Golf Fitness 101: More Golf Swing Speed by Building Stronger Glutes

Follow simple, golf-focused glute and hip exercises to help generate more power—and more distance—out of your golf swing.

The strongest muscles in the body? The gluteal muscles (glutes), which are the group of three muscles that make up the buttocks.

Your glutes stabilize your hips and pelvis to help support your lower back. The biggest of the three, the Gluteus Maximus, also functions as a powerful hip extensor and lateral rotator.

Golf is all about rotation and good hip rotation has a component of hip extension, which means the two go hand in hand.

While it’s easy to see the Gluteus Maximus in action in runners and jumpers as they stride and drive the legs downward and backward to propel the body powerfully forward, this muscle’s function may not be as obvious in your golf swing. But to be clear: the Gluteus Maximus is extremely important to producing those long, towering drives you see Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy hit with regularity.

Of course, professional golfers like DJ and Rory spend significant time in the gym performing hip extension movements such as squats, deadlifts, hip thrusters, kettlebell swings and Olympic lifts. They know that by developing explosive hip extension, they can transition this power into the rotational elements of their swing and maximize their distance.

For most amateur golfers, however, it may come as a surprise that these types of exercises which don’t replicate the swing have such a direct impact on it.

The important thing to understand is that the more power you have in your hips, the greater your ability to create rotational speed and energy in your swing. And while these types of exercises don’t mimic the golf swing itself, they produce the same muscle firing patterns in the most effective way possible. That means by doing these exercises consistently and in the proper manner, they can have a significant effect on your ability to generate more clubhead speed.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Before plunging into advanced lifting skills (where GOLFFOREVER is also a great resource), we strongly recommend you first learn the “Bridge.” It’s an easy and safe foundational hip extension exercise which is part of GOLFFOREVER’s Daily Routines.

The Bridge (see video) has many benefits, namely because it reproduces the mechanics of more advanced lifts and teaches you how to stabilize your core and support your lower back. And it remains useful even as you progress, because it can be altered for difficulty in a variety of ways to keep you moving forward.

When you’re ready for a more advanced exercise, try the kettle swing. This simple exercise incorporates a hip hinge movement. When done correctly, the kettle swing is a great exercise to build explosive hip power.

The bottom line is that with a little bit of work, you'll be well on your way to developing strong, powerful glutes and setting the foundation for explosive hip extension and a lot more clubhead speed on your tee shots.

So, are you ready to develop strong glutes?

Want to learn more? Visit GOLFFOREVER.COM to build flexibility, mobility, strength and more confidence in your game than ever before.

Check out more videos and articles on our Fitness & Wellness section.

All GOLFFOREVER content and exercises are presented with the expressed understanding that you should visit a doctor to determine the cause of any pain you may be feeling and in some rare cases that can include cancer, fractures, infection and more. It should also be understood that you are strongly advised to first receive clearance from a physician before following any exercises or advice presented on this site, and that Morning Read and its partner, GOLFFOREVER, are not liable for any injuries that may occur.