists either inwards or outwards where your dumbbells meet to activate the bottom or the top chest muscles.
• Do three sets of 10 to 20 reps according to your fitness level

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#3: Modified Push-ups

This exercise is suitable for golfers who have not been working out for a while or the beginners. It allows you to work in a range of motion best suitable for you and takes a similar angle to standard push-up.

How to do it

• Bend in a high plank position putting your hands flat on the floor shoulder width apart and your wrists under the shoulders
• Keep your body straight on a long line, bend your arms and lower the chest to the ground without touching the floor
• Push your body up back to the starting position
• You can do at least 10 to 20 reps

#4: Alternate Shoulder Flies

This is another good exercise for strengthening the chest. It mimics the motion of the backswing and follow through.

How to do it

• Stand with the weight stacks of a cable cross machine on your right side
• Grab the handle with your left hand and lift the weight slowly out of your left side.
• Stop at the shoulder height and lower the weight slowly back to its starting position
• Turn your body so that the weight stack sits on your left side and repeat the exercise with your right hand
• Do three sets in about 15 reps at low weight

#5: Military Push-ups

Military push-ups are similar to standard push-ups with the only difference is that you’ll do it with your arms close to your body. It puts emphasis on your triceps and chest ensuring you maintain proper body form required for playing golf.

How to do it

• With your hands flat on the floor shoulder width apart and wrists under the shoulders, get in the high plank position.
• Your elbow should face behind
• Your body should lie straight in one long line
• Bend your arms and lower your body close to the floor without touching. Ensure you keep your arms close to the torso while moving
• Push yourself back up to the starting position
• You can do 10 to 20 reps depending on your strength

#6: Flat Chest Press

This involves pushing your chest on a flat surface that provides support to your weight. Your feet are firmly anchored on the ground, and your legs and core provide the leverage to move the weight.

This exercise is not meant for building big chest muscles, but to give you the strength and a more athletic body.

How to do it

• Lie on your back on a bench or a step
• Place your feet on the bench with two dumbbells in each hand
• Extend your arms up above your chest
• Bend your elbows and move the weights away from your body downwards to form right angles with your arms
• Return to the start position and repeat the process about 15 times

#7: Saggy Shoulder Solutions

This exercise will help improve your posture alignment strengthening the chest and prevent sagging.

How to do it

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart rotating your hips forward
• Extend your arms downwards placing the Stretch trainer parallel to your back
• Pull both ends of the Stretch Trainer taking the slack out
• Lift your arms until you feel your chest expand and your shoulder stretch
• Hold for 30 seconds and repeat in about 10 reps

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#8: Rotational Chest Opener Exercise

This exercise is great for building rotational strength and stability in your shoulders and core muscles as well as the chest.

It forms part of the golf strength series if exercises meant to increase strength needed for stability, proper alignment of the body movements patterns and energy transfer for a powerful swing.

How to do it

• Stand straight with your left hand holding a resistant band anchored at chest height on the right
• Rotate your shoulders to the right and reach across with your left hand
• Rotate your shoulders, head, and chest to contract your left glutes while pulling your left arm around your body until it gets out to your left side
• Return slowly to the starting position
• Repeat for about 10 to 20 reps and turn to the other sides with the same number of reps.

#9: Chest Stretch

This is a very simple exercise meant to relax the chest before you start the game. It can be done as a warm-up exercise against a wall.

How to do it

• Stretch your arm and place it against a wall and lean forward with the same shoulder
• You should feel some stretch in your chest while leaning forward
• Hold for a few seconds then repeat with the same arm
• Switch to the other and repeat
• You can do as many reps as you can

Read: 10 Best Shoulder Exercises for Golf

#10: Double kneeling chest press

Your pecs are very important as they allow you to rotate and have a powerful swing. You won’t be able to turn correctly if your pecs are too tight hence won’t generate enough clubhead speed.

The double kneeling exercise is done with either a rubber tubing or a cable cross machine. You also need a kneeling pad.

How to do it

• While kneeling on the ground, use a cross cable to lower the pulley to shoulder height.
• Kneel with both your knees on the kneeling pad and reach for the handle with your right hand with the pulley at shoulder height
• Push the right hand forward in a punching motion while turning your body so that your trail elbow rotates around the spine almost touching the cable
• Pull your abdominals inward contracting them
• Your shoulder places should feel like pulling together while your lower body remains very still
• Do about 20 reps then turn to the opposite side

Golf Fitness Program

If you found today’s golf exercises helpful, you can also check out our full fitness program for golfers we put together.

It comes with lots of bonuses like an indoor golf training plan, indoor golf drills, and more so you have not only a fitness plan to follow but golf drills to get overall improvement from home.

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