Warning: I am not a health or fitness professional! But I do know what is productive for golfers. Golfers need to train like athletes but also tailor it to their specific deficiencies. For example, if you lack hip mobility and flexibility, there are a lot of exercises you can find online to improve your game.
If you want more advanced help with fitness and how it can benefit your golf game, I would suggest meeting with a TPI professional for an assessment. Research a fitness professional (not a golf instructor that got a TPI certification) that can assess your body and how it correlates to your golf swing.
A general model for yearly periodization of a golf fitness program will be broken into 3 seasons. Depending on what time of year it is, the exercise routine will vary.
In pre-season (January-March), the primary focus of the workout is on golf-specific exercises to prepare for the upcoming season.
While in-season (April-September), the golf-specific exercises are reduced as you begin to play more on the course. Since the motions that were being trained in the gym are now performed frequently while playing golf, it is not necessary to do them as much. The in-season workout should only consist of a few golf-specific movements for maintenance purposes. As the season comes to an end, slowly incorporate more general fitness exercises as you transition into the off-season training program.
During the off-season (October-December), it is important to train areas that may have been neglected with the golf-specific workout. A full body, general fitness routine will prevent muscle imbalances, which in turn will assist in injury prevention.
Golf Specific Training | General Fitness Training | |
Pre-season | 50-75% of workouts, 2-3 sets, 3x/week | 25-50% of workouts, 2-3 sets, 2x/week |
In-season | 25-50% of workouts, 1-2 sets,
1-2x/week |
50-75% of workouts, 2-3 sets, 2-3x/week |
Off-season | 0-25% of workouts, 1-2 sets,
1-2x/week |
75-100% of workouts, 2-3 sets, 3x/week |